Personal Website Portfolio

The last project in my web media class was to design and create my personal website. I have always wanted to create a website and now I have my own. This class has taught me so much about the history and process of web design. Now I can understand and write XHTML and CSS codes for websites. For my website, I wanted the look and feel to go along with my self branding. In the website design I used the same elements from my identity package such as the logo, color, typeface, and layout. I also added a shade of yellow, which was included in my original self branding design.

Please visit nekitaharville.getsdesign.com

Web Standards

I have never thought that the web would have standards, but they do. The web standards are rules and guidelines that everyone should follow, if they are building or maintaining a website. The standards include ways to make your site accessible to everyone. There are many groups that have formed to take action for everyone to use web standards; two are the Web Standards Project and the World Wide Web Consortium.

Web Accessibility

In class we have been talking about web accessibility and what it means. Basically web accessibility is having your website accessible for people with or without disabilities to navigate trouble-free on your website. Choosing colors, text sizes, and using the correct (X)HTML codes are ways to make your site accessible to all. By following the web standards rules your website will be accessible for everyone.

Printers Guide Book

Our class created a printers guide book that included local and online printing companies information inside. We each designed two pages with our company information and we based each page design on the word pair project. After the book file was created, we used lulu.com as the printing company. The process of uploading the book files to lulu.com with very easy and fast. The site had a FAQ section for questions and answers. The printed book quality and colors came out great, as the final product.

Self-Branding

For our last class project we had to create our own logo as part of a self branding project. At first, I had a hard time choosing what I wanted to do. I finally decided that I waned to use the initials in my name and incorporate both letters to make my logo. With the logo design that I have created, I really enjoy the positive, negative and the lines that have created the mark. For my color scheme I wanted to use shades of yellows, blues, and purples on my business card. With the feedback from class, they helped me to decide on the colors that I should work with. I have chosen to use a shade of blue for now, and later on I can have a second version with a different color.

*card front and back below

Take Root

The Take Root project is one of the first real world projects that I have experienced with. Other than doing small jobs for family and friends, Leadership Chattanooga’s Green team is one of my first clients. Our class was divided into groups, and I was on Team Event. My team had to design the banners and posters, for the day of the event. We also worked together created the press releases, to get the word out to the media. I have learned a lot of new information from working on this project. Our class had lots of people to help and give us information regarding the launching of Take Root.

AIGA “Volume Through Volume”

In my Processes and Materials class we got a chance to work with two clients from our local AIGA chapter. The goal of the project was to target designers and local residents to register and vote in the upcoming presidential election. First our class had to come up with a name for the project; we began to do a lot of brainstorming and sketching. The challenge was having a limited amount of time to work on the project and finding what the clients really wanted. After two weeks of sketching out roughs and printouts, the client chose a design look. The clients chose the logo that I created. In logo I used this irregular typeface that had wavy lines along the edges of the type. The client added another element to the design, and then the logo looked like a mouth. With the logo we had to create a poster, and that’s when the fun began. I had lots of fun with the poster design.

*logo and poster

Word Pair Project

With this project, it was my first time experimenting with duotones and halftones for a class project. Although working with duotones was fun, the challenge came when choosing colors and making sure that the words and photos work together. My words were hard and soft. The concept that I came up with was to use a thing of Italian Ice in my photos. I took one photo of the ice frozen, to relate to the word hard. Then I took a photo of the ice melted and mushy and used that photo for the word soft. As a whole with the colors and images both panels relate to my concept and the words.

Hard

Soft

Retail Merchandising Group Company Tour

The tour of RMG was nice chance to see more printing presses. I learned some things that I didn’t know from the tour. I found it interesting that the RMG Company do basically everything in house, such as printing, die cuts, and design work. They have a design team that design displays and shelving for companies such as Target, Rack Room Shoes, and Home Depot. I was really amazed by the fact that RMG do a lot of printing for large companies with the largest printing press in the world and it’s located in Chattanooga.

Janis Hashe & Richard Beeland’s Visit

The speakers brought to my attention the whole procedures of releasing information to the public. I believe that both Hashe and Beeland’s lecture was great help to the class and myself. Although they both work in different aspects of public relations, they explained the stages of press release and press pack well. I like that they both acknowledge that press releases should get straight to the point and should be in basic grammar so that all audiences can understand the information.