ACS Creative- Washington DC's Premier Design and Marketing Firm

This website was design by ACS Creative- Washington DC's Premier Design & Marketing Firm. They did this website for their client DC Aikido, which is a Japanese Martial Arts Studio located in Washington D.C. This firm includes services from branding, logos, web design and development, print design, and many more. I am in a web page design class right now. I am doing research on different web pages and design firms. I never heard of this firm until today. This firm is less than 2 hours from where I live, so that’s good. I like the background in the header. They get right to the point by putting a big red bar in the header that says "What's Aikido?" I think that's a good idea because if I heard of that/saw it I would have no clue what it meant. I like how they have a featured video on the left side. One of my websites that I designed has a featured story, but it would be neat if it was a featured video. I also like how they have "Ready to Begin" next to the video because if someone wanted to sign up they wouldn't have to look hard to find it. I'm not sure how I feel about the bamboo footer. I like it because it does remind me of Japan, but I don't think it really ties in to the rest of the page. They carried out the red and black color scheme throughout the page, which is good. I think this website has continuity for the most part.

Catering Website

 

I am in a web design class. I have already created 3 websites, but now I need to put them in Dreamweaver. I have to make some changes on my websites, so I am still looking at other websites to get inspiration. I really like this website. It's a catering website in Ashburn, VA. I usually don't like the color green, but I love it on this website. It is a very soft and elegant green. I also like the 4 curved lines. They have one under the title which leads to the phone number, another one in the header, one below the tabs leading to the information in the body, and another at the bottom acting like a footer. I think these curved lines are a great idea because it leads the eye to certain information and it ties the page together. I like the tabs being on the side instead of the top. I think it works in this design. I also like the 2 pictures they have on the home page showing people what they can create. The only thing I would change on this website is the font. I like the font for the title and the tabs, but I don't like it for the address/phone number on the right side. It's a little hard to read the address and phone number in that font. I think they should choose a different font or even bring in the font in the body area up to the contact information. I like the low opacity food picture in the header, but I don't like the utensils. I think the utensils look too cartoonish and they should just get rid of them. Overall, I really like this website. I would just change a few things.

Andy Goldsworthy's Website

http://www.ucblueash.edu/artcomm/web/w2005_2006/maria_Goldsworthy/TEST/index.html

This is Andy Goldsworthy website (home page). I think his website is a little too simple, but maybe that's what he was going for. The home page is a little plain. I think it needs some color or a textured background. I like that there is a quote by him at the bottom of the home page. I like that he uses his artwork as icons for his 5 different tabs. I feel like his home page has a lot of empty space, especially on the right-hand side (can't really see that on this picture, but you can on his acutal website). I like his artwork, but I don't really like his website that much. I am in a class called Intro to Web Page Design and I am learning how to create/design websites. I just finished designing a basic band, car, and sports memoriabilia website.

Daniel Essig's Website

http://danielessig.com/

This is Daniel Essig's website. He is an artist. He creates wood-covered art books and book-based sculptures. I think he did a good job designing his home page. I like how he has a little bio about himself. I also like how he has pictures to the side that change about every 2 seconds. I think it's a good idea for him to showcase some of his work on the home page. I like his header. I like how it's off centered. He his a collection of different nature items in boxes as the picture and then he has his name and subtitle to the left-hand side. I also think the gray background works well with his homepage. I just finished designing 3 basic websites for my into to web page class. I am still looking at other websites to see what other people have designed. His website uses a more advance 2 column body area because he has text on the left side and pictures on the right side that change.Overall, I think this is a well-designed website

Boston Interactive and The American Humane Association Website

http://www.bostoninteractive.com/portfolio/AHA

"The American Humane Association partnered with Boston Interactive to design a website that encourages user interaction with both the site and the organization." I can't get the actually image on here, but I posted a link to the page that shows the home page of the website that they designed. I love the design of the home page. It has a very soft and calm feel to it. I like the colors that they used on the home page. They used mainly blue and then for different tabs they used brown, red, and green. I also like that they used pictures of animals and children on the home page. I noticed that they put the title and the hash tag on the left side of the header. I think they did that because people read from left to right, so the title would be the first thing they read. This website has continuity on the home page and throughout the rest of the website. Boston Interactive used user experience design, information architecture, website development, online donation, online advocacy, content migration, and convio CMS. I am designing 3 basic websites for my intro to web design class. This website has given me some inspiration of what to do when I am designing my website. 

Cnomania Website (Fun website)

This is the band Cnomania. Two people from the band designed this website. Gianluca De Santi helped design the website because he is a talented graphic designer and he also plays percussion in the band. I'm not sure what most of the stuff says because it's in a different language, but that doesn't matter too much. I really like their header. I like how they have a collection of photos and ripped paper up top. It is like a collage and I think that's different. I like how they made some of the photos look like they came out of a polarized camera. They have a basic 2 column body area. I know my teacher doesn't like side bars, but I see no problem with side bars. I like that they have a side bar. This is a fun website. This website seems to fit the band. I listened to a few of their songs and their songs seem fun and upbeat. This website seems a little girly for me, probably because when I think of collages and scrap booking I think of girls, but I know guys can do that too. This band is made up of 4 guys. I like how the have a calendar of events under the sidebar. I also like how they have news on the right side. I think it's a good idea that they put their e-mail address at the top, so people can see it right away if they need to contact them. I also like how their background is supposed to be a bulletin board and they have a few thumb tacks around the page acting like they are holding up the papers. This website definitely has continuity. I am designing a band website for my intro to web page design class. I took the idea of having a group of band pictures in the header for one of my thumbnails. I like this website because it's fun and simple.   

