When I start a new site design, I first grab paper, a pencil (or my purple Pilot pen…not ideal but its *always* on my desk) and sketch out ideas which I add to throughout the design process. By the time Im done, I have a stack of papers full of ideas with detailed notes and a coffee cup ring or two…or three. Or four.
Im working on a new website for a client, and today the design concept took on new life. Considering the complexity of the project I know I need to make a rough draft to present my ideas. So then Im about to venture into a world I thought Id never see…revealing my chicken scratch… er, I mean concept sketches for approval.
I seriously need help with that… So that my rough draft isnt met with shock and gasps of horror I went on the hunt for some articles about website concept sketching. Interestingly theres very, very little information out there about this…thankfully, what little information I found was incredibly helpful!
ComputerArts offers a fantastic tutorial explaining how to head to Photoshop with the sketches to clean up pencil lines, create layers to separate the different elements as well as simple colouring and shading to help bring the focus of the concept to life. It includes a PDF tutorial, as well as a zip file of the project files.
PSDTuts - The Role of Sketching in the Design Process is an incredibly helpful blog post I found in which it says:
As a tool or skill, sketching has its role in the design process. That role will vary depending on the end-product being created, the size and scope of the project, the individual designer’s style, experience, and workflow, and the client’s expectations. Find out more about how sketching is used in the design process within multiple design disciplines.
The best part is to me is where they say you dont need to have amazing..or even good drawing skills to work out a composite sketch before bringing it into Photoshop. *WHEW!*
As part of the design process with a client, its a great way to present your ideas to be sure of the direction your client wants to go. Even if its just for yourself…its a lot easier and faster to make a bunch of chicken scratch on paper to draw ideas out of your brain rather than staring at the blank white space on Photoshop while mumbling “what to do, what to dooooo…?!!!” (or is that just me?)
The new Living Room Diaries website design is now up and live! *YaY!!!* I used the sites logo of the red couch with the bass in front of it as the jumping off point for the design of the site. Pulling from this, I made the site colours red, black, gray and white. I also designed a underlying background image so that the content isnt on a stark white background, and also to add a bit of that “sexy comfy couch” feel to the site.
The CSS sliding menu adds a bit of flair to the site, with a glossy web 2.0 feel, and it also doubles as a page header since the page you are on is the highlighted menu item. On the main page, there is room for sponsor information, as well as reciprocal linking. On the Show Archive page, I used a sleek and shiny video player to showcase all of the previous shows, which also show a thumbnail of the show guest and some basic information about the episode.
I installed a WordPress blog into the site and redesigned it for flawless integration into the rest of the site. I also installed and modified a Simple Machines Forum to blend in with the site design, and encourage viewer participation so that they may talk about the episodes and show guests. SEO is very important to Kirk, so I made sure to take advantage of meta-tagging. Also, WordPress is an excellent SEO building tool that he will now be able to take advantage of to raise his site rankings.
Here are the before and after photos of LivingRoomDiaries.com…Enjoy!
Before
After - The New Living Room Diaries
I have a few new projects on the horizon that Im eager to dig myself into. One that Im excited about and working on at this moment is the re-design of Living Room Diaries. Its an internet TV show which showcases local musicians in a pretty funny and inspiring way.
The host Kirk Green is a trip! He has some pretty talented friends who seem to drop in un-expectantly, and for some amazing reason, theres a camera there to catch all the musical hoopla that follows. How does he do that?! 
Im working on the site redesign, adding in a forum for visitor participation to talk about the shows…and eventually Ill be redesigning the blog, myspace profile and youtube channel.
Im still keeping up with maintaining the website of the local rock/hip-hop band Raging Geisha. They seriously need to slow it down a bit…Im trying to keep up with updating their show schedule, the launch of ringtone sales, brand new music videos, and to top it off, their song “Way That He Loves Me” just hit the radio so the traffic is becoming unbelievable. Yeah, Im going to have to put in a petition for them to stop being so high energy and tone down on all the amazing stuff theyve been up to, cause its totally cutting into my downtime 
I started teaching myself how to design websites back in 1999 when I connected up with my first ISP, AOL. I built a hometown personal page as a family page and when I was all done setting it up, I thought it looked like…oh how should I put this? Well, I hated it. I figured there has to be a way to lay out a web page exactly the way I want it to look. Not that I knew what I wanted…I just knew that the best I could make using the WYSIWYG editor on AOL was not giving me anything close.
At that point, I started searching around to find out how to build a page myself from scratch, and that is really where it all went downhill..er…I started to learn web design. By studying simple how-to tutorials online, I was able to start hand-coding html in notepad. My new family web page still looked pretty awful, but it was all mine. That alone made it better, but still not good enough. Whenever I found a site I liked, I would pick apart the source code to see how they did whatever it was they were doing so that I could see if I could re-create the same effect on my own.
Somewhere along the line, I realized that if I want total control Im going to have to learn to make my own graphics too…so while teaching myself web design, I also started figuring out how to use the simple little paint program, accurately named “paint”. Clever eh? I still have a copy of the first “real” website I ever made with my own custom graphics. No you cant see it..its embarrassing, but I can tell you, I was so proud of it!…for all of 10 minutes, and then I decided I have to figure out how to improve on it even more.
Nothing has changed really. Im still seeking out new techniques, learning new software, and no matter what I make I sit back, think oooh, I like this! Then instantly start trying to figure out how I could make it better. Anyway, that puts me where I am now. Still learning, still figuring things out, and I enjoy every bit of it…both working in familiar territory as well as the challenge of figuring out something I havnt done before.
Like a smart business woman, I have a second career choice to fall back on if need be…the fine art of dirty ceramics and naughty origami. You’ll buy one right?
Okay yeah, I think its best I keep doing web design…
One of the things I love most about what I do is that I am a Work At Home Mom (WAHM) allowing me to spend more time with kiddo. The second thing I love about what I do is that I actually get to do what I love. The third thing I love about what I do is I rarely ever..if ever..have to be in rush hour traffic. I should put that first actually… When it comes to the love/hate relationship most people have with Miami, traffic is at the top of the hate list. Suffice it to say, I heart Miami!
The thing about me is Im a workaholic… If you know me in person, youre probably thinking…”Who? Am I reading the right blog?!” But its true..when Im home Im working. And Im home a lot. And I dont let people in my house. So youre just going to have to take my very credible word for it. But when I go out, I leave my work at home and have a guilt-free good time else Id burn out and be a hot mess. I dont even network. (Im trying to change that, I even got myself business cards finally…YaY!) Its a good combo though. If I slacked all the time Id be living in a cardboard box behind Publix, and if I worked all the time it would be hard to spend it all as quickly as I manage to do and my huge savings account would make for a very lumpy mattress…how ever would I get any sleep at night?!
Im always running into some helpful, informative sites and blogs about work at home moms, freelancing, design and personal assist resources and how to organize all the madness which Ill post here as I come across them. Maybe they’ll be of some use to somebody out there… and if not, enjoy the crazy ramblings. Im full of em.