The biggest job I had besides helping with the logo, the showreel and looking at finances was creating the website. Originally I had planned to create it from scratch using basic HTML but decided it would probably look better and be a lot more efficient to use a pre-existing platform. I looked at both 'Format' and 'Square Space' at platforms to host the site but eventually went with Format because it was recommended to me by a friend. The site was fairly straight forward and offered a range of options in terms of layout and different default set ups for the site itself. It was also easy to add text and images, simply by uploading them onto a selected page it meant the images would be visible. Furthermore, we had planned to have a show reel page on the site dedcated to hosting our showreel, and with the embedding options that were available through Vimeo's link to the site this was done with no problems. The issue I did have with the site during this process, is that because it was a free trial I wasn't able to edit any of the code myself and wasnt able to arrange any of the items so I was quite limited in this respect. Despite this I was still able to add the text and images I wanted to pages without too much difficulty. In terms of the sites aesthetic I wanted it to be cohesive with out branding. To do this I made it as simply as possible with only three colours; black, white and the green used in the logo. As well as this the default layout that I chose for the website was also incredibly minimalist, and I think this worked out overall. There is five pages on the site, and again, I tried to keep the number of pages to an amount that were essential. There is a home page, a page with the show reel on it, a portfolio page, and about page and a contact page. I think it's good to have everything spread out onto it's own webpage without there being too many, and it means that users of the website will be able to find anything they're look for because it has its own page. The most time consuming aspect of creating a site like this was creating assets to go on the webpages and collecting images. For example, the image on the home page was made on Photoshop by taking five seperate images of our work and cutting them together to create a visual representation of the variation in our work. I think if I was going to make a site for real it would definitely be worth paying for a subscription in order to access the services platforms like this have to offer. I would also of liked to experiment with other platforms such as 'Square Space' as I think it would be interesting to see how the different sites support the portfolio based website that is required for this type of scenario.
I'm relatively happy with the way the website turned out and in such a short amount of time. I was also happy that it was well recieved with the rest of the group and that they were content with the work I had done and the decision that I'd make with it. I think it has given me valuable experience in the options that are available and the decision that have to be made when creating a web based portfolio to host images of work and information about a brand or even an individual. Finally, I've discovered the advantages and disadvantages regarding the different levels of accessibility that platforms offer, which I believe are definitely worth paying for if you're serious about creating a website and it's an affordable price.
www.pixelpocketstudios.format.com
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