I found out about Invisible Children through a Facebook invitation from a friend and was incredibly inspired by it, however I didn’t think to use it as my project topic for several weeks. Because the organization is such an impacting and serious issue, I wanted to use bold colors. I chose red because it brings on strong emotions and because it is attention grabbing. Since the whole point of this event is to gain awareness for the organization and the issue, it’s important that the color scheme is bold and aggressive. The exact color measurements are R: 178 G: 31 B: 27. I liked using the sidebar on the left instead of under the header simply as a menu, because I think it balances the site well, especially the red color. For typefaces I wanted to keep it simple and continuous so the focus would be the content and not the fonts, so I chose Spartan LT Std and alternated between the Book and Heavy weight when emphasis or separation were needed. I like that Spartan is simple but bold, I think it stands out well and gets the point across clearly without being distracting, as well as maintains readability. I wanted the title across the header to be bold but have contrast, so I made one Book and one Heavy. I chose to make “Invisible” thinner than “Children” both because the word was longer and because I wanted to play off the actual word, to make it seem like the word was starting to disappear, and become invisible. For the graphic on the header I wanted to use footprints because I think they exemplify children, and bare footprints show a raw innocence of children. I decided to make it seem like the footprints were fading into invisibility and to repeat the footprint theme for the mouse over. I got the pictures from either the Invisible Children website or from Janae DeRusso, the event coordinator who had pictures from the legacy tour. I enjoyed this project a lot but I had trouble following the grids because the system we downloaded from 960.gs only had vertical lines. I did my best though and think I stuck to it well. Another thing that I spent a lot of time trying to figure out was why everything was pixilated, but they weren’t when printed so it was wasted stress. I didn’t use the Invisible Children logo on every page because I didn’t want it to overpower the rest of the site and distract from the event itself, because the main point of the site is to promote the 2010 screening of The Rescue occurring in Fall, and there are already two links devoted to background information.
Great job on this design! I too love this organization and I really think you did them justice on almost every element of this design. The contrasting, dark color palette you chose, is graphic, and really conveys the mood and gravity of this event/organization. The design has a lot of strong gestalts, thanks to this palette. I appreciated that you did not use the logo on every page. That was a smart decision because it is a strong logo and it indeed, may have overpowered the page's information. You also created strong gestalts with your images. I especially love the image of the silhouetted hands holding up the peace signs, this not only is a great example of a figure ground relationship but it also, directs the eye to the essential copy on the page. So, good choice on that! Your navigation bar is clean, readable and logically organized. Your font is a solid choice as it too is readable, and visually pleasing. It was really smart how you changed the thickness of the type on the title of the “Invisible Children”. This simple change in font weight creates great gestalt and meaning.
ReplyDeleteMy one, and really only objection to this design is the treatment of the footprints. Currently, I feel they are a bit too cutesy for the event. If they had a bit of a texture to them and where less cartoon like, I think they would be much more effective at conveying the mood. I really like the idea, the execution is just a bit off for me.
Overall, great work. Seeing this design has sincerely made me want to join in the event. So there you have it, and effective design communication!
While scrolling through the blog, the home screen image caught my eye and made my stop and read the page, which is the goal of wed design. Good call keeping the image in black and white; it gives the image more power. The colors are used very effectively as black and dark red are usually associated with suffering and somber occasions. I like how the footprints disappear, referencing the name of the event. I agree with the use of Spartan. I think it is strong enough to grab viewers eyes but not too strong in that it overtakes the page. The continued use of the feet in the nav bar was creative. Overall a great job.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the best web designs I have seen. I love both the pictures. The first one is very effective in grayscale. I like the other photo because it makes the readers eye's look up to the text right away. The disappearing foot prints are killer and having that same footprint on your sidebar made me look for the top left to the side. My eye's are always moving when looking at your pages because you have mastered visual gestalt. The only minor change that I would make is I would put more space between the text and picture on that bottom page.
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