http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/03/20-beautiful-photoshop-montage-tutorials/
http://www.sixdifferentways.com/
http://www.gingermonkeydesign.com/
http://www.viciousenterprises.com/summersblog/innovation-in-lingerie-fail
http://www.webdesignerwall.com/
Seven key characteristics:
1. Illustrations
Across all five reference sites that I chose the use of vector based illustrations is a key element. The illustrations are featured across the top of the page together with the main heading/theme of the site. The illustrations dominantly reflect themes of flora and nature. I really love the illustrations featured within the sites, it is a look I'm aiming to accomplish for my own web page.
2. Alignment/function
The alignment of the site's content and designs are centred. I am particularly drawn to centred pages as I believe that they look more aesthetically pleasing, are more easily accessible and look clean and fresh to the eye.
The main headings of the sites are mainly aligned to the left of the centred page lay out. The site's pages are easily functional due to the directional vertical scrolling of the pages. The various panels of main content/text have been conveniently designed so that navigation between the information featured on the sites is conveniently accessible simply by either hovering over the link topic where the information relating to that particular topic will automatically appear in the left side of the page, or by clicking directly on the link. For my web site, I hope to be able to incorporate the automatic content change which occurs by simply hovering over the link, (without clicking)and if the viewer is interested in a particular topic of information that they have already sampled while they were hovering over the topic with their mouse, they can then further directly click on the link to make the content permanently stay on that topic.
The layout of the sites is simplistic, to the point and effectively designed to reflect that of the main themes and further suited for the intended audience.
centred page
3. Backgrounds
All sites (excluding the Ginger Monkey site) are laid out so that all of the content is encompassed within a white paneled box. Surrounding the white box, there is a background of either a bright colour or plain white. I preferably like the sites which have the white box with the bright colour surrounding it as the contrast is more effective and it really attracts more attention to the content and focal elements of the page. Another benefit of having the white panel box as the background for the content is that not only does it make the central themes of the page more legible, but it also allows for more freedom with font colour selection.
contrast between white box encompassing the content of the page and the coloured background.
4. Main text/content layout
The main content (includes the area that features the most type) is featured mainly so that it is to the left of the centred page layout situated underneath the central heading/theme of the page. The majority of the sites happen to feature the main text content to the left of the page, however, I would be happy with it either way, left or right, as I think that both sides could have an equal effect. I will just have to see which side the main content will suit to go on for my page!
5. Links layout
The links across the sites are dominantly featured to the right of the centred page layout, on the opposite side of where the main content section is. I prefer the way the majority of the sites are laid out, that is with the links running vertically down the sides of the page as opposed to across the top, as I think that the central theme/heading should at first be the central focus of attention and shouldn't be clashing with links directly underneath. Again, similarly as mentioned above I don't mind which side the links are on, depends what goes with the other elements of my design at the time! Across all sites links are easily accessible and clearly identifiable.
6. Fonts/typeface/text
The choice of typefaces within the sites are clear and legible. The headings and sub-headings stand out successfully above the other text, as they are either featured in different colours, larger font sizes or in bold signifying a hierarchy of importance. I will strive to pick a typeface that is easily legible and at the same time compliments aesthetically with the other elements within my design.
7. Colour
The choice of colour is dominantly vibrant and bright across all of the sites. The illustrations and the headings are the main attraction central to colour. From the chosen sites, the colours which are most dominant are warm colours such as red, pink, orange, yellow etc. Similarly, in my web site design I would like to use bright and vibrant complimentary and contrasting colours.
Well there it is... Hope it's ok, took me a while. I have really learned a lot over the duration of this assignment, so I hope that is reflected above!
Note: for some reason on my actual blog, the 5 site references did not turn out to look centred even though they are on my posting preview, don't know what's up with that?
