Self Evaluation

Self-Evaluation

By Michael Colebourne

This brief is one that I have been looking forward to getting stuck into for a while, I was just a little worried about my Photoshop skills, or more my lack of, but having the tutorials with Andy helped me get the hang of what I needed to know.

Having researched a few different examples of working websites helped me decide on some sort of path I wanted to go down with my own site. I knew from the off that I would want to keep my site simple, for the end viewers ease of use and also for my own ease in developing the site through Photoshop. Creating the wire frames, as rough as they were, proved very useful in helping me get my ideas down, knowing what I wanted in my head was hard to explain without actually having any physical examples.

 Wire Frame:

In my initial proposal I stated that I wanted to keep my site suitable to be viewed by the general public without putting off people from the art world and vice versa. I feel I have kept this in mind with my final design.

Initial Design:

Run through of how my site will work:

So, at the home screen there will be a plain screen with four options at the top right of the screen, About, Portfolio, Contact and News. When any of the options are clicked the menu will then move vertically to the left side of the screen.

About: This section, as it states, will be about me. I have tried to keep that as informal as possible, but without it being unprofessional. Talking about how I got into photography, my journey to university and what kind of photography I like to specialise in.

Portfolio: When the viewer clicks on this option, it will open out into eight subsections, Street/Urban, Landscape, Fashion/Portrait, Commissioned, Weddings, Christenings, Babies/Children and Conceptual. When the viewer selects an option, it will go into thumbnails of each image included in that section, with it then opening into a large view image with the option to click ‘Previous’ or ‘Next’.

Contact: This section is available for any future clients to make initial contact with myself, or for any general enquiries. It includes my email address, telephone and links to social media.

News: I have included this section to keep people updated with any relevant news, commissions, big deal jobs, or just anything I see fit to include. I’m unsure to add it in blog form, or just keep it so I can update it through my site as and when it needs to be done.

Final Design:

Overall

As I mentioned at the start, I have enjoyed this brief very much and I’m looking forward to getting my site live in the future. I think maybe a few minor tweeks will need doing but overall I’m pleased with my final results.

I’d like to thank Andy for his time and patience in the sessions, it was a big help.

If I could change one thing about the brief, it would have been the time frame in which we had to complete the project but I managed to get a site developed from scratch in six or so weeks, which I’m very pleased about.