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My web design for the final is for a photography site to start a side business I’ve considered for several years. It’s a great way to get more of a feel if this is a direction I would like to go and it’s been exploring it more. I wanted my overall web layout to show a wide variety of photo styles to demonstrate my skillset in order to solicit local photo shoots.
On the main page I wanted to showcase both Senior Photos and Landscapes as they are my main areas of expertise. Every photo on this page is one of mine as I wanted to remain true to what I can offer. There are other smaller thumbnails for other areas of photo interests and portfolios in nature, special interests, business applications, and portraits. I created the header as a flower closeup that had some really great texture and vivid colors. Thinking about this more commercially after the fact I may want to emphasize Senior Pictures, Portraits, and Business photography as the main focus areas since I’m most likely to generate business from those.
The text was altered to Arial rounded MT Bold as I felt it would be much more universal for web browsers than the Broadway font I used in lesson 5 earlier in the semester. I rearranged the layout of the photos to accommodate more photos. I also added some mockups for 2 photo tip videos to help other refine their skills in taking photos in areas that can difficult. I expect the videos will focus on fundamentals such as camera settings, lighting, and picture composition.
I designed the bottom navigation area to be consistent throughout the site as well as the top sprite CSS navigation buttons which should have roll over animation (to be developed later). Other features of this site would include more advanced features such as a online booking engine and confirmation system as well as client login secure area for image ordering and offering downloads for a set time period. Navigation for this page and site is simple and straightforward by offering navigation that is consistent and on each page.
Each of the section areas that clients could click on such as landscapes, would lead to another page that would showcase the quality and diversity of photography that I can offer them.
My Logo is the Flower Close up, the title “Patrick Dolan Photography’, and the slogan “Photography is painting with light.’. Optimization plans for site include rendering the images at 72 dpi to reduce file size and loading times. The page(s) are designed to be 962px wide to also promote the site to be optimized.
I hope you enjoyed my final web site design and found my thought processes to make it sound and helpful to understand the decisions that went into creating it.