Constant Evaluation – Looking at Connotations

I did some research and found out that the film studios for the adult industry are based in different locations. http://tinyurl.com/ydda544 I tried different photos at different stages through the project. I thought I would try this picture:

http://www.sixt.de/fileadmin/files/global/modules/branch/US/miami.jpg

I thought it would look great but when I tried it out in Muse, it didn’t work. The bottom of the picture was fine, as shown below but as soon as you scrolled up there was too much blank blue sky. Although there were no particularly problematic connotations, it still didn’t work well.

I really like this picture of Las Vegas but it is so flashy and eye-catching I decided to swap it with another one. I didn’t want people to think the site was about what Las Vegas is famous for i.e gambling, shows, hotels, clubs.

http://www.mrwallpaper.com/wallpapers/las-vegas-strip.jpg

The tutor and I agreed that this picture did not have any particularly problematic connotations. I really like this picture but I decided to swap it with another. I made this decision after receiving feedback from the tutor about looking for photos with people in them. The tutor said that since the site is about a union it should have people in at least some of the photos.

http://www.mrwallpaper.com/wallpapers/Railway-Los-Angeles.jpg

I liked this photo but again there are no people in it and its meanings are too wide. This photo could be about a plethora of things; hiking, plants, weather or geology.

http://best-wallpaper.net/wallpaper/2560×1600/1211/Nevada-desert-rocks-mountains-red-rock-canyon_2560x1600.jpg

The other problem I noticed was that when only the bottom half of the photo was showing it just looked like a bunch of dried up, dying weeds. So the photo had to go.

Since the tutor and I wanted to see more people in the design, I put this picture in.

http://www.creativeplanetnetwork.com/the_wire/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/DKelson_Hi.jpg

I decided to swap this photo for another since I feel like the man in the picture might be mistaken for a representative or leader. I think it’s the fact that the man is making direct eye contact that gives off the wrong connotations. I don’t want the viewer to want to ask ‘who is that?‘ I need the pictures to be a bit more understated and anonymous so that the viewers can imagine that they want to join. I do not want to draw attention to this one individual.

A friend sent me this article to read. When I saw the picture I immediately realised that I could use a similar picture.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2519759/Porn-industry-shuts-AGAIN-star-tests-positive-HIV.html

I found this one. I’m glad I found it because it provides a pop of colour and its very relevant to the whole reason why I’m making this site. The connotations of this picture are safe sex which is the whole point of the union; to try to stop people catching HIV.

http://www.eddystone.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Colourful-Condoms-resize.jpg

Photos I Considered But Didn’t Use

I looked at a lot of photos. Here are a few I didn’t end up using.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7152/6509896313_0ca8240f23_o.jpg

http://www.jansphotoblog.de/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Studio-setup.jpg

http://www.creativeplanetnetwork.com/the_wire/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/SFarr_Hi.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_meAn67jJEs0/TNyQx1gPqYI/AAAAAAAACcU/lVAsTqI75e4/s1600/9-46+Sleeping+with+the+enemy+liiving+room-2.jpg

http://clerestoryproductionsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/MG_3536.jpg

Feedback In Class: Social Media Icons

I went into class to get some feedback. I presented the tutor with these two options. I asked which he thought would be the best. Here is the first one. As you can see the buttons are at the top.

Here is the second one. As you can see the buttons are at the bottom.

The tutor said it would be best to have them at the top and bottom and I have to admit, I hadn’t really considered that. He explained that since the site is one long page, it’s a good idea to have them at both the top and bottom so the viewer can avoid scrolling. I have taken his advice!

Feedback In Class: Placement Of Logo

I needed to work out where the logo should be placed. These are the options I showed to my tutor. We looked them over together. There are many possibilities and I enjoy trying everything.

We didn’t like the one with the black logo. We thought it too overbearing. In the end the advice from the tutor was to have the logo above the ‘UAWA’ so that people would know they are connected. The tutor also preferred the modified logo so that is the one I will be using. We also agreed that we should keep the words ‘United Adult Workers of America’. It’s a new organisation so people may not know what the letters stand for. I went home and rearranged the elements. Here is how it looks now:

How I Modified The UAWA Logo

Here is the UAWA logo as it is currently:

http://uawa.org/

This isn’t the best logo in the world but it isn’t the worst. The more I thought about it the more I realised that the concept is actually very apt. I spoke to the tutor about it and he said I should see what I could do with it. He meant see if I could modify it to make it a bit less jarring.

I tried using image trace in Illustrator to see what would happen. As you can see, it didn’t work very well:

So instead I fully remade the logo out of vectors:

I made a number of different versions so I could see which one would be best.

Below I took away the small line at the bottom of the neck:

Below I took away part of the circle to open it up:

Below I took away the part that separated the hands.

I tried it in black.

Here I changed the shape under the arms. I liked the new shape so…

…I altered the vector to match the image above. I did this by drawing a tear drop shape using the pen tool. I copied and pasted it and then used the rotate tool.

I used Minus Front to make the tear drops into an empty shape as opposed to a shape filled with purple.

Here is the finished logo. I will show my tutor and see if he thinks its suitable.

Feedback In Class: Photos

I took my website to college to get feedback from my fellow students and the tutors. Everyone agreed that this picture wasn’t really appropriate in that it looks like a tourist picture. The tutor thought it looked European and one student thought it looked like China.

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5149/5627832853_252b40e295_o.jpg

The tutor said people may not understand what the food means so he advised me not to use this photo.

http://www.waegook-tom.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/DSC01054.jpg

I was worried the tutor wouldn’t like the jeans texture I made but he did so that was good. The tutor said I needed to think about the people and have some people in the photos. So I went home and looked for some new photos.

Crit

Today I took part in the crit. I showed everyone this news story. I explained that I’d been stuck at home over the summer so I had a lot of spare time to research into the subject. I have quite a good understanding of the issues and how the adult industry works. I was a bit worried that the tutors would not allow a subject like this but I was wrong. I was worried my fellow students wouldn’t understand but they did. So that was great! Showing everyone this story got everyone talking and interested.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2400507/Porn-star-Cameron-Bay-brought-industry-standstill-contracting-HIV.html

I showed everyone this site. I explained that my idea would be to make a design for the content below. This site provides all the news about the adult industry and blows the whistle on bad practice. I explained that I wouldn’t be including some of the advertising as it shows pictures which were not appropriate for a college project.

http://adultfyi.com/welcome.php

I showed everyone this site. I won’t be redesigning this site. However I will probably redesign Rob Black’s logo which would change the appearance of this site.

http://www.therobblackshow.com/

I showed everyone this site. The same applies to this site as the one above.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/robblackshow

It looks like a template has been used here. I have mixed feelings about the design here. I think it is a big improvement on the design of the Adult FYI site but I still feel Rob would further benefit from custom design as opposed to one size fits all. The typefaces used here look quite dated to me.

http://realrobblack.tumblr.com/

Here is Rob’s Twitter. I think Rob could benefit from custom design here too although I won’t be designing for the content here.

https://twitter.com/RealRobBlack

After The Crit

After the crit I found this page. THIS is the site I should have shown at the crit. This is the UAWA site. This is the site I want to redesign. There isn’t that much information on this site so I might add some.

http://uawa.org/