Project 2 Website Development

For my second project in Advanced Digital Art I plan to revitalize my personal website. Last semester I created http://students.smcm.edu/docope/index.html with the intention of presenting my acting/filmmaking/art resume along with an extra radio tab. While for my first Dreamweaver creation I was pleased with it, certain elements of the site could be polished and/or added.

To begin my project, I did research on multiple artists who happened to have outstanding or relatable web designs. In the end, two sites I believe really encaptured my vision of what I wanted my site to become.

The first was David Hockney, a 76 year old painter, sketch artist, photographer, and stage designer from England. Despite his bio being inactive as of 2010, Hockney's work is exhibited and updated- showing the website is still in great use. While I am not a fan of his work, I never the less appreciate the clean, professionalism of his website.

Similar to mine, each tab is color coordinated to a degree. For example, if you click on the purple media tab, the name David changes to purple (as seen left). His works are also categorized neatly into decades- a feat I won't be able to accomplish for a number of years. The only slight gripe I had was that I found the drop down menus never disappeared after each interaction- causing text to block subject matter.

My next artist was Tauba Aurebach, a painter, sculptor, and graphic artist who was born and still resides in San Francisco. A graduate of Stanford University, Aurebach's work has a natural vibrancy through dream-like textures and patterns. What struck me by her website was not the fun visual presence it gave, but how well the design co-existed with her own art.

Firstly, one thing that immediately differentiated my site from both Aurebach's and Hockney's was the use of an "introduction page." I feel the first thing that a user sees should always be different, interactive, and exciting- a sort of gate that prepares them to enter. For Aurebach, her introduction is her name in an interactive form of hieroglyphic letters, changing colors at an almost alarming rate with any movement of the mouse.

In terms of the site, Aurebach also keeps it  simple but fun- layering the menu in a font that's barely legible and makes you feel drunk. Under "works" I enjoyed the display of her art. The animation it makes once loaded is also a factor that makes the page less static. On my own pages for art and film I plan towards simplifying the presentation through the use of Lightbox.

In conclusion, my research compiled a number of things: 

1. My own site is too static. It needs a interactive entrance to prepare viewers for what is to come. 
2. Simplify. My Art and Film pages have simply too much going on with back/foreground clashing
3. More color. I dipped briefly into the menu bar change but I can take it further.
4. Polish! Lightbox and my resume not showing up are the two technical issues I've run into.

Artist Sites:

• (http://www.hockneypictures.com)

• (http://taubaauerbach.com)