Martin Laver Portfolio

Statue Stock Photography

adminmartin — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 20:47:27 +0000

11 photographs free for use in both personal and commercial work!
Download it here.

Designers MX – Music

adminmartin — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 16:00:17 +0000

Designers MX is where all sorts of designers post their favourite play-lists of things they listen to whilst they work.
I used to just throw on Radio 1 but all the talk of A-Levels and Tiny Tempah has started to make me feel old. I have found a lot of great indie music through this and there are a ton of interesting playlists. I just hope the lawyers of the big music companies don’t discover this too soon!

Filters – Used right.

adminmartin — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 13:23:52 +0000

Using the default filters and effects in software is something I try to stand clear of. I don’t like that people can easily see what I have done, I guess I like maintaining some mystery! Badly misjudged feathering, the default yellow Photoshop glow, Wordart plastered across a PC store’s window…These things really make me want to avoid most things found in an effects menu!

But sometimes, you see a use of a feature that is obvious, but its perfect. One item I came across recently was this album cover made by a media student. Illustrator’s trace function was clearly used to create the artwork but the settings chosen really worked. It gives a great impression and the text overlayed on top blends works well.

I always found the trace-effect feature was never able to give me the output I wanted. Maybe I should rethink my attitude and spend more time with it.

Vintage Japanese Graphic Design

adminmartin — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 10:53:07 +0000

The one thing that strikes me about Japanese Graphic Design, modern or vintage is how simple the designs are. In the West, posters seem to be filled with information and the challenge in designing them is working on a layout where all the information is legible.

In a way, I often feel like Japanese graphic designs tends to be simplistic to the point where it looks perhaps outdated or a couple of decades behind. But I like it. Posters should be attractive, fun and appealing.

I’m definitely going to head to Pink Tentacle’s article on vintage poster designs when I need to come up with a layout.

Great Photographer

adminmartin — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 10:44:22 +0000

I love looking through Deviant Art’s latest uploads. There is so much artwork to see and so many great people to discover.

Lady Tori seems to have taken the things I like the most and made a series of photographs containing them.

Japanese things, Amazon, mascot characters and clever depths of field. Simple things brought together to make some really great photographs. I really want to get some prints for the flat.

Deviant Art is a great place to discover new people. The huge range of people using it provides such a varied source of inspiration. It really is the first place I visit when I’m stuck for ideas.

Inspiration – Meomi

adminmartin — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 10:37:08 +0000

I have recently discovered the Meomi website which I instantly fell in love with.

The design really shows what you can do with a little imagination without needing too much advanced technology. Even the illustration and animation is very simple but done so well. It really makes me want to dust-off Flash and make something similar myself. I wish I had a client that could use something like this!

Its a site that you really want to explore thoroughly, hovering over every little item to reveal little details that bring the page to life.

I quickly found my way to the wallpapers to stock up on some great artwork. I must stop myself from looking at their store on payday.

Visit Meomi here. Its very cool.

Webgoop

adminmartin — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 10:12:08 +0000

Summary:
This is the webpage for my own personal freelancing business. I wanted it to be colourful but simple, demonstrating the ability to be creative without impacting on showing a professional front.

Project Aim:
Needs to be colourful, interesting and professional.
Needs to work cross-browser.
Requires a reliable enquiry method.
Requires room for expansion.

Process:
I began by sketching a site map of the information I want the site to have.
I wanted a ‘plant’ theme to give the impression of growth and development. My logo and site design both needed to incorporate this.
The colour theme of the site needed to match the logo, so I chose my CSS colours from the logo.
I decided to use WordPress as my platform as WordPress already has features that would be useful to me such as enquiry forms and menu generation.

Seth Evans

adminmartin — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 10:11:08 +0000

Summary:
This company wanted a homely feel but wanted the design to reinforce that they also do more expensive bespoke work.

Project Aim:
Must feature wood textures somewhere.
Must contain placeholders for images that are yet to be sourced.
Requires lots of photography.
Easy to read.

Process:
I started by researching their competitors and reviewing what worked and didn’t work on their websites.
I sketched 3 rough designs to get a feel for which colours and layout the client personally preferred.
The supplied materials such as the logo and imagery were scanned and low-quality. I needed to redraw the logo and recolour the photography.
I built the site using an edited version of WordPress’s TwentyTen theme as the layout was too similar to justify creating a theme from scratch.

My Knees Are Laughing

adminmartin — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 10:10:09 +0000

Summary:
My Knees Are Laughing is a resource for students of the Japanese language. I created it because finding resources myself was challenging and I wanted to put all of the high quality materials I found in one place both for my own reference and other people’s reference.

Project Aim:
Strong navigation to browse the categories and find similar materials.
Colourful to reinforce that studying doesn’t need to be dull.
Easy to update and quickly add new content.

Process:
I began by finding an interesting background image.
I matched my CSS colours to elements in the background.
The navigation area was arranged so that it was clear and easy to use.
Templated the images and layout of each item to keep sizes constant.

HandRated (Design in Progress)

adminmartin — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 10:06:34 +0000

Summary:
The purpose of this website is to create a large trustworthy corporatation impression even though its run by a very small team. The function of the business is to provide a very deep analysis of a company’s web site’s SEO and produce reports.

Project Aim:
Big banners underneath all sections.
Needs a professional large-business feel.
Use blue as a main colour but not too light or not too dark – neutral.
Don’t have blocks of content too close to each other, always have a space between items.

Process:
I began by researching competitors in the market. There were a wide range of competitors ranging from small-and-friendly to large-scale businesses. I took the appropriate aspects of the large-scale sites to incorporate into my initial designs.
Variations of the designs in different shades of blue were submitted to find out which shade of blue the client felt was most appropriate.