Links to some current studio projects:

• Diary of a Studio Owner: designs for home link

• Diary of a Studio Owner: home page with intro link

• J.K. Frost & Associates website

• GrandMMA logo designs

• Diary of a Studio Owner: Gray Wolf DVD

• Passports Educational Travel: Fuel Costs

• Passports website design: intro and page designs with some navigation ideas.

• Designs for Passports' into page:
  • www passports A top signin - a welcome slide show of traveling students and destination photos (patterned after the one at http://www.jupiterimages.com/ -- I especially like the varying rhythm of the slides). Log on panel along the top of the page. The sites that I find easiest to log in, replace the sign in message with something like "hello elizabeth. (if you are not elizabeth please click here.)
  • • www passports A2A - logon panel beside menu listings, notice square buttons and "new" navigation with specific new items listed. Items currently in new that are not new would be reassigned to more appropriate areas of website.
    • www passports A2B - shadowed panels with gray window background and small round buttons.
  • www passports B - .com/pp_wwwpassports_b.html
    Slightly different proportion slide show combined with a personal travel motif... could change from time to time, season to season: suitcase, passports, backpack, video camera....
  • www passports C1
    Bigger single image slides of people (might be viewer driven), with a scenic background. The black bar has been replaced with more color. The menus would be drop down.
  • www passports D - Passports logotype splash transforms to a slide show (mouse over the screen an idea of the effect). This is planned to be 12 mini-slide shows, sometimes running images together, sometimes, not. Instead of buttons, navigation uses tabs with drop down menus.

• 8b: page and background designs, with design development notes
  • In this gray shadow " option, I worked with different background colors, gradations and darkness values... I thought this dark solid gray makes the page jump out at you.
  • A column of travel pix, to try to shout, TRAVEL WITH HAPPY KIDS!!!! This also works to narrow the column of copy, which will make it easier to read.
  • Other notes: I moved the tag line so it becomes part of the logotype. Passports commented that it must be html text for optimized searching.
  • Passports blue tint with dots: I'm not convinced we need the shadow panel, so here is a color background. Only blue seems to work for this background; Passports' other colors are too intense. The blue seemed slightly dreary so I tried adding line, nah, dots, maybe?
  • Background of tiled jets. The dots looked "soft," and do not reinforce global travel... I'm thinking exciting and seeing soothing; if there is going to be something in the background, can it reiterate the travel concept?
  • Another thought: The logotype. While I was fixing the logotype letter spacing, it occurred to me that there was space within the logotype for a globe. I tried it out here.
  • Big globe back ground (right column with varying sizes of travel pix)
  • I've always liked web pages that have a BIG background. I did this concept quickly with a piece of clip art, but hopefully it is enough to give you an idea of a big graphic.
    The rigid alignment of the travel photos has been changed to a looser (more exciting, more relaxed, more flexible) arrangement, however these "loose" photos are gathered in a line-up of equal sized images that can be randomly placed and replace.
  • Background tiles of small squares in Passports colors. The globe might be a little over the top, but I am starting to like the bold rich blue background. Here I add a little cover from the intro page.
  • White with left column lines. After all these ideas, I circled back to the white background. I wanted a left column that felt crisp, not a soft tint. I put the square buttons back in except the globe which was not recognizable in a small square, so it is round.
• 8c: more Passports page design, incorporating a photo in page heading. I am trying to achieve a visual "opening up" in the page design, to carry the communication of opening up travel. I see the sharp border around the page as boxing in the message -- in the box -- not flexible. By have the page appear integrated with the background, I'm trying to forward the concepts of flexibility and personal growth:
  
  • current color strips with white strips -- overly static, still too boxy
  • color strip, no white strip -- design elements need more integration
  • fade photo -- photo fades to background, not a noticeable improvement
  • fade with globe 1 -- this is a clip art globe gives a relaxed, joyful impression
  • fade with globe 2 -- this more structured globe lacks excitement
  • gray fade -- very gray

• 8c: designs with the shadowed background:
  • shadow with globe 5 -- globe 5 is an original globe with a sketched effect; it appears to burst out of the left column. The shadow merges with the log on line at the top.
  • shadow with globe 3 -- globe 3 is more traditional. The header photo uses the traveling students in place of the destination photo.
  • shadow with color incorporated tiny jewels of Passports' colors into the borders.
  • shadow with blue column -- The left column is the blue gradation version; the traditional globe is paired with a destination banner photo (the pink sky has been toned down), the log in strip changed to a flat blue.

the talented team and other studio details

work in progress

odds and ends