Brighton Wordpress Company Sites

Since we had a Workshop from the Brighton Wordpress Company it felt prudent to investigate sites that they had designed. 

Sources: http://www.clipso.co.uk/

http://www.brightonwp.com/work/clipso/

This Clipso website is clean, sharp and picture orientated, I like its overall simplicity which works well on a mobile platform. Clear images offset the plain logo and background which ensures that the sites content is the main focal point. The top bar navigation is very again very simple to use and I like the sliding gallery as the main header which integrates both colour and movement. As Brighton Wordpress iterates "The site design is sleek and reflects Clipso’s cutting edge collections" (2014). Visually this site has been created to really cement the company's branding an aspect that I should consider when making my own event. 

Sources:http://www.brightonwp.com/work/bulldog-film-distribution/

http://www.bulldog-film.com/

The bulldog website similarly relies on images as focal page points but I think its got a bit more personality in comparison.  The  home page is divided into 3 horizontal segments which really helps to separate the display of information. The first segment depicted in the screen shot above is a fill the page image with text and navigational links atop it, the second segment three photographs (which lead to their respective pages) and a short paragraph underneath and the third is text and images divided into two columns. As a responsive site these columns break into one when viewed on a mobile platform. The menu bar at the top sticks to the top of the page so when scrolling downwards it remains constantly at the top of the page, a useful feature for long pages because it makes it easier for the user to navigate away after they have finished on the page. 

Sources:http://www.brightonwp.com/work/brighton-digital-festival/

http://www.brightondigitalfestival.co.uk/events/

Out of all of the sites that Brighton Wordpress have designed the Brighton Digital Festival page is perhaps the one thats the most useful, because its an event.  There are again clear segments that divide information on long pages and basic columns that divide up content on various pages. The search section on the event page is something that we have to include and I like how its been used as a header on that particular page it makes it easier for the user to navigate  through the large amount of content. The logo occupies the top left of the screen (a common aspect in many of the sites I have looked at) and whilst the simple colour scheme and layout provide coherence, the branding makes the site boring. Though this could be down to the eclectic nature of the event itself I think in order to draw more interest a stronger brand could have been employed. 

So far I am getting the sense that the Brighton Wordpress Company uses very similar templates to make it's site because to my mind at least they all operate in similar manners. This is actually really encouraging because it means that I can use a similar simplistic layout but make the site more interesting through its overall branding.

Brighton Wordpress Workshop

Just after we got set the brief, the Brighton Wordpress Company gave us a workshop on how to use Wordpress and whilst it was pointed out that Wordpress themes could be structurally edited it was also advised that we find a theme as close to what we want it to look like because it would be harder to change certain aspects. It was further pointed out that the navigation was one of the more set elements so our themes should be chosen to consider that. Furthermore whilst themes could be found using the Wordpress dashboard we were advised to find our themes through google. Installing it as a separate zip file outside of the Wordpress dashboard allows us to get some content which makes it easier to see which bits of content are in which section. Themes aside we were also given a quick run through on plugins, again these are easily accessed through the Wordpress dashboard and seem fairly straightforward to manage. We practised integrating a SEO plugin and it was explained that in order to generate more traffic through our pages it was best to repeat as many of the same phrases throughout the pages as we could. The plugin that we were advised to use (because it had 4 stars and was a reliable plugin used by the company itself) alerted us that are pages were as optimised as possible through the use of green ticks. As final exercise we were also showed how pages worked within Wordpress and how they could be managed and navigated to, information hierarchy is particularly key in ensuring that these pages work smoothly so its an aspect that will be further considered.

Thoughts About The Event

I've looked into a lot of events and because I think picking an event needs to occur as soon as possible i'd actually like to to create my own- I feel like i'd be less influenced and have more freedom to design if I don't have to worry about the original site and branding. I'm pretty set on creating my own music festival event, during the summer I made some bits of artwork featuring set musicians, and I would really love to utilise them. Since we have specific pages that have to be made I could get my other bits of content of other gig and event pages and mix it with some of the bits that I've made. Making up this event myself really does afford me more creative freedom and I won't have to worry about conflicting original brand/sitedesign ideas, I can also create my own logos and additional extras to really make my site cohesive.  I have yet to run this plan past Sue but if I do get the go ahead I would be including the following musicians (bands and artists I love and have made artwork for): Nick Cave, Depeche Mode, Lorde and Paloma Faith.

Things to consider when designing my own event:

I'll need to find content
Design branding
Make up a name
Decide what my target audience is (which I think is somewhat reliant on the musicians I include)

Although I've given myself a wee bit more work - Im confident that this is the angle I want to pursue for this project- since I'm not a coder- I'm going to have to rely on both simplicity and design style to ensure that my site is visually appealing and functional.

Specified Music Festival Event Research

Music Events

After some initial research I have decided that i'm going to focus on some kind of music festival as my event mostly because I am more inspired to design for it and because I feel that theres more to work with. Designing for a specific tent/stage for Glastonbury is something that I am considering but before deciding fully I wanted to look at other existing music events and their respective websites.

I looked into the Reading site (because its popular and is one that I know of) and whilst its perfectly serviceable I think the overall site is very blocky and square and there are a few random square spaces that don't work well visually. Rather than having a logo banner at the top, like many of the sites I have already researched, the logo remains on the left hand side on every page. The navigation appears on the side and whilst its is easy to use, the pages themselves seem to be lacking in much content- something that could be rectified by condensing the pages together.  Looking at the site I would say that its primarily aimed at 20-30 year old males- which is perhaps why its so blocky (the logo matches this stylistically) although I guess the bold shapes and colour scheme also match the rock genre evidenced through the lineup. Despite this the site definitely has potential, currently its very clunky as a site and judging from the lineup it could do with a better rebrand (to something that would help to include a female target audience). 

