Project: Design Portfolio Website

Objective: For this final website project, you are to create and publish a Design Portfolio to showcase selected graphic designs that you have created during the semester. Use Wix.com to create a free website. It will be highly customized to display your own design ability.

FIRST Few Steps

1. Choose your desired template in Wix.
2. As soon as you choose your template, copy the link (web address) and paste it into a Word file. (Reason: So that I can compare the original with your final portfolio.)
3. Click the SAVE button and provide a name that is more creative than "/mysite"
4. Copy your custom web address into the same Word file.
5. Go ahead and upload your Word file to OAKS. Then you can continue to develop your portfolio until its due date of April 22th. Don't worry, I will not grade it until that time.

Overall Requirements

• Do not choose a vertical page layout (i.e. single page) because you will have too many pages for that to work.
• You must customize the header area of the site. If the page(s) have a background image, you must use replace it with an image of your own or remove it altogether. Your customized image(s) need to blend into the site by physical dimensions and by colors.
• Use a unified color scheme and theme. You're encouraged to be creative, but keep it tasteful and cohesive.
• Must have an attractive layout. Take the time to learn about Wix.com sites so that you can force it to do what you want it to do.
• The general layout and design must be consistent from page to page. They don't have to be identical, but the same look and feel must exist throughout the site.
• Principles and rules of good design must be followed.
• Images must have excellent resolution and display attractively. Control your images and do not super-size them. All images should be displayed at a width of 700px or less.
• DO NOT USE ANIMATED SLIDE SHOWS TO DISPLAY YOUR DESIGNS. If you have additional images that you wish to put in a slide show, you may do so. However, do not use slide shows for the Adobe software designs that you are required to display in this portfolio.
• DO NOT CENTER BODY/NARRATIVE TEXT.
• DO NOT CENTER BULLETED TEXT. I still don't know why some designers think this is cool. It is absolutely not cool or tasteful. See even more information here.

Below you will find specifics for each page of your website. The sidebar at the right shows a possible sitemap. However, your navigation can be horizontal if you wish. Also, if you prefer shorter titles for your navigation buttons, you can modify them to your liking.

Homepage

On this page, you should have about two paragraphs introducing your website. Keep it professional, and say anything that you wish to share. Some possibilities include, but are not limited to: who you are, what's the purpose of this portfolio, your hopes and aspirations, one or more moderately sized additional designs that you created, link to your social media account(s) so that others can follow you, etc.

Don't forget to include your email address in a prominent place on this page. (You can delete it after the portfolio is graded if you wish.)

InDesign

Projects 7, Project 8, and the newsletter (Test 1) are requirements for this page or pages. It is imperative for you to include your write-ups from Projects 7 and 8 because it allows you to showcase your ability to use typography effectively. In addition to those three requirements, feel free to include any other InDesign designs that you did. Needless to say, they should be laid out attractively on the pages with images being 700px or less.

Be sure to use the JPEG version of your InDesign files and have them display directly on the screen. As for the logo from Project 7, it is okay if you want to show only the logo, or only the business card.

Photoshop and Photopea

Include at least three of your best designs from the semester. You can choose whether or not you want sub-pages in your main menu. (CLICK HERE for clarification of the three)

• Your Charleston Landmarks must be included among the three. It will count as only one of your three required designs. Please decide how best to display the before/after/description.
• Each of your designs in this section should include at least a descriptive caption. Alternatively, you can include write-ups or list of skills covered if you wish.
  

Illustrator

The minimum requirements for the Illustrator pages are the JPEG version of the following:

• At this point, I think you'll have two Illustrator regular homework assignments. Include at least one of them. If a write-up is involved, include the write-up as well.
  (Edited 4/19/2020:
  Yes, you had these two, and you are to include at least one of them: Easter and Logo Creation
  
  
• At least one of the "Campground Icons" signs from Project 1.
  
  IF YOU HAVE NOT COMPLETED ILLUSTRATOR PROJECT 1 BY 4/22/20, simply add a textbox in Wix that says something like "Campground Icons Coming Soon." I will be fine with that.
  
  
• Each of your designs in this section should include at least a descriptive caption.

Expressions Repository

By now you would have had about 12 of these assignments. Include eight of them here. They are to have an attractive layout and a proper caption for each of them. Please comply. This is a very important part of the project since I have not graded them yet. It will account for 25% of the Design Portfolio.

Design Principles

Include your article review from Module 1. This page is text-heavy. Feel free to incorporate an image if you'd like.

How to Submit:

1. Log onto OAKS and access the "Semester Project" Dropbox
2. Upload the Word document described earlier.
3. Make sure that your link works. The wrong link at the end of the semester can be detrimental.
4. Due by April 22