Blog 3: Guy Harvey vs. Salt Life

 

Two competing brands such as Guy Harvey and Salt Life rely on many things for growth but mainly with web promotion. Each website can determine whether a viewer stays interested in a brand by its format, structure, accessibility, hierarchal scale, theme and over all feel. I will illustrate and define both Guy Harvey and Salt Life’s website and determine whether they are visually interesting, organized, useable and easily relatable.

Guy Harvey is a world-renowned painter, biologist and conservationist. He paints mainly marine life among other animals and plants. When entering the Guy Harvey homepage there is a beautiful painting at the top of a Swordfish and squid, which is visually interesting and intriguing. The whole page is composed of shades of blues and white text.  On the left side of the homepage is a picture of Dr. Harvey and his signature on top.  In hierarchical order from top to bottom is a reminder about Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation fundraiser in white text, kind of out of place in my opinion. Below is a series of tabs beginning with home, shop, video, and news, about Guy Harvey, Ocean Foundation, partners and friends. I think that a lot of those tabs could be compressed down into categories within a few of the tabs to save space and overwhelming the viewer with too many options. Below the tabs is the Swordfish and squid painting then a Guy Harvey video touching on facts about the ocean, his donations to research, etc. On the side of the main video are six other videos. Once again very overwhelming and busy. I think one video with maybe 2 on the side would have sufficed rather than six. On the far right is an ad promoting Guy Harvey clothing, license plates, and other merchandise. Below that are three other ads categorized in “News and Events” recounting safari photos, Guy Harvey magazine and Cayman Islands trip. I feel that the placement of this was a poor decision. It is very small, cannot be seen easily and has more importance over other things on the page. Back to the middle of the page at the very bottom are more links to view Guy Harvey related travel destinations and merchandise. On the far left underneath his self portrait there are even more links such as appearance schedule and mobile express. There are quick links to his artwork and books as well. Another aspect of this page I find beneficial is the Eco-Links such as Facebook, twitter, flicker etc.

Overall the message that Guy Harvey is trying to get across is not reaching its viewer. Everything else is distracting the viewer from the real purpose of this site, which is save our oceans, help the seas, donate to marine research and support by buying our products. This layout is clashing, hierarchal order is not correct based on what’s more important than others, way too many tabs and unfortunately this page seems more like an ad page. If they were to limit links and tabs and condense a lot down I feel that this page would be more successful.

When I click on a link such as news I am brought to a more organized and simplified page. At the very top is another painting serving a decorative purpose that is successful. Below are a few tabs home, about, and join the Guy Harvey Ocean Society. Underneath the tabs begins the immense lists of news article after news article. It’s organized by most recent but then goes on forever, which can be a little irritating to the viewer. This page has a very cleanliness feel and works besides the crazy amount of articles not being organized into tabs or folders.

In general, the Guy Harvey web designer needs to take into consideration all types of viewers knowledge of website navigation, limiting the tabs, the links and work on hierarchal order.

Salt Life’s web page is very inviting with flash player imagery and vibrant colors. Just like Guy Harvey this webpage relates more ad page then web page. At the top there are tabs such as shop, fish, dive, surf, beach, team and salt life girls. Below are flash player imagery of posed beach shots, surfing, islands and basically very coastal pictures. Below are 3 ads starting with Facebook information and shout outs to fans. Next is another promo for the brand and deal of the week on merchandise. Below those three ads continues a series of ten ads relating to merchandise, food, salt life girls, surf, dive etc. I don’t think it was necessary to make all those ads when they are listed at the top in tabs. At the very bottom of the page are promo codes, sign up to get special updates and offer and join.  Overall this page is very picture orientated with vivacious colors. The structure of this page is very box like, big, and bulky.

When I clicked on a tab such as beach it brings me to the same tabs at the top then a picture of the ocean and a girl standing in it. Below is once again the Facebook and fan shout out then on the side a flash player. On the far right are a series of clothing merchandise. Back to the middle of the page there is a blog spot, then a box on where Salt Life began. At the bottom of the page there are two ads promoting their stickers and YouTube link.

Over all I think that yes this site is visually interesting based on all the images and vibrant colors but would not be easily readable or relatable to all age groups. The structure and organization is better than Guy Harvey’s but generally still very similar.

In complete, the colors that were chosen for these sites (especially Guy Harvey) I think depends on the brand but could have used revising. I know that in chapter 1 of Above the Fold choosing such a dominant color could be based on either poor design or for brand guidelines and research. The headers on both were visually interesting but just worked as decorative purposes. The navigation for Salt Life was simpler to work around than the Guy Harvey site because of less tabs and overwhelming information. The placement of navigation on both worked well. The feature area for Guy Harvey’s imagery and content was not in hierarchal order but Salt Life is. There is no distinct focal point in Guy Harvey’s page but in Salt Life’s there is the constant imagery. As for body and content there is an overwhelming amount in Guy Harvey’s page and not efficiently organized. In Salt Life there is not that much information, its more of a visual page rather than informational. There really wasn’t much of an anything other than visuals for the footer. The background on Guy Harvey is solid blue and Salt Life a beachy grass almost.

