04 - Branding Identity
The image above I felt was appropriate for this week as Barry Corrigan and myself bought these two books over our placment year, as we taught it would come in handy in final year, and after Chris's lecture I clean the cobbwebbs off the books and feel they will give me some good inspiration in finding the RIGHT brand for my major project and my portfolio site.
As you can see I have been busy this week, and my main focus for this week was to finish my new blog design as you can see. I am really happy with how the designed turned out, and so far I have had good positive feedback. At this stage I have only finished the design side of the site. I want to use this design as the building block for my experimentation this semester. I am really interested in Ajax and JavaScript libraries such as jQuery and Mootools, and I want to incorporate this functionality into the site.
With this new design I wanted to add some nice design elements to brighten the look and feel of the blog. I have used some vector artwork on animals that I downloaded from istockphoto, shutterstock and DeviantArt.
From old to NEW
04 - Branding Identity ↑
As I was changing from my old design into my new design, I taught it would be a gud idea to take some screenshots to show the evidence of the change over. I came across a mac app, Paparazzi, that I came across on Lee Munroe’s blog. This was the perfect app to use at this time. So I have included some screenshots of week 2 and week 3 in the old design and layout.
As I was taking the screenshots it occured to me that it this would be a good idea to incorporate some feedback from the readers. There came the idea of implementing a online poll system. I would love to be able to create a similar poll that Nick La has on his Webdesignerwall website. However, I am not sure if the php and mysql on the imdservers could serve up the necessities to do this. Although, I do have my own domain on Dreamhost and could use this. However, a way to incorporate usability and accessibility testing would be great as it would be very useful when it comes to testing my major project. I have already came across http://silverbackapp.com/ and just lover their design of their site.
Google Analytics
04 - Branding Identity ↑
As I was moving my new design online, I thought that Google Analytics would be a useful tool to be able to track users who are visiting my blog. Information on the users visiting my blog such as a what browser and platform they are using, and this also asks me the key question is my site cross-browser compatiable. So far my new design has been tested for Firefox 3 and Safari. As I have Vmware Fusion on my mac, I can test for windows based browsers as well (aka Internet Explorer).
I have tested it on both ie 6 and 7, and I am surprise a bit to be honest as they don’t look that bad. With ie 6 in need to add in the png hack, and with ie 6 and 7 I need to re-designa few containers and thats it. Although I have noticed that my rounded corners technique is not working on ie so I would need to look into that.
From the http://www.aboutnico.be/ I was able to download the Google Analytics Suite. I love playing with Air applications its great to see what they can do, and this Google App was created using Adobe Flex and Adobe Air. Two technologies I am very interested in learning down the line, and was a close second in my major project proposals. I have included screenshots of me setting up my google analytics with my blog and with the air app on my desktop.
Authenticity in Branding
04 - Branding Identity ↑
AUTHENTICITY. Its one word but a very powerful word and it struck a chord with me during Chris's lecture. I admit to be more focus on the top two tiers of the authenticity triangle (above). I have made logos with the shiny web 2.0 look and feel, with the reflection, and looking back I wished I research the underlining key core message of how the logo should convey. Over the next few weeks I aiming to follow the Authentic brand into my major project. I have already given my major project a codename – PERFORMA. Well its basically two words joined together – Performance – Analyst. The underlying message of the brand should be its a small analytical tool that PERFORMS.
sIFR 3
04 - Branding Identity ↑Last week I spent a lot of time trying to get FLIR and sIFR 3 to work on my site. This week I started fresh I downloaded the latest version of sIFR 3, and uploaded the files onto the imdserver, and wayhay it worked. I am planning on using sIFR 3 to add my own font to the main headings and to the first letter of every paragraph. However, I have yet made the decisions what font would be the best?
Motion Graphics
04 - Branding Identity ↑Motion Graphics is something I have been interested in for a long time but never knew quite how to do it , until I started following the basic training on videocopilot.net. Its a great site for beginners like myself. I was able to follow the tutorials and create my name in lights as a way of putting it.
Unfortunately this week I did not get looking at the two iPhone articles that I mentioned last week, but now that I have my new design launched I can focus back onto them two articles, Apps Amuck and Web Resources Depot
Plans for Next Week
- Look into Designing for the iPhone and its implementations
- Have a look at my Google Analytics, and having a look at Google Talk, can it be added to my blog?