Playtime's Over

I recently, finally, was granted some progression on the web design job. I was given access to a separate live domain the group have, to which I have uploaded my full site for a full final review. Then, hopefully, they can populate it as they see fit, I can hand over the access information for associated 3rd party sites, they'll pay me and I can walk away from the whole thing.
The project has caused me a great deal more time, effort and stress than I anticipated and I will be relieved when it is over. Thankfully, they seem happy with the website I've created and, at the end of the day, that's all that's important.

Logo a-go-go

So, I've been working to implement the notes and suggested improvements given to me from the meeting last week.
I thought I'd throw out a little update while I have an opportunity in the middle of it all.

One of the changes is that header image/logo. The suggestion was that the sunburst was too subtle and it needed to be brought out (the consensus was make it brighter and/or yellow). So I did.

Here you can see the original logo that is currently used by the group. I believe it's an old woodcut print.

This is the original design that was pitched. As you can see the colours are all integrated with the general palette of the site itself. However the sunburst's green is very close to that of the background (although, that was intentional. It was more of a nod to the original logo design/a means of making the background less boring.)

This is the first alternate logo I drew up. One of the suggestions, aside from making the sunburst yellow, was to make the background red to match. I felt this was too bold a step, so I went for a slightly less harsh orange. However, this really offsets the light green of the font and additionally doesn't sit cohesively with the rest of the website. Perhaps changing the font colours would make this a better looking design overall, but it would still stick out on the page itself.

This is the third change I made. I am probably going to stick with this come the review. I'm still not totally happy with it, but we'll see what the board thinks. I tried switching back to the original green background with the new yellow sunburst, but it was too dark. I moved it away from blue towards a lighter green. I additionally drew some of the saturation and orange hue out of the yellow as the warmth made it quite jarring against the green - even with its adjustment. I think it makes it harder to read the font over the top and draws attention, but I don't know how much more subtle I can make it without it changing to a horrid greeny-yellow hue/switching back to the original colour.

It remains to be seen what the feedback is on the change - perhaps they will agree that the first logo was probably the best colour choice after all. Addtionally, I checked what typeface I had used for the logo, so it can potentially be used for rebranding. It's Myriad Pro - an Adobe font - commonly utilised by a number of established quality brands, including: Apple, Rolls-Royce and Google (for their Gmail logo).

Painful Progress

Finally, after an excessive amount of time, I was called in to a meeting with the board of directors to talk about the website.
At first I was expecting to just be discussing with the chairman, but walking in I was greeted by the entire board and expected to do a presentation with absolutely no prep.

It went surprisingly well, the only downside being my inarticulate explanation (literally no preparation, I swear to Moses) and accidentally clicking on nearly every dead link on the example site.
Thankfully they were all pleased and in agreement over the overall design of the site, so that means no tweaking from me and I can finally finish the bloody thing!

The only things they asked for improvement on were the main header logo. They wanted the sunburst more prominent and perhaps a change in colour to pick it out more from the rest of the site. But they liked it so much that there was talk of adapting all their letterheads and the like to match it.

Current header logo. A warmer colour palette may be in order to pick out the sun and/or highlight the whole thing.

Additionally, they also asked for a few more pages to be added to the navigation, and room to add login and member page functionality - which, at first, I thought was being asked in an attempt to trip me up. Thankfully, I kept my cool and managed to decipher what was required. Also I remembered I hadn't been briefed really on any of that, so it was hardly surprising I was taken off-guard by the request.

Hopefully, though, once I have completed these tasks it can be uploaded to the server to be populated by whoever is supplying the finished copy and photographic imagery. Then I shall be done with this whole shebang! Onto the next quest!

Website Business

This Spielplatz job is taking far longer than I anticipated. I get very little feedback on the actual site design and inundated with requests for more functionality.
I'm more versed with the visual aspects...

I've decided that progress is going to halt if I rely too heavily on the client to provide details of the original site structure and use of third party sites.
The initial plan was to recycled the original wordpress site into an RSS feed for the news and events page of the new site.
Instead I have opted to create a brand new email address as well as a Tumblr account with two blogs and a Flickr account. These will all provide the necessary feeds for the events, property listings and photo gallery respectively.
That way, the client can update these regularly shifting aspects without having to fiddle with the code or (more likely) bring me back in to tinker for them.

I'm not sure about the video page (another addition that has been requested) or the shop. I think I may just have to link to an external Youtube account. I know there is a sort of playlist/gallery embed player Youtube provides, but I don't know if that will update automatically with new uploads.
Autonomy is the name of the game here. I need something I can leave in the hands of people, whose level of computer literacy is unknown, without issue.

Meanwhile I made a massive revamp to the site (making everything far less chunky) and attempted to make it more visually stimulating.
Once again I am awaiting feedback...

Still not sure about the colour, though I changed it a bit, especially now as a sun is involved.

Spiel Updates

It has been some time since I first spoke of my work on the new website for Spielplatz. It took a considerable amount of time for me to receive the go-ahead on the site, and once I did I was incapacitated with illness for a couple of weeks.
Nonetheless I am now full steam ahead with the project.

Unfortunately for me, I cannot seem to build the ideas that are within my head. The current version of the site-in-progress follows the initial plan I drew up well enough, but it doesn't match the vision in my mind.
I'm not sure as yet how I'm going to get there. But I shall try.

I also have very limited resources and a completely open brief as regards what is required. I am literally making decisions as wild stabs in the dark with the hope that what I produce will please the client. It doesn't please me, though.
Having said that, as I include more elements into the skeleton it starts to look less heinous and more like a proper website.
The unfortunate fact that a lot of it is feed-based means I'm hovering around deciding whether or not to just build the feeds myself and hand over the keys, or leave them open ready to discuss the idea with the client.
At the moment the homepage has a Yahoo news feed as a placeholder for Spielplatz event updates.

The iffy skeleton of a website I could one day not despise.

 I don't know why it's so green. I think I was going for "verdant". I might swap it to something more neutral. But I'm afraid the client will think it's "bland". "Interesting" and "exciting" were the closest to instructions I got. Also a tour of naturism websites.
Of course you remember the hideous yellow of the current website... I really hope I don't have to do it that colour.

Playtime

I was recently presented with the opportunity to redesign the official website for Spielplatz, a naturist community residence in Hertfordshire. The existing design left little to be desired - a basic Wordpress template layout, haphazardly thrown together:

The original website design, in all it's limited glory.

After an initial meeting with the site's webmaster - wherein we discussed the shortfalls of the current layout and compared it the websites of competing UK naturist clubs - I laid out some preliminary ideas and notions.
I drew up a basic layout plan for the homepage (which will also be used as a template for subsequent pages) and investigated the feasibility of some of the proposals.

Annotated layout design for the new homepage

Proposed features of the new design include: a large carousel gallery showcasing the surroundings at the grounds, a feed-based event widget showing the latest upcoming event being held, drop-down menu navigation buttons, more prominent location details and integrated feeds covering news, events, photos and properties for sale - each of which should be updateable independantly of the main site itself (not pictured).

At this stage I am awaiting feedback on these initial designs before I progress to further page design and a prototype build.