Stil making progress...

This semester overall has been an extremely tough one. I'm being pulled in many different directions, but I'm happy that I've been able to rise to the occasion and focus my energy to what is important: creating work that I am proud to show off.

For the last few days I have been spending a disgusting amount of time researching and organizing and trying to spew out this 12 page paper for my Romanticism and Realism class. So unfortunately, the website progress has been forced to slow down. The paper is due tomorrow afternoon and once again I can shift my brain back to the website.

After class today, I bought a thumbnail scroller from Flashden.net and will have to spend about 2 or 3 hours reverse engineering it to fit my current gallery. Thankfully, Casey mentioned that I should probably get rid of the "1 of n" at the top of the photo and the buttons on either side of the photo since they will both be unnecessary with the thumbnail viewer.

In other news, Alyson and I are putting together a poster for our photo class' exhibition scheduled for May 1st! More details to come. There are so many things that are exciting and scary about this show, but I am just thankful to have the experience and to be able to beef up my design section while I'm at it.

website version 1.0 up and running

First draft of the website is up! Changes that still need to be made: thumbnails for easier control/navigation in the gallery, flash intro. But it will do for now. allisonboozer.com

Progress

So after showing my website skeleton in class, I made some small changes. I changed my font and took out some of the | that were in between some of the links. I also changed the "documentary" link to a "design" link, since it was the only thing missing from a website called "photography and design." The gallery will be blank at first, but soon I will have some flyers and maybe some web design to add to the gallery.

As a whole, I am actually ahead of schedule which feels pretty good. Stay tuned!

Site Look-and-Feel

So. Today I finished going through my past photography work. I had to not only pick what I wanted to show on the site, but I also had to resize them to be the same deminsions (800px x 533px). My page is 1000 px x 650 px. I figure most screens can see that without having to scroll in either direction. The goal is that the viewer never has to scroll within the site. I completed my mock-up, as shown above. I will let it sit for a while and come back to it in a few hours to see if I still like it. Oh, I also bought a complete hosting/domain package with Hostmonster. Coming soon: allisonboozer.com!

Organization

Currently going through my gobs and gobs of photos to try and find the right ones. My organization is sad. Eventually I'll find the time to go back through and sort through everything.

updated site map

After browsing more sites and remembering my goal of easy navigation, I have decided to make event photography, fine art photography, and documentary photography links on the top of my page. Of course they will only say "event" and "fine art" and "documentary" for brevity's sake.

Timeline for Final Project

pick and edit photos, pick fonts - by 4/1
purchase domain - by 4/1
create flash intro with music (with skip intro option) - by 4/5
website skeleton (home page, contact page, resume page with pdf) - by 4/8
CSS resume working - by 4/10
gallery page up - by 4/17
troubleshooting/final edits - by 4/22
final critique - 5/2

Site Map

Project 4 proposal

As a soon-to-be graduate, my goals for my final project will help serve my future and my career. The final project will be an online portfolio website. This website will be a place for potential employers to gain a sense of who I am and what I do, as well as what I love. The website will contain elements of my style and personality, and will also communicate my career goals. The hope is that I will create a visual resume that stands out in employers’ minds and perhaps sets me apart from my competitors.

Deciding on the content of the website will be just as hard as creating the website itself. The content must serve many purposes: 1) I am a passionate, driven and creative person; 2) I am able to adapt to many different situations as an artist and designer; 3) I have a unique vision that will elevate their overall goals; 4) I work well with others and love being around people. I want to display both my talent in creating beautiful artwork and also providing a unique approach in my role as an event photographer.

I have chosen a portfolio website as my final project because I have done portfolio websites before and have been unable to focus my energy to one specific goal. In the past, my websites seem to be an outlet to display my web design skills allowing the work on the website to fall short. The main focus of this website needs to be the actual work presented, not the website itself. Though it is important that the website convey solid web design knowledge, it is not important to have lots of “bells and whistles.” Furthermore, I hope that this final project will propel me into my next phase as an artist and designer, with the larger goal being to find work. I hope that by already having a website I will stand out as someone who is well prepared. Therefore, my audience is obviously potential employers.

Inspirations thus far are sunygao.com, madisonhousedesign.com, ctaylorcrothers.com, among others. What I like about these sites is the simplicity, both in the color scheme and the aesthetic. Navigation is easy and you are quickly able to view the work without having to click on too many buttons or links. I want to incorporate these ideas into my website. I think I would like my background to be white and my text black. The buttons will be a place for me to display my personal design. At this point, I have decided that the links will span across the top of the page, underneath a header. And the rest of my design, such as fonts, will be decided as I begin the creation of the site.

Tweet

So, at the beginning of class we were told to make a name for ourselves in the online world via communities like Second Life, Facebook and Flickr. I already had Facebook and Flickr and recently I've decided to get a Twitter account! This community is not just another way to keep in touch with your friends but also a place to keep in touch with people like John Mayer. Yes, the singer. You can also keep yourself up-to-date with news from NPR or even just local news with Colorado Daily. It's a great thing that I have been resisting for purely rebellious reasons - i.e. "Well, everyone has a Twitter account, so I'm not going to." Now that I'm a part of it, I feel at peace that there are tons of people with a Twitter account... isn't that the point??! Find me on Twitter: @allisonicole