UPLOAD - TAKING PRINT TO THE WEB

I took this book out of the library as the title sounded perfect for my current brief, taking my design and layout from print media online to create Our Happy Place's web presence.

This book features 'fourteen case studies showing how top designers are taking their companies and their clients successfully from traditional print design to interactive Web design.' However, this book was published in 1998 and with the speed that web design is progressing, a book published in 2008 would be considered out of touch.

For that reason I do not feel that I can take much inspiration from the websites showcased within: none of them would even exist in these forms anymore. It seems that in 1998 there were only a few very basic things that could be done online and with very low resolution text and images, whereas almost anything can be achieved in web design and even a novice like myself could create something approaching professional and an expert can create almost anything. This book deals with companies taking their accomplished print designs and trying to fit them into that time's internet templates, and so that aspect won't help me. But surely the ideas remain the same?

In the introduction to the Cosmopolitan magazine case study it is stated that, '"The biggest challenge was making sure the Website was as clear and accessible as the print version," says Cosmopolitan Executive Editor Catherine Romano. "With the magazine, you read a headline, then the deck, and then the lead or the photo captions. We had to make sure that someone perusing the Website would never be confused."'

This corresponds with my web design, as the site must include elements of the visual hierarchy of the Annual Report in order for it to be followed easily and display information in a suitable manner. I feel that I can achieve this by using a similar style to the headings on the website as I did in the report and maintaining the clean orderliness of the text.

I do not feel that there is much else of use in the book, as the case studies themselves are just about the web design itself which is completely outdated and the introductions are often just an introduction into the design company's process and being new to the medium which again is very out of touch now.

Donnelly, D. (1998) Upload - Taking Print to the Web. Gloucester, USA, Rockport Publishers, Inc.