Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Islamic Art Museum









The trip to Islamic Art Museum was a real eye-opener. I've introduce to and learn many new forms of arts in different Islamic countries. More importantly, the museum has forever changed my much misguided and misunderstood perception of Islamic Arts.

Firstly, Islamic Art is devoted heavily in refining different graphic elements and combining them into complex and intricate masterpiece. Whether if the art pieces are from China, India or Turkey, one can clearly see that with repeated motif but interesting arrangement of colors, elements, lines, shapes and harmony between decorated space and negative space, Islamic Arts appears to be very harmonic, peaceful, mature, somewhat strict in a sense of being well-organized but elegant and beautiful when curves and lines articulates the essence of nature. There are hardly any realistic piece. Most are presented in a very stylish way. Therefore, I find it very easy to learn from, borrow certain points from Islamic Arts to apply to nowadays graphic design.

Secondly, Islamic Art is very flexible. It has been adjusted to fit the local taste of different places. Although certain disciplines remain the same in creating Arts, different places put in their own unique feature into the design, making Islamic Arts highly diverse and interesting. For example, the color combination of most ceramics in China is of vivid colors, whereas, the colors tend to be more muted, limited to brown, red, black and silver in Turkey.

Thirdly, it's the dedication of the artists to the art piece that move me. Creating arts no longer become a hobby but it seems to turn into a challenge. The artist create magnificent art pieces that are of miniature size with great details and precision. We can clearly understand that the artists very much honored themselves in creating such works like that

In the exhibitions, there are 2 main field that caught my eyes. Firstly, it was the Mughal miniature paintings. The style is a hybrid of South Asian countries. That's why there has been much debates if it looks "Chinese", "Indian", or even "Japanese". Those paintings are rich in colors, details and whimsical in depicting normal postures of people in daily activities. Most of Mughal paintings are of small size, making the characters in the paintings appear even more surreal, likeable and intriging.

Another part of the exhibition that is truly surprising is the Iznik ceramics section, more specifically, Kutahya ceramics. Unlike the rest of the Islamic arts which is made with such high precision, Kutahya looked rough, raw but quirky, giving a sense of freedom. Above are some of the Kutahya work I've found online

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

4 Beautiful Websites

1. South Beach








- Nice colour scheme
- Minimalistic
- Convenient and neat gallery display


2. National Television









- Bold navigation bar ----> attention grabbing
- Simple layout, looks chic
- Lots of space for image display




3. Erguvan Platin







- Eye catching background
- Smooth transition between page
- Nice illustration
- Specially coloured form that looks more interesting than normal


4. Lorgans shop








- Strong colour contrast
- Interesting interface that fits into a retro TV - very suitable for the theme of the shop: "RETRO"
- Buttons are made into elements of the TV. Interesting to navigate and interact

4 HTML tutorials

1. Image Maps: HERE

2. HTML Forms: HERE

3. Insert SWF into your HTML: HERE

4. Drop down Menu: HERE

4 Design tutorials

Due to the design I have in mind for the website revamp projects, I'm more interested in websites that focus much on showcasing images rather than text. That explains why I picked 2 photographic interface design tutorial here.

The look I intend to go for is a bit futuristic so I'd include a tutorial on how to make glossy buttons


1. Personal page tutorial : HERE



2. Restaurant page interface: HERE



3. Glossy buttons tutorial: HERE



4. Photo Portfolio interface design: HERE

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Competitor Site 4: WIP

Screen Caps










Feedbacks:

1) Content-wise
  • Lots of text

2) Design-wise
  • Website look Flat
  • Navigation buttons too blend into background
  • Headline of the website doesnt' fit into colour scheme. Inconsistency in design. Typography can be improved since the catch line looks so out of place
  • Buttons design should be more polished
  • Gallery page looks boring

3) Function-wise
  • Pop up window are suitable for some contents ( like promotions etc. ) But not all. Sometimes it become annoying

Competitor Site 3: Sky Bar

Screen Caps











Feedback:

1) Content-wise
  • Indirect reference to each categories/content group

2) Design-wise
  • Cool drop down content from the buttons yet the buttons are not designed nicely
  • Lack of consistency in overall design (between the left hand side frame and the body of the website
  • Website was so crammed onto left hand side of the screen. Uncomfortable to view

3) Function-wise
  • Convenient cocaktail menu viewing.