Two New Ideas + Older Ideas

  Here are the designs I submitted as part of my project proposal. I've excluded one of the design because it simply isn't good enough. In fact, I'm rather disapointed in myself that I even decided to make it. It's that bad. Anyway, here they are.

I think could be a potential base design for the final website. It's pretty simple at the moment, which is why I should evaluate it and develop it. I do however like the element of simplicity, although the homepage doesn't do what a homepage should do. It doesn't give a quick over of the website (the latest news, events and happenings at the farm) which I think is important not only because it's useful, but because it also makes the page more interested. There is a difference between beautiful simplicity and a design being outright boring. I think this is leaning slightly towards the latter, although there are definitely positives that I can take from this design.

While I really like the idea behind this design, and I mean really like it, I don't think it would appeal to the target audience that the farm attracts, which is mainly families. This style would be more suited to a record labels website or something along those lines. I do like how the elements on the homepage are clearly segregated, which makes for easy viewing at first glance. I also really like the colour scheme, green relating to  the farm aspect, and the dark grey reflecting the farm's location. The white merely being used as a neutral contrast for the text.

I think this deisgn is borderline, maybe with some tweaking it could definitely be a contender for the final design, although I think it maybe looks a little bit too crowded and edgy for a farm website, city or not. Despite this I like the layout, especially the ''RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch' section to the right. I just had trouble finding something to put next to it that wouldn't look out of place and I don't think that I fully achieved that. Perhaps some sort of graphics could go there, such as a logo or a mission statement from the owners? As for it being too crowded, I can easily fix that by playing around with the font sizes and positioning, as I left ample space either side of the main body which I can use to my advantage to try and make the design fractionally more proportioned.

Probably my favourite design so far, I think I've achieved a nice balance between professional and fun. I especially like the cow. That being said, the background isn't mine, so I wouldn't be able to use it in my final design without giving credit, and I don't know who the original author is. I can however take a similar photo myself when the weather allows me. I've also encorporated a slider at the top of the navbar, which will move whenever you click on one of the links, as i've been told I should try to use more complicated design aspects. While not useful, I think it would add to the overall worth of the site. Again, I like the colour scheme, it's 100% easy on the eye and not difficult to read. The layout is also nicely proportioned and doesn't look a shambles.

I tried a bit more with my last two designs, because frankly I'm fed up of designing extremely similar websites and would like to push my creative boundaries. I also have some research that I need to upload to explain the choices I've made, although I probably won't do that until tomorrow.