Visual essay - Basic layout for website almost complete!

This is what my visual essay is gonna look like: 

I decided to do it in a website format to express my interest in the Interactive Media pathway. Hopefully it's good enough and will look even better once the content is added :) Opinions please?

Happy happy happy!

Got my feedback for my essay, and I got a 2:1 :D So happy!

Extending my knowledge in HTML and CSS coding.

Today's seminar with Giselle has really showed me just how simple html and css coding really is! I've learnt so much in just 6 hours with her. This is a good thing because it now means I can start to design my layout for my interactive visual essay :) Yay! I'm gonna post some screen shots of what i've done so far when I can be bothered to go get my external hard drive.

Visual essay

I really want to know more about this visual essay we have to do. I mean, how are we actually meant to explain stuff without even writing for pages and pages at a time? What's the layout meant to be like? Plus the fact that I can't find any interactive practitioners is doing my head in. I've found 1 for definite. But i'm not gonna tell you who it is, cos I don't want you stealing my ideas ;)

Someone care to explain?

No?

Okay, thought so.

More web stuff!

Come up with more designs for my portfolio. I actually really like these :D

I think i'm finally starting to understand how to make my website a successful design!

A couple of website designs

I've been really trying to come up with something decent for my portfolio. I've come up with 2 ideas:

 This first idea I came up with is very basic. I wanted to incorporate my logo and name but didn't know what else I could do. This particular page would probably be for the actual gallery page showing my work. I think this design is too simple and could do with more detail.

I liked this second design because of the contrast in colour, and is more complex than my first design. I really like my slogan and it reflects my sort of humor. This could work as it follows the "less is more" principle, is legible, and doesn't use too much colour.

Inspiration for my online portfolio design

I've been really struggling to come up with a wireframe for my portfolio. I thought it would be simple but it's taken a lot of inspiration to get started!

At first I looked at this site:

I really liked the colour scheme of the text/ background (grey, blue, black and white) so I though I could follow this same colour scheme. The plainly coloured background makes the text and images really stand out and give them a clean cut edge, so this is a massive thumbs up for me!

When I stumbled across this online portfolio, I noticed that he had his own little slogan. I really liked this idea so thought I could incorporate somewhere into my own portfolio.

In this particular site, I really liked the use of simple colours and decoration on the navigation bar to make this site aesthetically pleasing.

This shows that my portfolio doesn't have to be completely drowned in colour, and using complimentary colours to decorate the navigation bar can be an effective way of incorporating colour.


REFERENCES

Most portfolios seem to be very linear and box shaped, so maybe I could go against this mainstream way of designing and use other shapes.

Dezinerfolio (2007), Dezinerfolio [online]. Available from: http://www.dezinerfolio.com/ [Accessed 22/01/11].

Greenberg J, Manipulator / Jill greenberg studio [online]. Available from: http://www.manipulator.com/about/publications [Accessed 22/01/11].

Sarmiento J (2008), Jeff Sarmiento [online]. Available from: http://www.jeffsarmiento.com/ [Accessed 22/01/11].

Mint nighttt

I'm currently in my flat with Jess chillin' with some TV. Tonight has been good considering we've been with Notts uni twats all night loooool!

And to make things even better

Uni have lost my fucking work. Yay!

London and other things

Well, considering the point of yesterday's trip was to find a practitioner for my visual essay, it was a pretty good day! We did everything BUT find someone to write about :/ I didn't really understand how the key exhibitions we were told about had anything to do with our visual essay. I mean, how was I meant to find someone within the interactive design area in a place full of sculptures?!

On the other hand, visiting the science museum made me think about the interaction side of things. There was quite a large group of children and they all raced towards this particular attraction that was like an interactive game. It didn't just use a screen, it also had some real life aspects to it as a series of buildings rose from the table to give it a 3D feel aswel as 2D. I found this quite interesting, so maybe I could incorporate this into future projects? Who knows!

We spent a good hour in the pub, and probably 3 hours in the natural history museum. Result!

Oh and I got some science museum chocolate :D Tasted like C₆H₁₂O_{6. (That's glucose to the non-sciencey people)}

_{I miss science :(}

London trip tomorrow...

FUCK MY ACTUAL LIFE.

Coaches make me feel so sick :(

Just a quick'un

Decided to use up some of my spare time and make a quick logo for my online portfolio :) Obviously it needs improving, but you get the general idea!

I tried to come up with different ways to arrange my initials (C & M) to make something logo worthy. This is what I came up with, a cute lil birdy!

Any thoughts? :)

One thing that I really, really hate...

... is when people copy my work.

Use your own imagination! Pft.

Essay number 2!

So yeah, being the sad person I am, i've decided to start researching some interactive practitioners. I think I may have already stumbled across one. Hurrah!

I actually like the look of this essay :) Think i'll be doing it in HTML format.

Big love for HTML right now <3

Moodboard

In my second seminar for 'Digital Me' we were set a task to create a moodboard that represented ourselves. I've included as much as I can that represents my main interests and likes. I know it isn't very aesthetically pleasing, but at the end of the day, moodboards tend not to be!

I'm really worried..

... That I'm gonna get a bad mark for my work and my essay :(

eXistenZ - Quite possibly the weirdest film I've ever seen.

I couldn't quite make up my mind what was going on throughout this film. It dove in too deep at the start in my opinion, so it confused me.

The overall concept of the film was good. It portrayed an image of what future gaming may be like. To say the film was made in 1999, some of it's ideas have actually been made. For example, the xbox kinect that has just been released allows you to control your character via a camera that detects movement. This ties in with the movie as the game pod puts you in the game. Perhaps this shows that films made in the previous years have predicted well how technology will develop? 

The film also shows that game development may heavily rely on scientific research. To say the 'gamepod' was mainly biologically influenced, it seems very unrealistic as I know it is impossible for a living thing to be a so called games console. Or maybe the game is made up in it's mind and you're just drawn into it? Who knows.

Like most games, it has a chronological order and has a real life story to follow. This was probably the most realistic aspect of the film.

It was a pretty weird film, but I found the ending pretty good. But I couldn't work out if they were still in the game or not... Sound familiar?

Yeah, thought so.

Back to reality!

First week back at uni after new year :) Had a lovely christmas and new year was a laugh as usual! But now it's back to work. Head down and crack on with it! I'm determined to do better this term, as I feel that last term wasn't the best :/ But i'll find out when I get my results! I'd be more than happy with a C :) Anyway, this is the point where it gets serious. Bring on the workload!