Creating an Online Portfolio

I chose to host my portfolio on a free blogging platform. I had a blog on Wordpress, but without your own server to host your files, you need to use the free Wordpress. I didn't like this, because they make you purchase many plug-ins to use the same features that you can get free with Blogger. I absolutely hated Tumblr. Not all Tumblr templates offer the basic Comments widget that allows users to comment on your posts. This annoys me as a user and it discourages interaction. I've seen blogs on Tumblr where people ask you what you think, but there is nowhere to tell them... no Comments section, no contact info.... Other popular platforms (I haven't tried) include LiveJournal and many of Six Apart's platforms (TypePad, Movable Type, Vox...).

The easy choice for me is Blogger. For beginners, they offer many drag-and-drop or click-to-add options for designing your layout and publishing your blog. For those who know HTML or CSS (and anyone can learn the basics easily), Blogger offers the ability to load your own XML document with your custom design, the ability to use one of many free templates online, or the option to just use one of their default templates. It is highly customizable in the simplest way and it is FREE.

I added a few features that I think are essential for any blog:

1. A custom banner at the top. (Your template should tell you the size. ex: 860 x 130 px)
2. Add This buttons (you can see them at the bottom of each post in my blog) make sharing info from your site as easy as the click of a button. You can customize the look, the list of sites you can share to (more than 200)...
3. A Contact Me form allows readers to contact you/give you feedback/interact. You can either write your own JavaScript code or use an online service. I use WuFoo. It is free and allows you to customize your form (choose what fields to include, which are required and which are optional...) and embed it on a page on your portfolio site. This helps by keeping your email private. Otherwise spambots (evil programs that search the Inernet for email addresses, so they can sell it to all those annoying marketers that send spam) will find it on your site and you will begin getting loads of spam mail.

As you can see on this site, Blogger also allows for several pages. I have my pages listed just below my banner: Home, Bio, Resume, Videos, Design, and Contact Me. Name them so that they are self-explanatory.

World Hemophilia Day Poster: Design 2

Here are some variations for my second design.  This design does NOT promote a walk, or any other fundraiser event.  It simply raises awareness of hemophilia by announcing World Hemophilia Day.  It takes place on April 17th every year, regardless of what day of the week it falls on.  This happens to be my daughters birthday, as well.

World Hemophilia Day Poster

OK!  I saw a LIFE magazine and decided I was going to use this design for my poster.  I changed the name of the magazine to WALK, since the poster promotes a fundraiser walk.  I used the hemo globe I designed as the centerpiece of the cover and then just input the information I wanted to share in traditional magazine style.  Here is a look at my poster and the LIFE cover that inspired me:

Designing a Poster for World Hemophilia Day

This is the centerpiece of my poster and this is how it came to be:

I posted an image of the graphic that the World Federation of Hemophilia provided for use in promotional posters, but I wanted to create my own take on it.  First, I envisioned a 3D globe that better represented the hemophilia world.  I think of the color red (representing blood), not blue.  I had an idea to create a clipping mask of a crowd of people in the shape of the continents and to make the water red, then create a 3D sphere with this image.
I found a good image of faces painted, each with a flag representing a different country.  I made modifications to fit my purposes.  First, I eliminated the borders from the faces image I found:

Then I found a map of the continents to use to create a clipping mask:

I placed the map image on a layer below the wallpaper of faces.  I selected all the white areas of the map layer and deleted them, leaving only the black shapes of the continents.  Then I chose the faces layer and created a clipping mask to get the image below:

Next, I found a water texture I could use for the oceans:

I changed the hue and saturation to make it red, then placed it below the layer of faces to place the water behind the continents:

I have Photoshop CS4 Extended, which has 3D capabilities, so I flattened my image (to one layer) and made a 3D shape from that layer.  Since I am making a globe, I chose a sphere shape.  At this stage, I began following a tutorial I found at psd.tutsplus.com:

I added 3D elevation/topography and clouds to my globe:

Finally, I added a shadow and reflection.  Now I have completed the centerpiece of my poster:

I have several ideas I want to try out next.  I thought about creating some paper dolls walking to the globe from the left, going around the back and appearing from the back on the right side, then walking along the surface of the globe in a (-shape and ending with one sanding in the vicinity of Norway.  I also thought about having paper dolls holding hands in a circle around the globe, but since the poster will promote a fundraiser walk in Wichita, I think the walking paper dolls are more appropriate.

Poster Ideas

My first idea was to do a poster for the IMAX show: Vikings: Journey to New Worlds playing at the Cosmosphere. I am of Viking and Celtic stock and I love Viking design. They were great artists, so designing a poster using these distinct designs would be fun. I searched for some cool backgrounds and images, but found very little that coincided with my ideas, so I will throw this bone out tomorrow in class.

I have found an alternative that works better. I am going to design a poster for World Hemophilia Day (April 17th - my daughter's birthday). There will be a fundraiser walk in Wichita that day. They provided a set of materials, including a logo graphic, for use in designing promotional materials, so it works out great for me and hopefully I can help out the local organizers.

Midnight Blog Re-Design and Webmonkey

I made some significant improvements to my blog's design. I googled free templates for blogger (my blog is through Blogger, but you can put tumblr or wordpress... whichever you use). I found several good designs and downloaded them. I chose this design, because I wanted a darker background. It makes videos and photos stand out better. I had to alter the xml slightly, so if you don't know html or xml, if your template doesn't work, you may need help tweaking a few settings. It is simple enough you can probably even google enough info to get it done yourself.

I went to btemplates.com and found hundreds of templates. Check it out, or search google. I did all this in a few hours, so it wasn't too bad.

When you're adding a color to your Web page with HTML (or XML), sometimes you can just type in the name of the color. But more often than not, you'll need to use what's called the hex code, which is something that the browser will be able to understand. Webmonkey provides an easy to use Color Chart that allows you to search for colors and get the hex code. The bonus is that because it is a Web site, you can see what the colors actually look like on the Web (as opposed to books or printed charts, which don't look the same as they do online).