In conclusion despite minor fixes to their sites I love and appreciate both companies messages towards oceanic life and there overall depiction through art and photography.

Grid Studys

http://guyharvey.com/

http://www.saltlife.com/

Blog 2: Typography is its Own Species

Blog 2: Typography is its Own Species

“Legitima”, A Practical Case Study

“A PRACTICAL CASE STUDY, Legitima Typeface: An Experience Of Fossils And Revivals” by César Puertas is an article about the comparison and expansion of old and new typefaces over time. There is much correlation between typefaces and species. Typefaces are like species they need to adapt to their environment and enhance their performance to make sure they don’t become extinct. The difference between new and old typefaces is that one is not in fashion anymore and the other is. Sometimes the old or “vintage” typefaces can be in style longer than others because of their appealing and unique look. This article discusses revitalizing a typeface, studying and reconstructing before it was almost lost in time. César Puertas calls this process Legitima.

Since César Puertas was a boy he was fascinated in paleontology and the study plus the reconstruction of dinosaur bones. When he starting becoming interested in typeface design he saw the resemblance between the reconstruction of bones and construction of a typeface. A typeface to him is like a skeletal. Both time and evolution have created different types of dinosaurs according to their bones, as do typefaces. Looking back in time at different typefaces the comparison in structure from then to now can be studied and considered for new typeface designs.

A book called La Cicceide Legitima by Giovanni Francesco Lazzareli is a book of poems that contained its own unique and attractive typeface. César Puertas decided to restore this book of poems vintage typeface and save from being lost.

First step was to analyze the book itself. The book seemed to have been printed around 1694 in a print shop named “Herz” in Venice. The book consists of 228 pages, highly absorbent paper, 9 signatures, a careless print job and etc.

“The history of a typeface is incomplete without some consideration of the context in which it was used.” (Puertas, http://www.smashingmagazine.com)

That quote brings me to step two the “Historical Context” of a typeface. This book was produced in the 17^th century otherwise known as the Baroque Period. Depending on the cultural influence or economy and even philosophy at a certain time can all affect the design of a typeface?

Then step three is analyzing the typeface itself. What are the locations of the crossbars, thickness of strokes, serifs, optical weight, text settings, etc?

After those three steps then it is possible to reconstruct a vintage typeface and introduce itself to the new.    

Overall the whole composition of a typeface depends on mutation and adaptation to its atmosphere.

 

 

Is Web Design 95% Typography?

IS WEB DESIGN 95% TYPOGRAPHY? One More Time: Typography Is The Foundation Of Web Design, by Paul Scrivens, is an article that discusses what the secret to Web design is and if it is purely based on typography.

One of the questions posed in this article is the theory that Web Design is 95% typography or is it not? One of the arguments is if web design is purely operated around typography then why not just study and understand the elements and fundamentals of typography?

My opinion is yes typography is a design but only one kind of design. Referencing back to my last article summary, typography is one bone but not the same as the rest. In web design I believe you need all elements and fundamentals of different kind of designs to make up the skeleton of a piece of work. With just one bone you cant build the rest of the skeletal. But even within one bone there are numerous tissues that make up that bone that makes the whole bodywork. Typography is not just choosing a font that looks good in a design, it is also the skills to acquire it in a design and use it properly. With web design typography cannot act on its own, it needs visuals to draw a reader in. If you take away the visuals to an art website (like society6.com) will just the typography get the message across? No. Therefore typography cannot act on its own in web design or the web design would not be successful.

 

Anthropologie.com has a great use of typography and imagery incorporated into one another. I choose this website because of the look and feel. The color scheme is warm and welcoming and the typeface chosen is balanced and trendy.

Roxy.com has a cool color scheme and also a balanced use of typography. I like the slender forms of type in this layout; it gives the feel of a clean refreshing look. It is simplistic and functional. Each of these websites seems to have the same concept of incorporating imagery and type into one another but in a minimalistic way. Each of the websites have that young, trendy, free, environmental feel to them. They both apply their texts to the structure of their theme by describing how water (Roxy) or forest/farm like (Anthropologie) would look in a typeface. Anthropologie uses a mix of typefaces such as typewriter and a fixed width font. Roxy.com uses a fixed width font as well and a serif.

 

The differences between setting type for print and web is that each has different structures you have to accommodate to. Print you have margins and one structure with a header and folios. Web you have a series of different layouts with placement in relation to topic, imagery and location of each. In web everything should have a balanced composition with numerous elements where as in print its more simplistic because if it’s a book then it start from title page, contents to story. Web you have tabs leading to all kinds of places across the site. I do not believe type should be set for web because then I feel its too limiting. Being able to set type freely anywhere according to style or preference is what makes a web page. There could be restrictions for setting type for web based on how much room or space there is to work with.       

The benefits of using @font-faces are its use of similar styles in the family to keep rhythm along with web fonts as well. Also using common fonts can make them more accessible.