I created the website with the extremely pretty name “Abgeschminkt & Ausgezogen” (which roughly translates to “Removed make-up & undressed”) as part of the 2018/2019 subject work at the Adolph-Kolping-Berufskolleg in Münster.
The broad main theme “Zoom!” offered the possibility of various interpretations. I decided on the area of sustainability because it could be understood and elaborated in the sense of “Zoom!” as a suggestion or “zooming in” on the problem.
DISCIPLINES COPYWRITING, PHOTOGRAPHY, WEB DESIGN, GRAPHICS
SUBMITTED 08.12.2018
IDEA & CONCEPT
At the beginning, I was spoilt for choice and had to decide on a field of education. There was a choice between film, photography, graphic design and web design – I chose web design. Film was never really “mine”, I leave that to those with a real knack for it. Only with photography and picture series could I have packaged too little information for my taste. So I vacillated between graphic design and web design, but decided on web design because I was very interested in it and preferred to create a fairly compact website instead of having to print lots of posters or flyers – which is not sooo environmentally friendly either.
My project had to be related to sustainability and still fit in with the overall theme of “Zoom”. During the school year, I created a collection of topics and thought about what I could do about them. Then I wrote down possible sub-points and ideas for individual pages. My main concern was to show how easy it is to make everyday life more sustainable. Since the thematic sub-items harmonise wonderfully and are closely linked, I finally decided to focus on fashion and minimalism, but also included related information and tips from similar subject areas, such as beauty, and shared personal experiences with visitors.
DESIGN
After sketches and doodles, I decided on the current branding. I chose the classic green – in keeping with the environment. As a cheerful splash of colour, it blends in wonderfully with the rest of the design. The logo had to fit the theme both visually and emotionally. That’s why I decided on a very nature-oriented design and let myself be inspired by the bushes in the garden when creating it and added the pop accent colour. So the logo now looks rather playful and natural, in no way strict – because I didn’t want to proselytise, but to encourage people to think. I created the social media icons for my website “Abgeschminkt & Ausgezogen”. Towards the end of my work process, however, I exchanged them for simpler icons in order to achieve a calmer overall picture at the bottom of the page.
INTERESTING INSIGHTS, PROBLEMS & SOLUTIONS
For me, it was once again confirmed how important good preparation and planning are in order not to have extra work afterwards. In addition, the project has brought me a big step forward in terms of web design, as I have never before spent so much time on a single task in this area – and have never before dived so deeply into the subject matter. Unfortunately, I was the only one in my class who chose web design. In my group there were otherwise only people from a parallel class whom I didn’t know and with whom I had hardly any contact. This made it a bit difficult to exchange ideas outside of the counselling sessions. However, I compensated for this with suggestions from my classmates and friends in order to get more feedback – looking back, this was a brilliant decision because they paid attention to things that I didn’t even notice “in my web design mania”.
THE RESULT
We already knew at the beginning of the apprenticeship that we would have to write a technical paper. So I used the school year to make notes and collect ideas. It took about six months to complete. At the end of the year, we organised an exhibition of the subject work with a prize-giving ceremony for the other classes and the public.
The result is a fairly simple website that provides information on how you can easily do something for the environment in everyday life and live more sustainably. There is also a reference to minimalism, because conscious consumption and passing on used things is simply part of it for me. For me, the website still doesn’t feel finished because there is simply so much more that could be added to this broad topic. The project could certainly be expanded further as a kind of “online guidebook”.
At the beginning, I also had a hard time with the “great freedom” and had to restrict myself a little and set limits so as not to have only a half-finished “too ambitious” project at the end of the processing time. The project was characterised by a lot of freedom in concept and design. Basically, everything was open to us. Criticism and suggestions from the group and teachers were appropriate and helped me move forward by encouraging me to think about certain elements again.
I was very happy with the result – the website – considering that it was my first self-coded website. I even won the prize for the exhibition of my subject. The documentation, on the other hand, didn’t please me as much, because my focus was simply on the website and I didn’t concern myself too intensively with the documentation. Even though I would do things differently today, I am proud that I was able to set up a complete web project all by myself in such a short time.
CREDITS
However, I have not managed entirely without the work of other dear people. Here you can find a list of my resources.
Licence-free icons from Iconmonstr
Licence-free images from Pixabay
Script: Map Carousel
From: Kreig Durham
Script: Tabs
From: jmso23
Script: contact form
From: Ondrej Svestka
Script: text animation
From: vipulmirajkar