Mark Zuckerberg

Here's another class post!

Mark Zuckerberg is one of the co-founders of the popular social networking site Facebook.  (I'm sure many of you readers have a Facebook, but I don't, so don't try to find me on there.)  Zuckerberg first started programming in the 1990's, and his father even hired a tutor for him.  He later went to Harvard University in Massachusetts, where he studied psychology and computer science.  At Harvard, he joined a fraternity and met his friends and later co-founders Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin, and Chris Hughes.Zuckerberg is also red-green colorblind.  This makes him see the color blue best, which is coincidentally Facebook's dominant color.
He and his friends originally began Facebook as a Harvard site, so everyone could interact with one another easier.  This eventually spread to other schools and is now a worldwide website.  Many major companies tried to purchase the fast-growing website, but Zuckerberg and his friends kept it.  Their original goal was to make the world open, and have everyone on the planet connected.  Today, Zuckerberg gains 24% of Facebook's profit.  This has helped him to become one of the youngest billionaires in the world.

Information from here.

Logos

And another class post.

Bad Logo

Good Logo

The top logo is a very bad logo.  The 'I' is overpowering everything else in the image.  If the I were smaller, then the logo may be better.  Also, it seems to be getting larger, because of the contrast to the white background.  The bottom logo, the image that symbolizes Apple, is sleek and well-desgined.  The reflection off the surface of the apple makes it look like real metal, and you could almost touch it.  The drop-shadow underneath the logo makes it pop out from the screen, and that draws your eye to it.  Logo design is very important for drawing in potential customers.

Red Robin Review

Another class post.....

This time I'm reviewing redrobin.com , a website for a chain of restaurants.  The background is red, and the color red makes people hungry.  That's why most restaurants have red in their logos.  The shapes aren't perfect squares, and that gives the webpage a creative look.  Regular boxes can get annoying.  The borders around the shapes catch the eye.  The huge burger on the homepage looks perfect and ready to be eaten, which also makes you hungry. 
Navigation is another key part of a well-designed website.  On this particular site, the global navigation is bold and obvious.  The 'share' buttons for Twitter and Facebook are clear against the red background.  Also, the "Menus and Locations' bar is large and on the left hand site where you can see it.
What I don't like about this website is how they used the colors.  Red and yellow may be the company's colors, but they are very bold.  Your eye keeps going to the background instead of any of the other pages.  Also, there are only four shapes on the homepage.  The "Contact Us" and other important links, like their privacy policy, are small and at the bottom of the page.  Other than that, the website is great!

--Swimmer Girl

Picture Review

This is a gorgeous photo of a sunset over some mountains.  I love how the beams of light are pointing upwards into the sky.  The reflection of the orange in the river below is also beautiful.  The shape of the mountains and the tree in the right side of the picture all add character.  Also, the bright clouds above the peaks of the mountains catch the light in a pretty way.

This photo was taken in New Zealand.  The river beneath the mountains is the Waitaki River, which lies in the south of New Zealand.  The mountains are part of the Dunstan Mountain range.  This photo is taken in the evening as the photographer was traveling.

Gary and Fiona are the photographers.  They took this picture while on a trip through New Zealand.  A gallery of their pictures is available online at http://conkertree.co.uk/gallery/album05 .  They have some stunningly beautiful photos.  I was not able to find out much about them, but I do have one thing to say: they take some strikingly beautiful pictures!

Defining Terms

And another class post!

sitemap: organized model of a Web site that allows users to navigate through to find information they are looking for.  Breaks down website into specific subject areas.
global navigation: links that appear on almost every page of the website.  These can include "contact us", "copyright", "search", "home" and other tab bar items.
wireframe: skeleton of a website.  Depicts navigational content but does not include any of the detail or design except for the bare minimum.

Web Design Presentation

Yet another class post!

Yesterday we had a presentation on an art school.  Actually it's a whole string of art schools, each offering different classes.  Yesterday we had a small assembly (my Web Design class and one other class)and a woman from the Art Institute talked to us about web design, fashion design and a whole host of other things.  It sounded pretty interesting, but I don't know if I would like to go to school there.  I was planning on going into either computer forensics or field forensics.  I don't know if the Art Institute has these classes....  I think these are lucrative careers. There is always a demand for product endorsement and  companies want to rake in as much money as possible.  If a good web/fashion/game/product designer can do that for them, then the company is all set!

Photoshop

Here's another class post, guys.

I like Photoshop because of the countless things you can do with it.  You can create mock web pages, edit photos (hence the name), write text banners, and so much more.  The only thing I don't like very much is the difficulty navigating around.  Then again, that may be because I've never used Photoshop before, except for this project.  I think it is so popular because it fits everyone's needs.  If a web designer needs to create a web page, they can copy and paste borders, backgrounds, and pictures onto Photoshop to make a practice template before they actually begin designing.  Or if someone wants to edit their photos for online displays they can easily do that on Photoshop.  It was difficult at first for me to use all the tools and to figure out what tool would help in a specific situation.  I think that with more practice using Photoshop will definitely get easier and more fun!

--Swimmer Girl