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I was put in charge of making my computer class's webpage for my school but I am stumped on ideas. I am pretty good in Photoshop and decent with HTML but for some reason I just cann't think of any ideas on a layout for this site. I do not want it to look like a 'teenager' site or anything like that I would rather it have the appeal of a company or design site. If possible could you give me some ideas or anything like that it would be greatfully apreciated.
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Hi,
Maybe you should get together with a few of your classmates and throw around some ideas, brainstorm it for a bit (Then delegate the boring work ). You need to identify what information and who will be viewing your site and work on an overall theme for the site. Give consideration to the feel and look and ask yourself is this potraying the image we want. The best place to start is on paper, this will help you solve navigational issues and such before getting to committed. Play around with all the options and suggestions and design according to your content.
Oh and most importantly have FUN!
Good luck
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Thank you for replying to my post so quickly I appreciate that alot. I have an overall idea for the site but I am stuck on a theme for it though I know what content we need because I wrote all the info. down I am only having trouble coming up with a theme/graphic idea for it and wether flash or html for it.
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your theme should obviously be your school and your graphics should obviously include your school logo and other things that pertain to your school, mascot, etc... Also, if your school colors are not that bad, use those as your color scheme.
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research, and like V said, brainstorm... if you are stumped, go to the bookstore and sit down in the art/graphic section and start flipping (bring a pad to make notes/ sketches.) there are tons of books showcasing sites, designs, design elements, resources, and many books describing ways to stir your own creativity up. don't rip another design, but dissect it to find certain elements of it that were interesting. analyze the way that things look together, of would look if it was tweaked out a different way. heck, i walk around Tower Records checking out rows of CD covers for reference...
here are a few links we have checked out to see what direction designers are going... if anyone knows more... lay em out. you can never be too short on design references...
http://www.howdesign.com/links/ (check some of these out)
http://www.coolhomepages.com (we all know what that is)
http://www.computerarts.co.uk/ (mag from UK.)
http://www.printmag.com (buy this at store! nothing on site really)
just like everyone else said, keep in mind your school colors, logo, etc... but hey, go wild... have fun with it.
good luck.
dub
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i once had a similar job. strangly enough, i had the same
problem..
for some reason, most school websites look alike. i'm sure
you don't want to make yours look like the others, but
offer the same functionality.
brainstorming always is a good place to start from, even
more when you got some people who can help you with this.
personally i'm no great fan of david siegel
(www.killersites.com, http://www.siegelvision.com), but in one of
his books he describes a rather efficient way for
brainstorming:
sit together and make sure you have lots of paper handy.
everybody has 1 minute to write down any idea he got.
without taking it further, just the plain idea. the goal is
to get at least 10 ideas down to paper. after this, you
put them together and talk about them. important point here:
the author of the idea currently discussed should keep
quiet.
let the others explore the idea. this way you'll end up
with many different thoughts.
after that (this can take a lot of time!) sort everything
you got so far. make 3 stacks: one with really good ideas,
one with alternatives and one you decide not to use.
work with the good ones, but keep an eye on the alternatives
they may get important later.
i'd advise a clean look. the architecture of the school
building should be part of your considerations. play
with metaphors. a school website maybe a good place for
experiments with navigation systems (as long as they really
work).
i won't use the schools' colors or mascots to
excessively, even though they should be implented. (almost
every schools' webpage hang up on their logo or mascot, and
you want to make your webpage stand out...)
maybe you got a schools' annual book. or a newspaper.
hope this helpes...
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Thanks alot guys you gave me some great advice. This isn't so much a school webpage but more the computer class's webpage so I am not going to focus too much on the school colors. I will use the brainstorming idea though I will have the kids write down some ideas and try to put the good ones together and try to start a design from that. Thanks again.
~mike
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Well I started a bit on it. I used some of the ideas my teacher gave me. Check it out and tell me what you think.
http://server32.hypermart.net/mikedesigns
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The Phattest Bwoy at Flashkit
dude the background looks hype!!! did y ado it?
man ur good
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hiya MPirone,
heck, you're fast...
i'm not sure about your layout for the webpage.
on one side, i really like the graphics. it has a certain
technical look, this suits the topic rather fine.
on the other hand, you'll find sites with a similar
layout by hundrets by now on the web. even if yours is
well done (better than many others), it's nothing new.
well, let me correct this, it maybe is new as a webpage
for a school (mostly those layouts are seen for agencies
or private homepages), but nevertheless, it's been seen before (whenever in another context).
now it's up to you:
when you're happy with something others have done before
in a similar way, continue. it DOES look good, to say this
again.
if you're not satisfied with a (good) copy (sorry, i know
this sounds hard, but it's not to insult anyone but to
say the simple truth) and want to create something new
and really innovative, give it another try.
keep us posted on what you do.
i'm sure you'll find a good solution.
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Yes I know it looks like alot of the webpages currently around but this is only one of the layouts i am working on I have other ideas that i havent seen before on peoples webpages which I am going to try but they are very hard but hell I might as well give it a shot. Thanks for the comments and no i did not make the background image a friend of mine whom will be unnamed for the time being made it for me. He is a very good graphics artist which helps me because im not that great with the grapgics but im pretty good with the technical and design part. I will be testing out new layouts soon. I have allready started a new layout which I find quiet original yet extremly odd(youll see what i mean when im done). Thanks for the posts.
~mike
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