Merge Process Book Website Design Jennifer Losie
Part One: Preliminary Mock-Ups I joined the website group since that is the field I want to pursue after graduating. Along with two other people we decided to split up and come up with three preliminary pitches. I took the circle theme we had in our logo and multiplied it with different colours. I decided to go with a modern layout with a side navigation bar that juts out from the side instead of a traditional screen length bar that sticks to the top. Along with the information would just a little box to the side instead of a footer bar. The page itself would be elongated and scrolled into tiled images that make up a collage of thumbnails of the students grad projects which when hovered over would change to a photo of the student. I wanted the collage to literally represent the description of Merge and would give an interesting concept and would allow the viewer to go through each box and find each student instead of going directly to who they know and maybe ignoring the rest. This would be the jyst of the page and when you clicked on the picture it would lead to a lightbox with a quick and brief bio of the student.
Event
Students
Videos
Merge Grad Show Opening Merge grad show opening date Show address and whatnot Ending date perhaps?
Graduates Overall I wanted to have a very simple layout and keep the page number to the absolute minimum so it doesn’t create a complicated site. By keeping the main information on the hompage and the graduates within scrolling distance it keeps the audiences attention and allows for less load time on every individual page. Funny enough, when we all came back to pool our ideas, all three of us had similar ideas and layouts. After our pitch of all three web designs, the theme we decided to go with was Jesse’s but we did keep the idea of the ligthbox for each student bio and any other information needed that wouldn’t be on the main site.
Part Two: Lightboxes Continuing from our preliminary pitches, we decided to divide and conquer. We started by taking headshots (and action shots for print and social media) and made it a day where we gathered what we needed as well. My role that day was to gather everyones artwork and store it onto my external hard drive. Continuing on, Jesse handled the main design (since he already had it mocked up on his computer), Kennedy handled the go pros, and I worked ont he design of the ligthbox. It took a while to figure out how to edit the lightbox widget in Adobe Muse. The original setup was just a blank white box, I eventually found ways to import slideshows and a side part for the bios. From the technical side I was able to change the colour and design to make it fit with the aesthetic of the site.
Part Three: Domain and Hosting Sites From designing the lightboxes, I decided to take on a more administrative role. Since I was already taking on a similar role in the class, it seemed more natural to take on that role in the group as well. I had already met with Gail and talked about what sites were used in the past which last year they used freehostia.com. When I first went to the site I was immediately turned away. The information was very confusing as well as the graphics and overall appearance seemed as if they weren’t a real company. As well the information itself was confusing to follow as to what we may need.
The second route I took was through Adobe Catalyst. It is offered through the creative suite so it would be really easy to upload to their domain from their software that we were using. The only issue would the domain would be merge2015.businesscatalyst.com, which would be a really long name to remember.
The last domain site I went to wast Host Papa which was the most rewarding. It was a Canadian domain site, it had all the information needed there and was presented in a clean and professional manner. It was very easy and price effective for our budget. It also had everything we needed for a site memory, bandwidth, and speed. When I approached my group with this site they were pretty eager to get started and to get the domain running. It took a couple weeks after a few budget rounds before we were able to get the approval for the cost. It took no time at all and we were able to gain the domain name Merge2015.ca and get the site laucnched within the course of a couple days.
Part Four: Body Copy One of the last parts of the website was getting together the information about the event. For about a week everyone seemed confused about the exact details that need to be on the site, invites, poster, etc. So I went to administration and gathered all of the information and contact info needed and added it to the site along with a short description about the show itself and what the audience can expect at the show.
Maggie Crowhurst: Maggie is a talented fine artist who is looking to become a Tattoo Artist. She hails from Medicine Hat, AB where she was able to grow as a creative individual. If she hadn’t have chosen art she would have liked to have worked towards being a yoga instructor. Her favourite mediums are graphite or pencil crayon. Lauren Miller: Has a passion for type and nature/wildlife photography. From Medicine Hat, AB, she chose art and design because of her creative mind and appreciation for design. Her favourite medium is oil pastels, and you can constantly see her sketching with them in her books. If Lauren hadn’t have chosen art and design she would have pursued environmental sciences. As we were creating the lightboxes for each student I was also tasked with writing the bios for each student. I waited fror environment to question each student and then used that information to develope short little bios. There were a few sessions of editing since I mainly wrote them on a bumpy journey back to Medicine Hat and there were quite a few obvious spelling errors.
