The Lynx Effect

As my research project was about Flash and the way it is used, i have always been on the look out for companies using Flash. I came across the lynx website and found they have used Flash to create a sort of online game to promote Lynx 3.

I think this mini game is amazing! it uses just the right amount of animation, its not loud or obvious or in your face, its just very subtle.

They have also used flash video to amazing effect, and the viewer is even able to determine with video is played. This is another good aspect, they have got the amount of user interaction just right, its not asking the viewer to do too much, yet it makes the viewer want to keep interacting to see what each video entails.

Even though this may not be very "accessible", look at it! it looks stunning and is really fun to interact with! awesome!

First Paying Client!

I have just received a brief to produce a website for a woman who has an acupuncture business!. this will be my first paying client, and hopefully this will lead to more work in the future. This will also be a fantastic way to increase my portfolio of work!

SaltRock Productions

I have finally settled on what i am doing next year. I am going to be part of saltrock productions. I will be the web department for the company. I will be creating and maintaining the saltrock website as well as producing high quality websites for clients.

I can also work closely with the video production department, as many clients will want their videos online. We are hoping we can provide clients with a complete package, and hopefully branch into creating whole company indents and branding solutions.

more rigging!

Once again. i have been around wav to help set up for our final year exhibition!. All is going well, and as you can see we are all having a great time!

exhibition

i have created some posters to advertise the exhibition, these will hopefully be going in bonnington, wav, varsity and the orange tree. The design is made up of all the students mug shots with the mmo8 logo and the fingerprint underneath, ill hopefully get a small file size version so i can stick it up on my blog!

rigging

its the first day of helping rig up our final year exhibition today. iv been helping clear out wav 206 all morning and we seem to be making alot of head way, this afternoon we are painting all the boards which will edge the whole room, hopefully we will be ready on time!!

light box - cool!!!

I have recently discovered a visually stunning and very usable way to display images on the web. Im thinking that this would look very sexy on my online portfolio which i am currently building!

It is called lightbox. It is created using javascript and basically makes ur images really stand out and makes any website using it look very slick!

if you click on a thumb nail image, it usually brings up a larger version of the picture in a new browser window. But with the genius that is lightbox, when a thumb nail is clicked on, the main web page fades into the background and a box animates onto the screen in which a larger version of the picture will appear!

As well as this being a much more aesthetically pleasing way of adding images to a website, it also makes it much more usable, as the user is not directed away from the main page they are on, as it can still be seen in the background, and at a simple click of one button, the image disappears and the back moves back into the foreground!

so far my attempts have been pretty sucessful at using this technique, and i will be sure to post my progress!

art inspiration

As i have said in previous posts i am very interested in art, and am a keen artist myself.

Since i have been creating contemporary art i have taken lots of inspiration, techniques and ideas from exhibitions and artists work i have viewed.

One artist i have admired for many years is John Lowrie Morrison, a scotch artist who's work is very vivid and vibrant. His work is very expressionist, due to the semi abstract feel to all of his work. Below are some of my favorite pieces.

david merson/ artist

as well as my enthusiasm and passion for digital media and design, i am also very pasionate about contemporary art and have produced and sold many canvases. I feel the two are very closely linked and i try and incorporate my skills and talents as an artist into the digital media i produce.

The skills i have acquired at NTU have also enabled me to start creating a website dedicated to displaying and selling my art work.

Below are some examples of my art i have produced for leisure and clients.

salt rock productions website

i have also used my web design skills to produce a website for fellow multimedia students who have a production company called salt rock productions. This website was built to advertise an event that they put on at the nottingham trent students union, which was a big success. The website promoted the 3 bands which played at the event with links to the band homepages as well as promotional material and information about the event.

i have found that it has been very beneficial to undertake these small web projects for people, as it has given me problems to solve which i would maybe not have encountered in my university projects, therefor increased my technical knowledge and understanding in the online field and vastly improved the way i build websites!

logo design

i also have an interest in graphic design and brand identity. A friend of mine recently asked me to design for him a logo for his production company called crystal vision productions. He wanted an image that portrayed class, sophistication and something that included an image of an eye in some form or another. This is the final design i presented to him, it is designed in photoshop

external work

as well as my university projects. i have been creating a website to display and sell my art work which i have been producing for some years. this website is designed in html and css.

progress as of late has been slow for this project though as i have had imposing deadline for my final year projects

client project icons

now the main coding of my website is nearing completion, i am now focusing on the flash content of the website, which will provide information on certain aspects of the websites services to the viewer. i have designed some icons in photoshop, which have been vectorised in flash. Thses icons will act as clickable links to view specific bits of information.

below are two out of the five icons that will be used

client project

my final design for my client project has had to be changed once again due to my clients immediate family not liking the colour scheme of the design, so unfortunately i had to go back to the drawing board to create a new design, this has now been finished and shown to my client( and family) and has now been finalized!! this design has now been coded in html and i have now linked all my php code in with the html design. I am now testing the main content of the website for bugs and glitches. below is the design which has been coded