Design Journal 3: the menu
Ever since I discovered my site’s identity, I was quickly able to overcome some of the things that were blocking my progress, one of those things was the menu. Before choosing what the identity of the site would be, all of my menu design attempts just felt awkward, and out of place.
The first menu attempt was this:
I distinctively remember that at the time when I made this I said to myself: “Ok, I know I want to give this site a Web 2.0 look, but this is pushing my luck: gradients, big letters, reflexions and rounded corners, and this is only the header!”
So that menu was quickly ripped to shreds. Then came attempt number two:
Even though this clearly had a Web 2.0 element to it, and look a little bit nicer (in my opinion, it didn’t fit with the whole design. It was at this time that I started thinking to myself that I was making a mistake with the whole project.
I wasn’t looking at the whole picture. I thought that if I had the header done, the rest of the design would just flow in naturally. I guess I overestimated my capabilities…
What really save the site’s design was the identity I found for it. By choosing the name “Reflexions” for the design, I immediately entered a brainstorm, and hundreds of ideas started flowing in. The first attempt at the menu’s design, since then, was this:
Although I have tweaked it since then, when I look at the design now, it feels “right”. The elements feel much closer to each other than before. The next visual element I will try to use in the side columns will be the blue strike.
Hopefully, I will be able to achieve some effect that makes it seem that the letters are breaking out of it, like the hawk’s head. At least that is the intention.
