This is the reason why...
HTTP://WWW.BRAINSTORMDESIGNS.CO.ZA
I've been crazy busy, working on my website and three others.
Yes that's right... I've finally decided to venture into the big scary world of web design that actually goes beyond the few people I know on a personal level.
Although this is not my first attempt at web design. I've designed and launched quite a few sites in the past year. Here's a quick list:
... great!! Just as I decide to list all my previous sites, my brain decides to forget the URLs...
Anywayz, that's not the point. The point is. I have a website and it's one of my best work so far. As far as I'm concerned.
Lemme break it down for ya'll (by the way, how do you spell ya'll?? is it y'all or ya'll??)
nevermind...
First of all, lemme introduce you to the idea around BrainStorm Designs.
The idea of having a design "company" (actually it's not really a company, it's more a personal brand. So from now on I'll refer to it as "the brand" or "brand" mkay??)
Lemme start over...
The idea of having a design brand came to me while I was doing my 2nd year in Web & Application Development. The initial idea was to have a company that would specialise in everything that is I.T. related. Then it grew into an internet cafè.
Then finally...
The idea evolved into a brand that would basically encompass the 'design' spectrum as a whole. Everything from designing Web sites, to posters, to clothing, to stickers to corporate branding to stationery to... blegh.. basically everything that can be considered a 'design'.
I had this big idea skecthed out on a couple sheets of printing paper. As a matter of fact, at the beginning, I used to jump out of bed in the middle of the night, grab my pages and start scribbling whatever idea I had for the 'brand'. That's how I came up with the name 'BrainStorm'. I thought It clearly described how the brand came about to becoming a reality it is today. So anyway...
The name "BrainStorm" felt a bit incomplete, so I was thinking of prefixes to add onto it. It was first "BrainStorm IT Solutions" then I found out there was already a company registered under that name. So I decided to go with "BrainStorm Incorporated". Only to find out that using the word "Incorporated" in South Africa has a certain significance to it and it's not just a word you can use all willy-nilly. So I decided to basically decided to go with "BrainStorm Designs" simply because it's easy to remember and from the onset you already know what it's about. It's a design company [brand].
So after doing all that research into the company name. It was now time for the "Designs" part of the "BrainStorm". I had to come up with an identity for my site. Something that makes you wanna click on the next link. Something that catches your attention at first glance. Something that made you wanna browse deeper than just the first 2 pages.
So I decided I'm gonna design a splash graphic for the default page. I designed the logo in Photoshop first. To get the layers, colours & blurs right before animating it. 7 layers, I exported it over to ImageReady for the animation process. 74 frames later. This is what I came up with... the image that's used on the entry page to my site!!
Now cam the next step. The layout. The structure. The skeleton of the site. Where what would be and how it would look.
I decided to go with something I hadn't seen before. Even if you have seen it somewhere before. That doesn't mean I've seen it. So. I didn't go browsing on other peoples' site for layouts. I didn't download any templates. I didn't download any Joomla thingies...
I basically sat down and sketched out the layout I had in my head onto paper. (I'm not too sure if I I still have that page. I'll flickr it soon as I find it).
From the start I wanted to create a web experience that's familiar yet different. A simple user-friendly web site. A site where you know where you are and what you're there to do. Even if it's just to browse. I wanted it to be a well structured browsing experience for the visitor.
So... a while later I had the structure I wanted. Everything on the site was to be centered. The links at the top and some quick links on the left to allow for quick browsing through the site. So you can basically navigate through the whole site withough having to move around a lot looking for the next page. The nav section asks a simple question... "Where to now?" all you have to do is, respond by clicking on either "next", "back", "up" or "home". It's that simple.
Next came the content. The meat to the skeleton. The food to the empty plate... [okay, I'm gonna stop now :) this is getting out of hand.]
In keeping with the 'Simplicity' theme. I decided not to clutter the website with useless text and stuff that the visitor cares very little about. I wanted the site to exhibit my design skills not the grammar. (Not saying there's anything wrong with the grammar or anything... :p]
The background image determined the aesthetic feel of the site. I had to keep with the (Maroon + Black + White) colours used on the splash graphic.
The reason I chose those colours is simple. Because I love maroon. No motivation behind Black really. And white because 95.6% of websites that are out there... have a black background. And the fact that I don't really trust a black background. I don't feel safe around a site with black background. There could be something installing in the background and I wont even know it.
So I wanted my site to be in a colour that didn't hide anything. Not even the site's impefections. White puts everything out in the open for all to see. so yeah... that's why I chose those colours...
ok, back to the design...
I first copied the "b+wings" from the splash graphic onto a page with a maroon+white gradient. Then placed the word 'BrainStorm' vertically on the left hand side of the image. And 'Designs' and the horizontal bottom of the image. After that was done, I figured it was still a little too quiet. So I went crazy with this ivy looking thing and placed it all over the image changing the opacity, the layer positioning, the colour maroon+white depth. And FINALLY, 17 layers later. I ended up with the current backgound image on http://www.brainstormdesigns.co.za/
So I decided to have 5 main pages (excluding the entry page, coz you only see it once).
The 5 main pages are:
- Home
- About Us (I think I need to change that to just 'About' or 'About Me'. Coz there iz no Us, just me. It's MY site after all.... mhhhmm we'll see...)
- Portfolio
- Clients
- Contact
The Home page would basically be for letting the visitor know where they are and what's happening. All the latest design projects would be place on this page. At the mo, there's the two sites I'm working on.
The About Us page is to let the user know who the hell 'Us' is. While in reality there is no 'Us'. (yeah, that's right. fool them into thinking there's a whole team working on the designs, while it's really a one man show)
Then come the fun... the Portfolio page. Under this page, there're three other pages. Basically dividing the porfolio into chewable chunks. lol. i.e. the Logos, Graphic Designs and the Web designs pages.
In the Logos page, just a few of the logo designs I've designed. (somehow that doesn't sound like proper English. The Queen wouldn't be impressed.)
And then comes my second most favourite page on the whole site (that's after the entry page). The Graphic designs page... This is where the magic happens. This is the one page I had the most difficulty 'feeding' info. I had to decide on which designs to put up here, and which not. I've decided to take it slow, and just tweak a few from the ones I have and then upload them little by little, as time goes on. So watch this page. :)
The last page in the portfolio section is the Web Designs page. It contains mini-screenshots of websites I've worked on. BrainStorm included.
The Clients page. This section also has sub-links to each of the people I've designed stuff for. Each containing a short client description, and the design brief, the concept, the tools used and the final product. Which is either a screenie, or the actual logo or whatever.
The last page is the Contact page, this is where my contact details can be found. And that's basically it.
Site overview...
I think I've successfully completed my mission. I've designed a simple website. Using a simple dash of CSS, a pinch of JavaScript, a cup of creativity, a healthy helping of imagination and a handful of pespiration.
Each page on the website contains an inspirational quote at the top. Which is related to the content that is on that particular page. It's just something I wanted to add to make the visit more pleasurable and inspirational at the same time. I've never seen that before. Until I put it on my site.
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