Blue Print Design

I am working on a portfolio for a friend who is doing coding. Thought of the blue print idea and started making this design. Of course it's just started and have only done a contact page. I have even put a footer yet. But anyway thought I would show it off and see what people think.


Click the page to see the subpages


Thanks,

BeNzY

PREVIEW

I really like it, it is a very interesting concept that could be put to good use. If you're going to continue with this design, please do keep us updated with its progress.

i get the idea, but the design is way too rushed. there's at least 3 different major styles going on:

1. the blueprint idea itself is very mechanical. that's the point of blueprints: precision. this sets up a more serious, cold/calculated tone.
2. the glossy, plastic, lensflared, chunky logo is very goofy and playful, which is why you often see this style on children's toys (think can wrappers and lego). this is pretty much the opposite of a serious, mechanical thing.
3. then the folds in the paper, the handwriting, and the stains go in the reverse opposite direction. blueprints aren't ins perfect shape, and they often have writing and stains all over them, but the point of using a blueprint here is to show precision and attention to detail. some hand written comments here and there as accents to the blueprint sheet as a background piece are one thing, but they shouldn't be major interface elements.

also, if you're going to the first person, "realistic view" with the post-it note, stains, phones and pencils on the paper, like it's actually sitting on the desk, you can't introduce plastic shiny objects floating over top of it (IE the logo & menu) because that would never happen. same with the email form. you might tear holes in the paper (IE use an inner shadow) but you'd have see floating white boxes.

the blue is also too sharp for my tastes. i wouldn't want to read anything of even medium length on that. it's just too strong.

stay with the concept, but take a step back and really plan your idea out. sometimes winging' it works, but you're falling back too much on old/easy habits that don't fit the idea (IE the menu & logo)

Originally Posted by derek lapp i get the idea, but the design is way too rushed. there's at least 3 different major styles going on: the blueprint idea itself is very mechanical. that's the point of blueprints: precision. this sets up a more serious, cold/calculated tone. the glossy, plastic, lensflared, chunky logo is very goofy and playful, which is why you often see this style on children's toys (think can wrappers and lego). this is pretty much the opposite of a serious, mechanical thing. then the folds in the paper, the handwriting, and the stains go in the reverse opposite direction. blueprints aren't ins perfect shape, and they often have writing and stains all over them, but the point of using a blueprint here is to show precision and attention to detail. some hand written comments here and there as accents to the blueprint sheet as a background piece are one thing, but they shouldn't be major interface elements. also, if you're going to the first person, "realistic view" with the post-it note, stains, phones and pencils on the paper, like it's actually sitting on the desk, you can't introduce plastic shiny objects floating over top of it (IE the logo & menu) because that would never happen. same with the email form. you might tear holes in the paper (IE use an inner shadow) but you'd have see floating white boxes. the blue is also too sharp for my tastes. i wouldn't want to read anything of even medium length on that. it's just too strong. stay with the concept, but take a step back and really plan your idea out. sometimes winging' it works, but you're falling back too much on old/easy habits that don't fit the idea (IE the menu & logo)

Thank you! I am working on it right now. I got rid of the logo and the color I toned down to make it easy on the eyes. I started this late last night and it took me a while to customize the background and start designing. I thought it out and think I will have a preview to upload here later on today.

Originally Posted by Salathe I really like it, it is a very interesting concept that could be put to good use. If you're going to continue with this design, please do keep us updated with its progress.

OMG!! The mighty one speaks to me in my thread! Thank you very much. I am going to make some changes to it and see how it turns out.

updated op

updated op

i'd tone down the illustrations/etc so it doesn't compete with the text.

Originally Posted by derek lapp i'd tone down the illustrations/etc so it doesn't compete with the text.

Ok I will play with that when I get home. Have I taken what you said and done a better job?

I am the designer that actually listens to feedback and trys to better my skills!

I quite like the concept but agree with Derek. I think currently too many unimportant bits of the design standout too much. I'll list a few pointers below;

- Shadows on the postbits are too dark.
- I think you need to re-think the use of the postbit, the 'hire me' one works well as it stands out, does the html, css and php section really need to be that noticeable?
- I'd change the pencil, it's a blue (unrealistic) colouring pencil yet the mark it's left is white. I'd at least change it to a good illustration of a pencil like the following (but an illustrated one); http://site.xara.com/news/october06/img/pencil37.png
- I'd make the logo standout a lot more, maybe even look at making it so it's not part of the blueprint and on some sort of object or something.
- Navigation doesn't standout enough.
- I'd be very tempted to do the following (done very roughly, could add tears etc); http://www.onvo.co.uk/ss/uy3cdj.png

By doing the above it'd give the site some structure, currently I have no idea where to look when I visit the site. It also looks quite a lot better in my eyes. This would also help tie in the pencil if you use some handwriting fonts and make all look handwritten.

It's a good start, continue to work on it and you'll end up with a nice design.