I have built my design for the Grand Reopening Weekend of the Saltdean Lido around artwork by Fred Pipes, a Brighton-based artist who specializes in digital prints of Art Deco buildings. I have contacted him through his blog asking for permission to use his work and I intend to add a credit on the website in the footer area.
To enhance the celebratory aspect of the website I have incorporated Art Deco style spotlights behind the building. I created these in Photoshop using the path tool, quick masks and the gradient tool. Adding noise enhances the Art Deco feel matching the printing techniques of the 1930s. I also added the bunting to the front of the building and added a colour overlay to bring in a bit more cyan so the image sits more comfortably within the blue of the website as a whole.
I have used two free Art Deco fonts in the main heading – Raconteur and Park Lane. While the colour and type works for ‘Saltdean Lido’ I may try changing the colour, drop shadow or a different font for the text ‘Grand Reopening Weekend’ and, most importantly, the dates which should be very easy to read. Gill Sans is the typeface used for the Saltdean Lido name in the main image. This is a sans serif font which matched the old Lido sign but which was replaced with a blocky serif font later on. To match the sans serif appearance I have used Futura for the navbar text.
As I finish off the design and start to break down the artwork for the web I am becoming more mindful to certain fonts which I may or may not be able to use and what kind of effects, such as drop shadow, I can use which I may or may not be able to match in CSS or use CSS3 to do so.
I have all the pages of the site designed below except for the contact page which I will complete in html once the rest of the site is programmed.
HOME PAGE
The key aspect of the homepage is the hero image and the name and date of the event. I have placed the main navbar at the bottom to make entering the site as easy as possible. I may incorporate the BUY TICKETS button into the navbar as I may not be able to maintain its position at the bottom of the page through each page of the site. I would also like to bring in Twitter and Facebook so may add a FOLLOW US tab too.
I am contemplating adding more selling points to this page but I think the design should be enough to draw those with an interest in the event into the site.
ABOUT PAGE
The rest of the site features the same header and I am proposing here to have a rubberring appearing as you move along the navbar. If I can’t make this work in html I may simply have the text change to pink when you hover over it.
The main box contains a simple recent history of the site. On the right is a gallery of images. You will be able to click on each one and enlarge it. Each picture will have an additional line or two of text on the history of the Lido.
WHAT’S ON PAGE
Here the idea is that, upon clicking the ‘What’s On’ tab, you will see the three dates of the weekend. These will be clickable. Once clicked you will go down the page to see the events on that day. The following page is an example of what the Saturday page would look like. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite fit on the screen so you would have to scroll down a little to see all the events. I have also encountered a problem in that the box containing the spotlights that would be the container of the site needs to be adjusted to accommodate the text box. This may require an adjustment to the overall design.
TRAVEL DETAILS
This page features a snapshot from Google maps. The map will link through to Google Maps
blowntosmithereens 