Final Website Layout

In the end I decided to go against the rabbit idea because I felt as though it wasn't a strong enough theme to have just on one page as I couldn't find a way to carry it on throughout. My final website layout has become a simple, sophisticated piece rather then the slightly funny and more personal one I originally intended on doing. 

This is my homepage. I decided on the colours because I thought it was a modern and different way to show the images for each catagory. Even though I haven't gone down the rabbit route I've still picked out the word 'Hop' in the title because I think this is a memorable word to keep people from forgetting my website. I do like the final homepage even though it's very different to what I imagined, I this it's neat, easy to understand and pleasing to the eye. 

This is the About Me page. The image gives this page a funny and far less serious side which I think is great because sometimes the About me pages on websites can be boring and go on a lot about things people don't really care about, hence why I've only wrote 3 sentences about myself.

This is the Contact page. It is the most mimimal page of the lot but it does the job it's supposed to do!

Muddled Ideas

I have reached a bad point within my journey to creating this website, I no longer know if I'm happy enough with my original 'rabbit' idea. I don't know if I'll be able to carry out the rabbit theme throughout each or most pages of the website to keep them linked and consistent, if I don't manage this then I might change my idea by resorting to different homepage plans I thought of earlier on before taking the rabbit route. I'll play around on Photoshop creating different homepage designs and see which I would like to carry through. I know it's very late into the project but I can't help falling out of love with an idea that I guess I mustn't have been as passionate about as I thought I was to start with.

A Change of Plan

By sketching out the page layouts I have decided it won't be necessary for me to have a page dedicated just to the logo, I originally wanted the first thing a viewer would see to be the logo which then would fade into the homepage. I think my website will be memorable enough without having a page with a logo on it, it now seems like a lot of un-needed work to do when I could be using my time in areas which are more important like the homepage and the pages displaying my work.

The 'Contact' Page

Like the About Me page, I want the Contact Page to have an image that I've taken on it so the viewer doesn't only have information to look at, there's also something interesting to look at. I want the image to be relevant to the page itself in order to not confuse people. I don't however want the image to be obviously related to the page, I want the viewers to wonder then realize why it's there.

This is the layout of my Contact page. Once again the background and top and bottom bars follow the same colours and style of the previous pages. I want these elements to be the same throughout to keep the pages consistent and linked. 

This is the photo that I'm going to put on the Contact page of my website because it does shoe a form of contact but in a less obvious and more artsy way! I think this photo will give the contact page something special and eye-satisfying. 

The 'About Me' Page

The About Me page is self explanatory, it will show some information about me. I don't want this page to be boring to look at or to read so I'll make it as fun but still professional as I can as well as making it hold as much information it needs without it being boring and too much to read.

This is a basic layout drawing of what I want my About Me page to look like. I will have the same pale grey in the background as to what I will have on the homepage and the top and bottom bars will also be the same as the homepage. I want a fitting photo to go on this page as well as some information about myself. I will list bullet points rather than have a paragraph or two blabbering on about stuff about me that nobody cares about because I find whenever I'm researching a photographer or just looking through their site, I'm put off by big paragraphs of information that I know I'll probably find boring and won't be of any use. Bullet points and straight to the point with no babble, they're quick and easy. 

This is the photo which I want to be displayed on the right hand side of the About Me page. I think it's funny, light-hearted and because it's a self portrait, it fits in with what the page is all about. This photo was an emulation piece from Erwin Wurm's 'One Minute Sculptures'.
http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/erwin-wurm-1
I will edit the image before putting it onto the site to make it more presentable. 

Rabbit Drawings

I want the rabbits on my homepage to look more realistic than silly and cartoon like so I keep the professional look rather than the child's comic look. I've been researching famous rabbit characters to try and get an idea of what I want for my website.

I don't want a funny cartoon character like bugs bunny on my website because it's too childish and fun for the  professional look I'm going for. I know to stay away from exaggerated features, big cheesy grins, cold colours and dramatic poses.

The White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland is more like what I want. I want a realistic looking rabbit but with a slight fun element which can be portrayed by the rabbit wearing clothes or acting like human in some other way. My rabbits need personality without being too out there like bugs bunny.

Finally I looked at the illustrations of Peter Rabbit and even though this character was created for a children's book, I think it's subtle human like features and realistic fur and look would fit perfectly into a professional world.

These are my rabbit drawings. My intention was to have them interacting with the categories of images on my homepage.

Homepage Designs

I want a homepage that's minimal but not boring yet hold enough information for the viewer to know what the website is about. I want my personality to shine through the design without making my site too much about me. It needs to focus on photography and my work but still have less serious elements which capture my less that serious attitude.

This was my first idea for a homepage layout. The drawing isn't finished, it was just used to give me a slight idea of what it would look like. It shows two rabbits 'holding' the photo frames which will be the buttons to take the viewer to certain pages holding different categories of my work. 

This is another idea I had. I thought it would be a good idea to split my site in half, one side (the left) showing the more serious categories of work that I've done for example 'Community' and the other side showing the less serious and more fine art types of work I've done such as 'Cyborg'.

All of the layouts I design all have a similar structure.

This one is the developed and final idea. I will have 4 categories of work shown on the homepage, each shown in the center as a clickable image from that category within the shape of a curved edged portrait rectangle. There will be 3 rabbits on this page, each in some way interacting with the buttons. I want an almost white grey background colour with the title bar along the top and the navigation bar along the bottom being slightly darker then the writing within these bars in an even darker grey than that. I don't think the rabbits take away from the photography side of my site, I think they're subtle enough to just add something rather than take anything away. I think the rabbits add a fun and slightly less serious side whilst still looking professional and make sense for what I'm trying to achieve.