Design brief: Sam Odio's personal site & blog, a Small Websit...

Dates

Starts:26-Dec-10 3:53 p.m. GMT

Ends:3-Jan-11 3:53 p.m. GMT

Awards: Award 1: $625, was awarded to Mbernad

Formats: Layered PSD, JPG,

Contract: Preview: crowdSPRING Contract

Materials

File 1: IMG_2054.JPG (2.7 MB)

File 2: IMG_1019.JPG (2.3 MB)

File 3: IMG_1061.JPG (2.3 MB)

File 4: IMG_1974.JPG (2.8 MB)

File 5: Face.JPG (265.2 KB)

File 6: MBlueRadialBlur.jpg (2.6 MB)

File 7: TJonSky_1.jpg (274.3 KB)

File 8: Locker.JPG (257.1 KB)

Creative brief

The buyer added updates to the brief. Read them.

Business Name

sam.odio.com

What do you do?

I'm a startup guy that's into photography. View more about me here: http://www.linkedin.com/in/samodio

I'm looking for a beautiful design for my personal site & blog.

Do you have a desired website screen size?

Please design to 800 x 600 (preferred) or 1024 x 768.

How many pages (maximum of 5) do you need designed?

What is your industry?

Startups, Photo sharing

Describe the target audience for your website design

Startup community (ie, http://news.ycombinator.com)

What 3 things would you like to communicate to your audience through your website design

1) You need to communicate that I'm Sexy and Fun.
2) I'd also like the site to be informative. I've posted the titles of a bunch of example articles here: http://sam.odio.com/
3) I don't know, you can pick the third.

How is your company different from your competitors?

N/A

What website design styles do you like?

Here are some themes that I like:
http://s.ma.tt/files/2010/06/2010-theme-compare... (see one on left)
http://hugsformonsters.com/
http://dribbble.com/shots/93105-Noise?list=popu...
http://dribbble.com/shots/92800-Astrocoast-3?li...
http://dribbble.com/shots/93132-Cocaine?list=po...

Use of stock photography is heavily discouraged. However, if you must, this is the kind of stuff I like:
- http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup.php?id=...
- http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-illustration-3...
- http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-illustration-7...

What colors do you want to see in your website design?

I'm completely flexible here.

What colors do you NOT want to see in your website design?

Hot pink, everywhere, would suck.

What adjectives should best describe your website design?

fun, wacky, interesting

What content must be included in the website design?

See the content listed below. Some of this can be on separate pages (ie, "about" and my projects should probably be on a different page). Other stuff can just be in the margin (ie, find me elsewhere & contact info).

My Projects
- Facebook Photos
- Divvyshot
- Dinarprofits
Find me elsewhere:
- Facebook
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
Blog Tags
Contact info
About

Do you have additional requirements or links you want to share?

I've uploaded a bunch of sample photos that I've taken. Feel free to use them.

Brief updates

27-Dec-10 2:23 p.m. GMT: I actually only need one or two pages designed:
- Blog homepage
- Blog entry page (kind of optional)

I love that just a few popular articles are highlighted with this design:
http://robgoodlatte.com/

The layout on this blog is solid:
http://365daysofastronomy.org/

Clean is always good:
http://tincorporated.com/
http://happylandfill.com/

Fun designs are, well fun (but harder to execute than clean):
http://ok.cogaoke.com/
http://carsonified.com/
http://www.colourpixel.com/

I generally dislike the predictable & cheap blog layout that I see everywhere: A huge header, then set of links, then a couple columns. Ma.tt is the only site I know of that does this layout well. Please don't send me designs like this:
http://www.oswd.org/design/preview/id/3557
http://www.oswd.org/design/preview/id/3533
http://www.oswd.org/design/preview/id/3551
http://www.oswd.org/design/preview/id/3459
http://www.oswd.org/design/preview/id/3560
http://www.oswd.org/design/preview/id/3569

Most of those are way to busy for a simple site like mine (which only really needs 3 links): Projects / About / Blog
27-Dec-10 2:32 p.m. GMT: I'm looking through design portfolios on the site and a few of them are FULL of those standard, boring layouts (ie: http://www.crowdspring.com/project/2284410_word...).

Yuck!

This is your chance to let loose and try something more creative! My only *hard* requirements are:
1) The homepage must show previews of 2 (or more) recent blog articles
2) Users need to be able to navigate between: Blog / Projects / About
27-Dec-10 10:09 p.m. GMT: You know, really even those two aren't hard requirements. Build the design that you've always been wanting to build. I want to see some fun crazy stuff!
27-Dec-10 11:52 p.m. GMT: Here are a bunch of other blog designs that I love:

http://www.jasongraymusic.com/
http://www.thepixel.com/blog/
http://www.theycallmemarty.com/
http://www.talandacacia.com/journal
http://www.contrast.ie/blog/
http://www.lamalla.cl/
http://aworkinglibrary.com/
http://heliumworkx.com/
http://trentwalton.com/
http://www.darrenhoyt.com/about/
http://www.informationarchitects.jp/en/
http://iemai.com.br/blog/
http://www.crayonslife.com/my_blog
http://douglasmenezes.com/wp/blog/
http://www.idsgn.org/posts/
http://www.questionablecharacters.com/
http://www.sushimonstr.com/
http://rin-wendy.com/
http://www.lordlikely.com/
http://tehcpeng.net/

Sam Odio's personal site & blog a small website (uncoded) project by srosro