Kennedy Wamwea: Kennedy is a traditional and digital artist who traveled to Medicine Hat from Nairobi, Kenya. His favourite fonts are a toss up between Didot and Helvetica Ultra Light. He has a strong passion for shoe design and hopes to one day design them himself. He enjoys soccer in his spare time as that would be his second choice for a career path. He chose design so he could leave a unique mark in the world of design. Kaitlyn Proll: A fresh designer from Saskatoon, SK. She has a keen eye for detail and is very passionate with design. Kaitlyn hopes to become a creative director of an agency that is also environmentally conscience. She chose a career in design so that she can spend her days collaborating with other creative minds who inspire her, as well as be able to express herself through relevant and eye catching work. Jennifer Losie: An enthusiastic artist from Saskatoon, SK. She enjoys exercising her talents with silk screening, but her real inspiration is with the digital and interactive design. She draws great inspiration from Disney animation and considers a web design or animation career her dream. She also has a strong attachment to the font Futura. If it wasn’t for art and design, Jen would be studying to become an
Expected vs Actual Expenditures for Visual Communications Grad Show:
Part Five: Administrative Outside of my group I took on an administrative role within the grad class, especially with the budget. I learned how much each group was planning on spending and had a feeling that it would not be approved as it was way over our budget. I went to talk to administration and they refused to tell me the budget we were allocated for the show. I thought this was rather ridiculous and after convincing them and letting them know how big our estimates are now they were able to tell me. Once I had the numbers I was able to organize a meeting where we can reduce the size of how much each group thinks they need. I created a estimate sheeta and handed it in for approval. This process went on for another round and we were approved for our budget. After that I gathered the invoices and receipts from each group and handed those into be submitted for payment. On the deadline for invoices the print group went over their allowed budget and Mergendise got misquoted for their catalogues. We went with a different printing company who were able to give us a quote and invoice on the same day for a reduced price. I reworked the budget and moved around extra money each group had leftover and had enough to make up for what those two groups didnt have.
Print Group Posters (18x24 - 20 quantity)- $240.00 Invitations (5x7 - 350 quantity)- $80.00 Postage for Invites (100 quantity) - $85.00 Total- $405.00 Mergendise 24 Catalogue Cards and packaging (100 quantity)- $350.00 Label Paper for Stickers (2�- 288 quantity)- $111.00 Coasters (100 quantity)- $ 40.00
Total - $501.00 Environment Cocktail Tables (Quantity 5)- $150.00 (Delivery/Pickup)- $40.00 Paper Lanterns (40cm-24 quantity)- $79.20 Total- $269.20 Website Hosting/Server - $140.00 Total- $140.00 TOTAL- $1,315.20
Note- We have additional printing, vinyl, catalogues and mergendise to include on the next budget deadline. The price for postage is for only 100 invitations due to the amount that will be personally delivered by students. If any questions please feel free to ask. Thank-you.
Additional Requested Expenditures for Visual Communications Grad Show:
Expected vs Actual Expenditures for Visual Communications Grad Show:
Environment
Print Group Posters (18x24 - 20 quantity)- $240.00 ($100.00) Invitations (5x7 - 350 quantity)- $80.00 ($208.40) Postage for Invites (100 quantity) - $85.00
Black Linen for tables (10 quantity)- $60.00 Linen for Lockers- $10.00 Static Vinyl Decals (5 quantity)- $137.12 Shipping - $15.00 Total- $222.12
TOTAL- $222.12
This Request $222.12 Previous Request $1,315.20 Total Budget Requested $1,537.32
Total- $405.00 Total- $393.40 Left- $11.60 Mergendise 24 Catalogue Cards and packaging- $350.00 ($150.00) Label Paper for Stickers (2”- 288 quantity)- $111.00 ($0-Different source) Coasters (100 quantity)- $40.00 ($0- Dropped)
Stickers (Including Printing)- $25.00 Bags and Candy- $120.00 (Potentially $60.00) Total - $501.00 Total- $295.00 Left- $206.00
Environment Cocktail Tables (Quantity 5)- $150.00 (Delivery/Pickup)- $40.00 Paper Lanterns (40cm-24 quantity)- $79.20 Black Linen for tables (10 quantity)- $60.00 Linen for Lockers- $10.00 Static Vinyl Decals (5 quantity)- $137.12 (Shipping) - $15.00 Total- $491.32