This project was meant to showcase a designer by embodying their values and art and immersing the viewer in their work. I chose John Maeda as my designer because the things he has created are not only visually compelling but have pushed the boundaries of design alongside technology forward. A lot of John Maeda's work is digital interactive design. This is something that I wanted to incorporate into my design by the use of motion. Fluid animations play a large part in signifying the user throughout the website. Each page has a backdrop of animated digital lines. These represent the mathematical and coded work that Maeda did. The website layout is separate pages for home, about, philosophy, work and contact. The project successfully told a story about John Maeda and his values as a designer while embracing a pleasant and simplistic website design.
A strong focus of this project besides honoring John Maeda was UI and UX. This project taught me a lot about the users point of view and incorporating feedback and signals to the user that are almost subliminal. I wanted to make the flow of the website simplistic and easy to navigate which I did using a navigation menu that opens on the right side of the site. The black and white color scheme was used to simplify the site and compliment much of Maeda's work which was done digitally in black and white. The type used is Hind Jalandhar. This sans-serif type felt appropriate to me because of its easy readability and smooth controlled strokes. It felt slightly futuristic enough to represent Maeda pushing the boundaries of digital design. For a more in depth walkthrough of the website click here.