Victor's Design Blog
Free Web Hosting quality…
OMFG the cheap nasty web hosts on the net are absolutely sh$t….I guess you get what you pay for or in this matter dont pay for. I trowled the web looking for something half decent to work with and kept landing this bodgy late 90’s hosting sites. I signed up for two before i checked everyones blog to see what they used. Thanks to Cassandra King i came across www.000webhost.com. The signup was easy and the interface had pictures :) which made it easy to navigate.
I also downloaded file Zilla which made the transfer and updating of my files easy.
The first attempt uploading the website using the sites file upload system was slow and clumsy. I kept putting files in the wrong place and the site just wasnt functioning at all. I spent hours trying to sought it out as my BK image was not displaying. Turns out my style sheet had a bracket and semi colan in the wrong spot. Had i not known what i was doing it would’ve taken me ages to rectify but once i pinpointed the problem it was fixed quickly.
Has it been worth the effort?
The simple answer is yes. As horrible, annoying, frustrating as HAND CODING a whole site was it deffinately payed off. I now believe i have a reasonable if not good understaing of html coding. In fact i would love to learn more and someday become website designer. I’m not sure how lucrative it is these days as everyone seems to know how to do it and i’ve reacently heard a story about someone asking HALF the going rate from the previous year to build one. THAT SUCKS!!! wish i had of court the early bus.
Any who as we all know the once the website is completed your only Half way there…
This is my website design. I’ve used the russian text, and a mythical forrest theme. Kept the colours to a minimal black white pinks. I think it looks quite modern…
website redesign
Well, once i came to understand what was going on i realised that my design was really crap. I really like the illustrations that i had created however was finding it difficult to replacate the same effect…(i’d lost the pen i used :P) So i thought an overhaul was called for. This is when i stared to seach the web for an image to inspire me. I started top think about an essay i had recently wrote about the russian revolution propaganda and how much i like that style of image. So i searched the web and found one i liked. Its a poster with planes flying over a forrest with multiple fists in the foreground with some russian writing. It inspired the approach to my website as i used a similar cloud background and russian text in my website design.
Website develement at a standstill
Well its been a long time since ive blogged. Not alot has happened in this time due to the technical side of websites been so darn tricky. I was preogressing well through all of the css untill i got to organising the buttons. I couldnt get them to line up and had great difficulty trying to hide the text. I dont see why they have to make it all so hard. Damn Computer Nerds! Any way once i recieved some advice my css was now in working order. below is the coding that hid the button text. The idea is that you put some float and padding on the the list items then make sure that the overflow is hidden.
#nav li a {
float:left;
width:88px;
height:0;
padding-top:44px;
overflow:hidden;
This seemed to do the trick and from now on i need to concentrate on the design aspects. :)
Septoplasty…is the name of the invasive surgery performed on me on thursday the 19th of March! Its really interesting…no really it is. If your thirst for knowledge is strong then click on the nose to be redirected to a highly credible website.
Design Draft # 1. c.1200pixels wide
Design Draft #1
Ahhh the old sunday night cram… Above is a design draft of the “Stone Fest” website. I’m going for the old illustrated, minimalistic feel that seems to be popular at the moment. I had surgery on my nose on 19th and the subsequent 3 days off have given me time to fuel the creative fire. Great you say. Yes. fantastic. Why am i rambling??? cause i’m up to my forehead in perscription drugs. lovely things they are : ) Anyway the point is i did some doodles which i liked and decided they would look cool on the site so i scrapped my original idea which was Sh!t anyway and came up with this. Hope you enjoy.
Finally some decisions.
This has been a long time coming, but ive been busy with other school work/activities. I really need to take a chill pill for a bit and stop working so much. My One day off is Sunday and i spend it doing homework! what a fantastic excistance!
Anyway…..
The final blog to wrap up the website research.
Firstly may i say that i have not found any of these websites aesthetically pleasing. The in the mix WS lacks colour and energy. The Big Day Out is to messy and dirty. The falls festival had a nice themed scheme however i will steer clear of that fantasy design. Splendour in the grass was way to feminen, to many bunny rabbits.
TheFuture Music Festival is the website i liked best. The colouring was cool and had a great theme of the sunset and the mayhem that happens afterwoods. I think this website styling best suits the idea of Stonefest.
The seven notable features are:
1) Navigation buttons on the bottom of the screen. These will include something like the following Artists, History, Contact, News, lineup and tickets.
2) A search bar on the homescreen.
3) Artists Biographies.
4) A Home button on the top left.
5) Minimalistic design, with bright illustrator images to create interest.
6) Current window is layered on top of previous one (instead of changing the page)*. I want to design one that works cohesively with both windows open at the same time.
* Refer to falls festival website.
7) Line up and news on the homepage. News on the left column, lineup on the right.
