Finished OutdoorSyndicator.com

Hey there friends and foes - I finished OutdoorSyndicator.com - I feel like it's looking pretty good - there are some spots that are weaker than others, but the site owner is putting in more and more content as time passes.

I especially happy with the fact it was all powered by Wordpress (PHP/CSS) - which was quite a task for me as I haven't worked with PHP very much until recently.

The Flash header also came out very well - feel free to leave critique or comments or anything -- not that anyone reads this fucking this anyway ;)

Right now - I'm still working on Zherpa and I'm revamping my home page so it will be powered by wordpress so it will be easier to update (yay!)

That's it for now,

- Andrew

It's been busy!

Hey blog - things have been super-cal-a-fuck-alistic busy for the last month or so - after signing up for guru.com work just started pouring in.

I'll give a quick rundown of what I'm doing now:

I'm working on 2 different sites, one is: www.outdoorsyndicator.com - the page is currently password protected as I am working on it but here is the password for now: Ransu007

- This project has been a little crazy. I originally thought it would be a simple, static page when I was designing it. Little did I know - he wanted the site powered by Wordpress - with the design I made. The problem with that is, I had never used Wordpress before let alone make a fully custom theme - AND it's all in PHP which I was only vaugely familiar with, HA! Anyways - I got everything working and in Wordpress, which is very exciting because now I KNOW Wordpress and feel confident that I can use it as a CMS (Content Management System) for other clients - it's free and works VERY well, and it's simple for a client to use!
Also, this site has a totally flash header which was a blast to create in as3 - I learned a couple things from doing it - like the best way to make a drop-down menu - go to the company or info links to see the dropdown

I'm also working on another site called: Zherpa - I can't talk about this product too much because it's not out/copywritten - but you will get the idea from some of the screenshots I've posted of the design.


Outdoorsyndicator Designs:
The design we're using:


A design we didn't use




Zherpa Design:

Banners - Interesting Banners

I did 30 banners for a company: 7witches.com

They are a strange subject matter, but a lot of fun to work on! here are some of them.

Design Revalations

I just signed up for guru.com to look for more freelance/contract design work. It's been two days and as I browse the competition I get a lot of ideas and a really good idea of what is making real money out in the field today.

I have found the following sites of designers who do fantastic work:

kit10designs.com
zallas.com

I have decided that my portfolio needs more specific design samples. For example there are a lot of leads for work for real estate business, and they generally want specific examples of work in the field. This holds true for a number of different fields, so I will start making full sites in the fields of largest demand to put into my portfolio.

That's it for now!

New Design Portfolio Site, UP!

Hey, I put up my design portfolio site - it's better than the last one, but I'm still not 100% satisfied. I just did some work on figuring out how to make "fluid flash" layouts for a page, (see last post) and I think I'm going to re-design the page, AGAIN, to fit the whole browser. That gives a lot of new, exciting design possibilities!

here is the new site:

ArtbyAndrew.com

Full Page Flash

I Just did a bit of research and work to figure out how to make flash objects re-position with window size, so I can effectively have a "full-window" flash page!

Here is the example I worked on!

Scale the window to see the effect.

Another Design Job

Hey there kiddies - I've been working a bit on another design job, this one is for a non-profit group called USArtists - Let me know what you all think!

Click here for design

Zoom in on the design to full size it when viewing for best quality

Some current work

Here is some work I am doing for a client Help Desk Mechanics. I hope some of this work (when completed) will be good enough to go in to my portfolio. I am also in the process of re-designing my web site, you will all see that when it is complete.

Here are 3 designs samples for the client mentioned above:





Click to enlarge, of course. Enjoy!

p.s. Please leave any critique.

Art 450 requirements

Hey Miles, this one is for you! *pound's chest twice, kisses finger and points up* - or something.

Here is my completed criteria, numbered, in order, for your viewing pleasure -

0. Working title is Portfolio Amelioration
1. Here's the blog.
2. Posted a comment to your blog, a lovely one (my blog is prettier than yours, I'm sorry, it's true).
3. I'm the first one to comment for the 450 class, but I will put my link on classmate's pages. I swear...
4. My project proposal -

One sentence proposal -

I propose to complete 20 to 30 outstanding design pieces (web, print and identity) that will go into my portfolio located at: www.ArtbyAndrew.com

One paragraph proposal -

I propose to complete 20 to 30 outstanding design pieces. These pieces will be print, identity and web, with an emphasis on the latter. Once a design piece is completed it will go through a scrupulous grading process delineated by myself but performed by a group of individuals to be sure that I am putting only the best quality work into my professional portfolio.

One page(ish) proposal -

As a term long project I propose that I continue work on my web-based design portfolio. The work displayed there will directly relate to my ability to obtain work, weather it be contract work for individual clients, or being hired on to a company that I hand a resumé in to.

For a project like this I have to structure myself quite well as it could be open-ended. My goal is to have a portfolio that I can show to anyone and receive the same reaction: “wow”. The portfolio also needs to meet my own very high design standards and be comparable to any and all design portfolios that I am able to find anywhere on the web. I will not be the only one evaluating my own work. I will create a small group of individuals that will look at my work and “grade” it based on a specific list of design-specific criteria and a scoring guide (list and guide to come).

By the end of the term I am to have between 25 and 32 completed design pieces. They will break down as follows: 10-12 full web page designs, 2-6 fully functional and active | 7-10 identity pieces | 8-10 print pieces.

I will need to look at a great deal of other designers work, so my main source will be: www.coolhomepages.com - where tons of links to fantastic pages can be found - my source of inspiration. I will also look at the work of renowned designers such as: Shepard Feiry.

I will make a specific schedule to guide myself that will be completed by next class meeting, April 9th. By this date I will also have the criteria list and scoring guide as well as a hand-picked group of individuals to “grade” the work going into my portfolio. The group will include two people who know very little about design principals and two people who are experienced and versed in design principals as well as myself. If the “grades” don't add up to be a certain number (to be decided) then it will not go in my design portfolio, or will be modified and re-tested.

Whew, that's a long post!

Time line is yet to come. I need to complete a few more pieces before I make something solid. This will be done before the end of Friday.

Over and out.

The start of a new Blog

Hey people, Miles, anyone... are you there? HELLO?! ANYONE?!

Oh hi - just thought I'd open up the blog to see how everything is looking, believe it or not, this is my 1st, yes 1st blog in the history of Drew-kind.

I'll be posting my Art 450 material next, actually within minutes, so, I'll see you soon.