Wim Delvoye's Website

http://www.wimdelvoye.be/

This is Wim Delvoye's website. He is a Belgian neo-conceptual artist known for his inventive and often shocking projects... At first this website looks really cool. I do like that this website is interactive and it's like a Sims game, but other than that this website is horrible!! He even has a billboard looking thing saying WIM City, so I think his inspiration for this website was Sim City. He also stole the font of Coke and Disney, which I don't think he is aloud to do. First off,  this website doesn't even have anything about the "artist". It doesn't have a bio about him or where he is from or why he does this art, which is not a good thing (or if it does I can't find it). If someone is doing a website about their own artwork they have to have some kind of bio about themselves. His website is very hard and annoying to navigate through. You have to stay (scroll on) on the grass if you just want to look at the overall site. If you don't stay on the grass and you are just looking through the site, but you don't actually click on any of the buildings then it will pick the last building that your mouse went over and open that up. His website is very strange and confusing. None of the buildings make sense and he spelt a lot of things wrong. His website also takes a while to load. I am in a web design class and I have to design 3 basic websites. The websites can't be too complicated or have any big pictures because that will make the website slower to load. This website shows me what not to do when I am designing my website. I do not like the artist of this website. Most of his work that he calls art is not art at all!! He thinks tattooing pigs is art when actually it's illegal, inhumane, and is just plain wrong (it is also not art)! The art work in the building labeled "Cloaca" (Coca Cola font) is not even in the same category has art. I hope people are entertained by looking through his website. His website is not designed well at all.

Cookie Website

 This is The Famous 4th Street Cookie website. I really like the colors and typography on this website. This website fits perfectly for a cookie business. The header is simple and clean. I like that they have their logo on the left side and then their tabs to the right of that. I think it's smart to have the title/logo on the left side because people read from left to read. I love their homepage. I like the picture of the 2 cookies. I like that they have 3 other tabs saying more about their business below the picture of the cookies.  I also like how they have popular cookies, staff favorites and popular assortments at the bottom. I think that gives people an idea about their different cookies and what's popular. I also like that their footer is a darker brown than the home page color because it blends in. I can tell that they didn't want their footer to stand out and distract from the rest of the page or they would have put it in white. I usually don't like the color brown for websites, but it works well for this website because it's a cookie website. I am designing 3 different websites for my intro to web class. This website gives me some ideas. I think this website is well designed.

Avenged Sevenfold Website

This is the official Avenged Sevenfold website. It looks very Halloweenish. Their website does have continuity throughout the page, which is good. Most websites have their navigation below the title, but this one has it above their title. I think it works well with the navigation being at the very top because it's different. I think their band name is a little big. I think it jumps out too much. People will definitely know what website their are at though. I like that they have a orange bar across the page with their new album- Carry On. They are promoting their new album on their page, which I think is a great idea. Their website has the basic 2 column design. I like that they have News on one side and a Stay Updated on the other side. I think it's great that they are trying to get people to stay connected to them through email and mobile devices. I also like their background. They have a picture, but it's not distracting when people get to the body of the website. Overall I think this is a decent designed website.    I have to design a basic band website, so I am looking at band websites for inspiration.  

German Car Website

This is car website I found on Google and it's in German. It's not an actual website, but it is a real place. Fahrschule Kriege is a driving school in Germany. A 19 year old man made this website and I believe he is a graphic design student. I am currently design 3 basic websites; a band, a ravens memorabilia, and a car website. I am looking at various car websites to see if I can get any inspiration and this on caught my eye. The first thing that caught my eye was the header. I love the picture and the layout up top. I like how they put the name of the website on a billboard. I also like how the road is coming at the audience and there are several different vehicles coming toward the audience. I think having a night time setting versus a day time setting is more dramatic and I think it works well. I noticed that the header flows into the rest of the background. It was a top header with 5 different tabs. It also looks like the body area is broken up into 2 sections. It looks like on the left section there is some information about the place. On the right section there is the name of the school, a picture of a possible car that they would use at the school, and more information. It's a fairly simple layout design, but I think it works well. The picture up top looks a little cartoonish, but they are probably trying to appeal to a younger audience. It might look a little better with real cars instead of illustrated ones.  

Kasabian's Website

 This is the band Kasabian website. Their website is actually different now, so this must have been an older version. I am in Intro to Web Page Design and right now I have to design 3 basic websites. One of the websites I have to design is a band website. I found out yesterday that websites have a certain layout/design and this website looked closely related to the layout that I have to follow. My website has to have a header, a navigation (preferably up top), the body area, and a footer. This website put their band name and a picture in the header. I think the picture is too busy to be put in the header, but it probably fits the band. They put their navigation up top and they have 10 tabs. Their white type is a little hard to read against their busy background. It also looks like people can choose different languages by clicking on their country's flag icon. I am supposed to design my website by having 2 columns (body left and body right) and it looks like this website has 3 columns. I like that they have their news, audio/video, networks, images, and music on the home page. I don't like how their information is put in big white boxes. I don't think it flows well with the rest of the page. I think the information is jumping out too much. I am also supposed to have some sort of background in my websites. I learned that backgrounds are supposed to be a darker color since dark colors/black goes backwards. Kasabian's website does have a darker background, but their background is a picture and I think it is way too busy. It distracts me from the rest of the page. I don't really like this website because I think that it doesn't have continuity, the background is too busy, and information jumps off the page too much. It does follow the basic web design layout, but I don't think this website is well-designed. I think this website needs some work.