Major Project: Week 1 Research

One of the major motifs that remained in my mind to use as the visual design for the final project was the idea of paint or ink splatters, particularly in the menu section of my site, so one of my first searches I used in researching the target market and graphic design was to search for plaint splatters used in a graphic design context so I could work out what sort of paint splatter image style I liked and didn't like and what sort of styles had been done the most so I could avoid them in order to keep my style as original as possible. I wanted to use paint splatters first because it's an art department handbook and paint splatters signify art in an obvious way and it could look effective if done right.

Image 1: http://www.evohosting.co.uk/blog/web-development/design/more-free-social-media-icon-sets/

Image 2: A PS3 theme from psu.com

Image 3: http://www.123freevectors.com/paint-splatters-free-vector/#.Ul3K7ifFXh4

For target markets, it's in my experience that the vast majority of applicants are young people in their late teens or early 20s up till about the age of 30. Because it's not a kid's or young teens site it should be quite formal in most respects overall since it’s an information site, but since it’s an art department site it should have some controlled elements of fun and modernism. The target market are not too old to enjoy a strong visual presence but it's also important that the information isn't overpowered by it. So for that reason I've decided to keep the paint splatter theme to mostly the menu and keep the information sections relatively formal.

I went to www.thebestdesigns.com to see what they had there, as keeping up with web design trends isn't something I usually do. I took some screenshots of particular ones that caught my eye.

(if these pictures are not showing up they can also be found in the "Graphic Design Research" word file.

What really struck me the most of all these was how relatively inconspicuous the menus were in terms of sizing and colours. Simplistic and obvious placement of the menus has also remained in fashion. The key to these web page designs is mostly simplicity. The most surprising part of these web designs for me was that they seemed to indicate the placement of the page titles in the middle of the page as having come into fashion (with logos remaining in a simple place up top). Because the purpose of my website is education-related, I'll probably be less adventurous with the title placement, keeping it near the top of the page as in the top screenshot. I can perhaps take inspiration from these in terms of the menus however, with the wide space between the logo and the menu, and the simplicity of the menu in terms of colour palette.

I found out the most popular resolution for web is 1366x768. This seems a good resolution to test out the idea of having a lot of space between elements of the page.