For the last few weeks, I have been designing a brunch website called “TheBrunchNYC” (name still pending revision upon further reflection). My aim is to design a visually engaging, colorful, lively, and fun website that people can use as both a resource and as a space to share their personal brunch narratives and their amazing food photography. I envision TheBrunchNYC.com as a place where fellow brunch enthusiasts and overall foodies can get together online, explore new venues and cuisines, and share their personal experiences.
Since receiving feedback from both my Media Design and Web Design classes, I had to reconsider many of my initial design choices: the information architecture (organization), the naming of the categories in the navigation menu, the placement of the navigation menu on the screen upon visiting the subpages, as well as the overall editorial layout design. (I’m still wondering about where I should add a search bar, in case visitors want to use keywords to look up buzzwords associated with brunch, like “eggs benedict,” “chicken and waffles,” “bottomless pitchers,” “mimosas,” or “bellinis.”)
I want the focus to remain on the vibrancy of the food photography and on people’s stories. The stories can themselves be reviews, but I want the focus to be centered on the personal reflections on what got people excited about choosing a brunch spot in the first place and how the experience made them feel. People choose to eat out for a number of reasons, and brunch is one of the most popular ways to celebrate. It could be for a birthday, a graduation, a reunion, a bachelorette party, a small get-together after church, a team meeting among employees, an excuse to get out of the house after sleeping in late, or simply even just a hangover cure (such as at The Remedy Diner on 245 E. Houston Street, which I highly recommend, by the way, for their excellent eggs menu and the fact that they’re open 24 hours).
Mood & Color Board
Below is a mood board I created with a color palette based on the colors in some of the photographs I plan to use on the website. The idea remains the same: black text upon a white background for the logos, navigation links, and body text. All other colors will pop out from the photographs so that the visual focus remains on the food. My chosen font is Playfair Display. I chose it because it’s more of a quirky yet legible and not-so-boring serif cousin of Times New Roman. (That, and because I adore it aesthetically.)
Design Compositions
The last couple of images are two design compositions: one for the homepage, and the other as a sample for one of the other subpages, such as “Hot Spots” (a category name I designated for brunch spots by neighborhood). Each one was revised from my previous post about TheBrunchNYC.
Homepage
Subpage: “Hot Spots”
It’s still an on-going work-in-progress, as you can see from above. Writing the HTML and CSS code from scratch, however, is another struggle for a beginner web designer that’s best saved for another story.
As always, I’m open to constructive feedback. Thanks!