 Source:http://www.readingfestival.com/

The T in the Park festival is another popular music festival (although I feel like its aimed at a younger audience) and is similarly clunky. The sites overall navigation runs smoothly (a permanent overhead navigation remains near the top of the page and on each of the pages there is a sub side navigation box) but much like the Reading page I feel like it has a very boxy feel and could do with condensing. As well as this I think it could also benefit from a rebrand (its own logo and site branding are incredibly weak) and I think it would be easier to redesign and rebrand this site because whilst the Reading site has similar issues its branding is a lot stronger than T in the Park's.

 Source: http://www.tinthepark.com/essentials/t2015.aspx

The Bestival site is one of the most fun and colourful event websites that I have looked at so far, it even has its own graphical opening page that you have to enter to reach the rest of the site. Its bright, colourful and fun (almost blindingly) and whilst I think that the pages are cluttered I really don't think I could redesign this since it works as a cohesive brand and site.

 Source:http://2014.bestival.net/line-up

Event Type Research

Im going to begin this project by first looking into the various events that I could make this site for, I want to find something thats broad enough to offer me enough content but not so large that its impossible to manage. Since I plan on designing logos and additional extras for this site I am aiming to find an event that I find interesting so I can really showcase my own deign style. The brief has given us a few examples of events so Im going to start with those categories.

Music Festivals

Glastonbury seems like the obvious music event choice, but it's one of my favourite festivals and is so eclectic that I think that I would be able to choose any design style. Undertaking it as a whole would be a herculean task but because there are so many stages and areas within Glastonbury I could instead focus on one of these sections and design for that. This would help to limit the amount of content I am managing and allow me to have some more stylistic input because I would be designing for a specific genre/stage . Having said this I do actually really like Glastonbury's website its bright bold and easy to navigate, and I particularly like how they have used simple boxes (that remind me of their headline act posters) to separate content along the page which clarifies which information is more important whilst retaining the Glastonbury's fun and hippyesc brand. Each of the pages on the website is short which works better when viewed on the mobile platform but it does mean that theres a lot of clicking on various links which take you to the other pages (I think that one page sites are generally more popular because they don't require user interaction) but because the navigation is very clear at the top and because it works stylistically I don't think that this is too much of an issue. However I have done a Glastonbury based project last year and though there are many angles that I could use to redesign the site I think that I would always end up being influenced by the current brand and website. So whilst it is a good site to look at to see how they have designed and managed their event I don't think I'll be designing for this one.

Source: http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/

Art Festivals

The Big Draw is probably one of the most well known art events and would completely suit my visual style. However looking at its website I think it would be very hard to design something different especially since it uses a lot of hand-draw elements (hand-drawn being my speciality) and I think that I would end up producing something that looked very similar. As a site I think its well laid out- theres obviously a lot of images which coincides with the events theme and I like the pencil look navigation at the top which makes the menu fun and noticeable. On each of the pages the top header remains a constant which ensures the overall continuity as well as making is easy to use (something to consider when designing my own Wordpress site). Whilst the site contains a lot its not very eclectic so I wouldn't be able to incorporate a different angle and for this reason I don't plan on using this event.

Source: http://www.thebigdraw.org/

Animation/Film Festival

 Since I love film and animation it seemed prudent to look into these types of festivals. The first animation festival I came across was this Bradford Animation Festival, I was drawn to it because of its bold banner and whilst I like the overall layout of the site (excluding the navigation which I think has been placed in a really odd position) I don't think the logo or the site itself really displays the animation theme. Lots more movement - or the illusion of movement could be added into the actual logo and site styling. Despite this the sites layout works really well, its home page relies on static photographs as navigation and I like its overall simplicity which places importance on the actual information.  Specifically I don't feel that this site needs to be redesigned (perhaps rebranded) but the animation/film festival event field could provide some interesting content to design for and is definitely a category I am considering for my chosen event.

Source: http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/BradfordAnimationFestival/WhatsOn

Digital Design Festivals

The London Digital Design Festival has a lot of potential- whilst it has a clear banner and simple navigation, the pages themselves are very cluttered and bland making it hard to see which information is more important. As well as this the logo is uninspiring and the site isn't responsive which makes it an incredibly blank slate and will possibly be easier to work with because of this. Since its a digital festival I think any style that I apply as branding will work (since we are partaking in a digital media course) although I would have to consider the overall target audience before deciding anything.  

Source: http://www.londondesignfestival.com/news

I've noticed in all of the event pages that I have looked at that - heading/logo/banners at the top of the screen are the norm along with navigation bars that are situated at the top (these seem like fairly standard elements in most webpages) but I should definitely consider these elements when looking for Wordpress themes. 

Wordpress Project

New Brief

We have been instructed to make a Wordpress site for an event of our choosing (music festivals, art conferences etc..). Our sites must be responsive and must include the following:

A home page with some information about the client.

An about page with detailed information.

A booking system

Detailed information about each event.

A news area

Contact info and a map.

An events calendar with categories.

A shop selling some merchandise using PayPal

A search bar.

A gallery page.

Ability to register and log-in.

A blog.

Links to social media, including some live social media feed.

An analytics system.

We can utilise Wordpress themes, plugins and frameworks, wireframes must be created and we must research the following:

Events/genre and target audience

Content

User experience/user ability

Plugins

Seo

Themes

Design layout 

Since web design (even using wordpress to do it) isn't my area I plan on designing a logo and some additional extras to place within my site- regardless of the event that I choose- just so I can try and inject some of my own design work and make if fun for myself. That being said I am very determined to create something that looks visually striking and Im hoping that Wordpress will make it easier for me (a non coder) to generate something that functions well and allows me to inject as much creativity as possible.