As originally assigned, the ISP523 Final Project is intended to present
academic research in the form of a Website. With permission I set out
to develop a different sort of site. That is, an e-commerce site for
a business owned by my good friend Joe Cantiello. Although there are
substantial disparities
between these two sorts of efforts, I did make a concerted effort to
remain true to the tenets of the original assignment. Thus, you will
find
a template
for an online business, and a substantial amount of research.
What follows is commentary on each individual page, with the exception
of the survey. It must be noted that all citation information will
be found on this page, rather than within the body of the Grateful
Gifts catalog.
This was done to preserve the desired commercial look of the catalog.
To
avoid any misunderstanding, each such commentary is hyperlinked to
the page it discusses. Despite this lapse from traditional arrangement,
all research
is meticulously documented in official APA style.
The Grateful
Gifts Home Page, as do the majority of pages in the catalog, features
entirely original art work, and I am especially pleased with the banner.
It was while struggling with designing the
Home Page that I came up with the notion of adding some sort of literary
content. This ultimately took the form of select quotes or poems, which
are relevant to the material at hand. The first such poem is found
at the bottom of the Home Page, and appears sequentially in stanzas.
After a bit of reading, I found this particular poem discussed as one
of several possible explanations for how the Grateful Dead chose their
name. (1) In the end, I didn't choose it because it offered the
most
likely
explanation
for
a
rather
interesting name. Instead, it was selected because it helps set a poetic
tone, which I feel is ideal for the intended audience.
The Grateful
Gifts Body Gear Page is meant to introduce the
viewer to two facts. The first is that Grateful Gifts is a tremendous
source
for
incredible
T-shirts.
The second is that they stock a complete line of hip body gear. The
banner is the first of a few that are done with similar font, color,
and effects. This was done to add a degree of continuity
to the catalog, despite the fact that each page was intended to have
a unique look. This particular page began with a very brief interview,
in which I visited Mr. Cantiello, threw some ideas at
him, and left a short while later with a number of T-Shirts to experiment
with. (2) I finally settled on a T-shirt featuring the work of renowned
artist Ed Donahue. The shirt was subsequently folded, fiddled with, and
scanned
numerous times, until a desirable rendition was captured. Photo Shop
finished the process, and I think the resulting image has a really nice
quality to it. The text that corresponds to this image is also a Photo
Shop creation, and I think it matches the T-shirt perfectly. The page
closes with a humorous quote regarding clothes by Mark Twain. Although
the majority of the quotes on the Grateful Gifts Website were all ready
familiar, I did make use of an online reference source to guarantee accuracy
of each such quote or poem. (3)
The Grateful
Gifts Drums Page was my first chance to
experiment with my new Nikon COOLPIX 4300, and I immediately discovered
that it was one sweet little camera.
I met up again with Mr. Cantiello, and we shot several sets of photos,
until we finally got
a picture that was just right. (4)
The Photo Shop "texturizer" disguises the fact that the djembe
sits in front of an old blue blanket, while the "find edges" filter
gives the djembe a vibrant glowing appearance. This page continues another
trend that was started on the Home Page. Namely, selected text is highlighted
in purple. I feel that this results in a hip look, and of course, serves
to accent desired words and phrases. In this instance, the text includes
supporting
material from drums.org which defines
the djembe from several perspectives. (5) The page closes with a favorite
quote from Henry David Thoreau.
The Grateful
Gifts Gallery Page introduces visual art as an essential part of
the Grateful Gifts Catalog. It also acts as a portal to four other
pages,
all of which are devoted to local artist Steve Solimanto. The first of
these pages presents an interview with Mr. Solimanto, while the latter
three
offer digital renderings of his original art work.
This page
also features over a dozen relevant quotes, which display sequentially
at five second intervalss, at the bottom of the page. Varying from
humorous to profound, the quotes are meant to inspire, and set
a cultural tone suitable to a gallery
displaying
fine
art.
The Grateful
Gifts Interview Page is meant to offer artists a place to talk
about themselves. I like to think of it
as a chance to get to know
an artist
as a person, rather than as a set of impressions generated while viewing
their work. This particular interview is devoted to local artist Steve
Solimanto, and covers a wide range of topics, from the Grateful Dead
to experimentation with various forms and techniques. Both the interview
and the images presented are the result of several lengthy but enjoyable
meetings. (6) Beyond the content of this page,
there was also a strong desire to create a
page, which was laid out in similar fashion too a page from Outside magazine,
which I have long admired for its style.
Gallery
Page 1, Gallery
Page 2, and Gallery
Page 3 are laid out in the simplest possible fashion, so as to
allow undivided attention on the art itself. All images appear coutesy
of Steve Solimanto.
SOURCES
(1)
Dead FAQ: How did they get the name? (n.d.). Retrieved November 15, 2003
from
ftp://gdead.berkeley.edu/pub/gdead/miscellaneous/faq1.2
(2)
J. Cantiello, personal interview, November 24, 2003.
(3)
The Quotations Page-Your Source for Famous Quotes
http://www.quotationspage.com
(4)
J. Cantiello, personal interview, November 26, 2003.
(5)
Djembe L-FAQ: Djembe. (n.d.). Retrieved November 18, 2003 from
http://www.drums.org/djembefaq/glossary.htm
(6)
S. Solimanto, personal interview, December 4, 2003
S. Solimanto, personal interview, December 5, 2003
