simplyjas.com/blog

This time round, I designed a shopping website - An Immanuel Valentine’s. Immanuel means God is with us.

To me, this is a really very challenging project. Not only I started the html coding from scratch, I was also restricted from using the brushes I have in Photoshop. Since this project is for commercial purpose, I can only use the basic brushes Photoshop provides, instead of those nice and fanciful brushes other people have created.

This project was given to me only yesterday (12 Jan 08) and I was supposed to do everything before monday (13 Jan 08). Given the limited tools for designing, I tried to make the banner of the website.

In the end, I only managed to come out with this banner on Saturday.

After creating the heart shape, the design was still plain. So, i went online and used this quote “For yesterday’s memories, today’s love, and tomorrow’s dreams I love you“. Couldnt find who’s the author of this quote.

Then today, I was told that the banner was too plain. I think.. think.. and think.. Finally,I made use of the little flowers Photoshop has and created this:

So, I created the html codes. I was told to make the website looks something like my blog(for your information, it is called Iframe). That means only the middle portion(the blog entries) refreshes on its own, without the whole page to be reloaded. I tried a lot of times to create the codes, but it did not work. The html codes seemed to be broken. After trying like dont-know-how-many-times, I successfully make the links work.

Then, created the little logos.

Then, added the content. Beautify it. Create Google Calendar, Hit Counter etc.

I was happily doing all these things in Geocities and suddenly, I saw the terms and conditions for using the Free web hosting service. No commercial purposes is allowed. So, I had to transfer everything to blogger.

Actually, at the “EARLY BIRD SPECIAL” section, I was thinking of doing a marquee on the products. But in the end, it was changed to the Early bird section. The flowery design at the Early bird section was copied from the banner. I did a color balance- so it changes from a pinky color scheme to a brown color scheme. Personally, I like the arrangement of this flower pattern. I didnt expect myself to come out with this swirling effect of the flowers(See Banner)

My own rating of this design(5 stars MAX):

See the number of hours I’ve devoted on this design.. and this is the reason why mummy is nagging me now.. I think i need a break..

My Time Log
5 hours doing the basic html codes
2 hours adding the content
1.5 hours designing banner and logos.