Lisa Kokin

This is a strong website.  The only thing I do not like is the background.  I hate white backgrounds.  They are so boring.  If there are is only a small amount of white it is not so bad.  It starts of with a bang.  One of the first things i noticed was the art at the top.  It is huge and really stands out.  Also, she has a lot of information on her website.  She has different works, pricing, and a little about her.  Her footer area is organized really well.  You can get on her mailing list, her studio location is right there with a map (which is convenient.  Also, you can look at different galleries she is a part of and learn some things about art all from her website.

Daniel Essig

I like his website a lot.  The header shows a bunch of his work.  I like that because you can already get an idea of his type of art.  It interested me almost immediately.  Also, there are a lot of links to go to on his navigation.  His website was easy to navigate through.  I like how when you take you mouse over the links they would drop down with more options.  I like websites that do that.  They are well organized.

Ellie Brown

This website is awful.  The background clashes with the type.  It was very lacking. The typography is horrid.  You might like it though.  There is barely any variation. One thing I liked was how when you moved the mouse over the navigation tab the possible options to go under the navigation popped up below. 

Frank Turek

This is a good website.  It is easy to navigate through.  It starts off strong because his homepage contains a sample of his work at the very top.  You could cycle through certain pieces.  His navigation links were unique.  The links were located at the bottom of the navigation bar, where as i think they should be in the center.  His typography could use some work. His gallery page was really strong.  It had four columns, two images in each column.  One image was the inside of a book he has created and the picture next to it was the cover of his book. 

Shutter Island

This is a great website layout.  the typography is done very well.  There are very few fonts.  The designer uses color and size to make the same fonts appear different.  Also, the background is phenomenal.  The island is where the whole movie takes place and the picture of the face is the main character.  His name is above the title of the movie.  Also, the background is very dark and gloomy which is an accurate feel of the movie.  There is even a critique of the movie.  This was done very well.

Layouts

This website has some good and bad points to it. I like the main layout of everything.  There are videos which can show what your website is about or samples of your work.  The two boxes on the very left at the bottom leaves room for good content. However, the four boxes at the bottom would look better if they were all the same size.  It looks awkward with having two different sizes.  Also, I am not sure if the red outline is supposed to be there or if it is to just show the box.  The red outlines should not be used to create a border.  

Amazon

I think that Amazon has a strong layout for their website.  Everything is easy to find.  The login area is one of the first options that i se.  Once logged in it is easy to navigate around your page.  Also, around the page they have deals and sales that you can look into.  It flows so easily.  This relates to what we are doing in class because we need our websites to flow and easily accessible.

Repeating Layout

I really like the idea of a repeated form in design layouts, however I think this one could have been done a litter better.  It is great how the second box back has two different pictures from the first.  I think color would be a good way to make things stand out so this repeating them could be stronger.  This relates to what we are doing in class because we need to know how to use techniques like this in our work to make our own designs stronger. 

Sweet Layout

I like the idea of this website. The spacing is strong.  I think the color scheme is a little weak.  It is very bland.  It would be good to use brighter colors for type and other certain areas. It would add some pizazz to it.  Also, I like how each different option shows heirarchy.  This relates to what we are doing in class because we need to think of good ways to signify correct heirarchy. 

The Surf Zone

This website has some good aspects to it.  For example, the color scheme works well.  It is not out there.  The colors are simple and the text is easy to read on the background.  The possible links that one can go to make sense.  There is news about the team, information about the website and videos and pictures.  This relates to what we are doing in class because this is similar to what we need to do for a website:good color scheme, well-placed links and a strong layout. 

Recipes

I really like this as a background for a recipe website.  The navigation could be held in the roller or the header could be in the roller.  The content could be held on the index cards.  Some pictures could be placed around the cards.  This relates to what we are doing in class because we need to be able to work in backgrounds like this to our websites.