Lesson 11: Advanced Topics

I'm trying to stay afloat here. Not being able to make sense of GIMP tutorials on layers, I've hit a brick wall. I've spent hours and hours starting over with it, and it's not clicking. What I really need to do is sit down with someone and do a hands-on lesson. I would have not been happy about traveling to Tampa for more classes, but this is very hard to do with a book and on-line tutorials. I gave up on GIMP and went to my husbands Photoshop Elements 2. I got some books out of the library and am looking them over, trying to figure out the basics. If I had come into this class with even a basic understanding of the image program, I wouldn't be in such a funk. It stresses me to go on to advanced topics when I'm back in remedial basics, but I have to go on.

This week we look at five to ten websites on places to get inspiration.

I will start out with "One Page Love":

I like Sako Karalekian's very simple one pager. I sort of had something in mind like that for my page. She uses images of office stuff like paper, tape, push pins, and is very minimal. That's what I like; not a page that blows you out of the room with too much stimuli.

I also like Marianna Gibara's. Again, very simple. I don't know though - Isn't that organic swirly stuff getting old? Maybe not yet. I just seem to see it everywhere, from websites to t-shirts, which makes be think people will soon tire of it. I do like it, though.

Web and iPhone Application Development: Here is a very simple site with some movement. Though I like the cleanness and simplicity of it, I still don't like images moving on a site. Maybe I'm just an old fuddy-duddy.

I love the chapstick conspiracy by Zeke Shore. This is only one item in his portfolio. As for his site, I like that, too. You can scroll through each item, while his menu remains static on the left-hand side.