Navigation/Architecture
The homepage has a primary navigation including "Home", "Portfolio", "Blog" and "Contract", and a pipeline at the bottom. In "Home", there are secondary navigation "News" and "Flicker" show as two columns. "Portfolio" displays Alex's work, "Blog" links to his articles related to every artwork, "About" is his biography and "Contact" shows his address, telephone and email. These groups make sense. I think it is designed like this because Alex wants people to focus on his work and himself.
When I click every link, there is a little black arrow below it so I know where I am. The prime navigation is always on the top when I switch between subpages except "Blog" which links to his Blogger so the format changes. But he makes a link called "Alex Dukal Portfolio" connecting to his homepage on the right menu bar so I can go back to his website.
This website has a flat structure. I can access any page within the site. I think it is a good design because it is simple and clear. People may get tired if the structure is too deep.
Content/Typography
The hierarchy of the typography is apparent. All links in navigation systems are bold in order to separate them from content text. Also, "Alex Dukal" has larger size and "Illustrator" use Italian to be more highlight. Generally speaking, the labels of the navigation are clear, only "About" is not clear enough, I would like it to be "About me" or "Biography".
Grid/Structure
The structure of the pages "Home", "About" and "Contact" are the same. They are divided into two parts evenly, which looks like an opened book. "Portfolio" page has three evenly parts and Blog has two uneven parts (I think this is due to the restriction of Blogger format). But the whole style keep consistent in all the pages. All the backgrounds have the same texture, also the font and color system.
Take "Home" page as an example, I think the focal point is the artwork picture right below the primary navigation. I first notice it because of its large size and center position.
Iconography/Imagery
Since the goal of this website is to show people Alex's artwork, there are many images in this website. I think the number of image is fine. There is an arrow symbol in the right side of the big picture on homepage. I think this symbol is simple but clear. After click it, I can enter the "Portfolio" page, which is the most important part of this website.
Color Palette
In "About" page, there are four colors: white, brown, black and light steelblue(I'm not sure how to describe this color shown in background :S). Black and brown is to separate Alex's image and navigation system from text content. White and light steelblue combine with each other to represent the background. I think these colors are chosen because of the special artistic character of this illustrator.
Site Focus
The objective of this site is to show Alex Dukal himself to the world, including his biography, work and news. I think the most useful part of this site is the "Portfolio" page. We can browse all Alex's work by clicking thumbnails. The only thing I would improve for this page is to separate these thumbnails in different pages and use arrow to guide people switch among them so that people don't need to scroll down this long page to see the image at the bottom.
1 comment:
Woow! Thank you so much!
Your observation is right, the Blog wasn't designed as part of the main site, maybe in a near future.
Kind regards
Alex
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