Summer time.

Below is some of my personal project work from over the summer break, it's important to keep busy & your idea's fresh!!
You can find more of my work over at http://soulatech.deviantart.com/

soulatech.com

The project is finished & live online at: http://www.soulatech.com/

But why is it a onepage design? The reason being is after years of looking at other designers websites is you have to go though loads of pages & loads of links which load more data than what is needed. So I decided from the start a "onepage site" would be prefect as it only need to load once & everything I wanted to showcase is there from my design work to contact details so clients can get in touch.

I also understand that clients dont want to be spending ages looking though work & trying to find details needed...this is the main reason the site has this onepage layout. [Time = cash!]

Below is a screenshot of the site live online.

What next?

After speaking with Noli from twindots, we arranged a set deadline & price. Then I had to edit my .psd file & upload it to mediafire. [Mediafire is a free hosting site for files to share via the internet.] then simple E-mail him the link.

After this it was simply a waiting game till the coder had coded the site but we came across 1 issue with my design & that was the fact I wanted a flash .svf button to play the background music.

The issue was that the .svf wouldn't work in some web browers like I.E 7 & firefox 3.1, so we talked baout using a product which is free online & work in all browsers today. We both decided on soundcloud, as they have a free flash plugin web player.

The coder made sure it would still fit within the size design to the .psd & sent me a preview to make sure I was happy & he could go on coding the rest of the site. I'm happy knowing the level of detail he goes into & clearly explained everythign to me as I'm not a coder.

After this issue was addressed, he finished the prject 2 days early of the deadline & sent me all the files needed with usernames/password to the xcontrol panel to host the site. Having experience is this before it only tuck half a hour to upload thye site & have it fully working online.

Downlaodable .psd file: .psd final website design

Final design

After I was happy with my final design, I started looking for a website coder to code the project. My budget was £250, in which this had to cover the cost's of coding, hosting & the doname I wanted.

I asked a few freelancer's I knew online though social networking & forums but I was being told the £250 would just about cover the cost's of the coding alone. With this in mind I had to take a break & think about if I wanted to spend more money or not. In the end I contacted my old boss at twindots & we talked via E-mail & phone about the project brief & the hostings I would need.

We came to a agrement of £180 for the coding, hosting & doname. The hosting & doname will need to be renewed yearly and is hosted via twindots private server. Which worked out prefectly within my budget.

Summary: It really does help to know people within the area's needed & building up a good working relationship.

Layout idea's

I started all my idea's in photoshop using the 960 grid system, below is a download .zip of all the images from start to finished idea of the site design. The reason I've done this is because of the hassle & time it would take me to upload them all individually.

First layout design

Layout final design

Link to downloadable .zip of layout files: Layout design images.

Project change

I realised after speaking to my tutor, that the arcana project was simply to big of a task to take on in the time period we had for the project. So I decided to build a portfiolo website for myself insted.

I will still be using the research as before, but also looking deeper into other designer's portfiolo's etc.

Why the name Arcana?

Before I wrote my negotiated programme module I was thinking of a name or word that would be nice to use to best describe a collective of people & while searching online I came across the word "Arcana" 

Arcana : mysterious or specialized knowledge, language, or information accessible or possessed only by the initiate - usually used in plural.

I was instantly taken by this & decided it described everything I wanted to get across as a collective of people. Below is the logo I came up with for the project title & will also be used for the site.

Grid 960 & Adobe kuler [research]

Grid 960 link: I will be using this downloadable grid system for my project as it is standard industry size with in website design & will save me time building my own.

Adobe kuler link: For reference to colour scheme ideas for the user interface I've decided to look though adobe's online kuler app for possible ideas.

Negotiated module: arcana

For the next 2 negotiated modules, I’ve decided I want to design a minimal & simple user interface for a website to be able to showcase a selection of design work, video production & music production also other area’s of artistic work in a sort of blog form.

The reason I’ve chose this type of project is because it covers all the area’s I’m into & want to further knowledge in & it would work well as an on going project which I could carry on into other modules through out this course.

Below is a link to download my negotiated programme module.

Negotiated programme module.pdf

Evaluation & Programme

I've choose to base my work roughly around the "street-talk" brief, I've decided to break away from telephone boxes and use the "street-talk" nightclub poster & flyer events network instead. My end product will be a set of poster & flyer designs for a fictional nightclub. The context of the work will be how the flyer design starts & is worked out to a finished product ready to print.

Below is a link to download my evaluation & programme. 

Evaluation & Programme.pdf