Okay, I’m mkaing the BWB site. I’m pretty sick of being stuck with a theme to tweak, and not being free to fully manipulate my … free… thing. Well, it makes sense. They want me to pay.

But I’m waiting to pay! I’m trying to do some research. I want a real website.

Today I discovered the difference between having a domain name and having hosting. Hosting is more expensive and gives you the flexibility, and, like, the site itself. The domain gives you the right to have the domain name. As I understand it.

There’s probably more to it than that. Kathy?

Ben says if I buy a domain name, AND hosting from WordPress, I can be free to fully manipulate my stuff. And do all that I want to do. But I’m skeptical.

Okay. What do I want to be done by the end of teh quarter? What do I want this site to be at minimum?

I want the skeleton to be up. I want the pages to be created. I want the space to store content, to be created. The website, all the pages, the navigation, the social media site links, the fonts, the configuration, the colors.

What I like most about the theme is the use of Impact up top. It’s clean, it’s honest and it does pop out at you, and it makes the title look good. The smaller page links in Impact all-caps below are similarly pleasing, in comparison with and apart from the larger title font. The underlining is attractive, as well, with the page you’re on being highlighted on the line below its link, changing with mouse hover.

Ideally, for my band’s purposes, we’re looking at using some pretty drippy, bloody, zombie fonts. Additionally I really like medieval-looking stuff. It just screams “METAL” to me.

I’m going to try not to use too many fonts on each page. I like simplicity and minimalism—meaning, a minimum of confusion. I’d rather be dry and clear any day than warm and confusing. As for this site here, that you’re reading now? I don’t like the italics for the entry titles and the dates. I’d lose them if I could. I do like the chandelier.

Helvetica really did change the way I think about type. Unlike the rest of my classmates, I assume, I went into the watching of this movie already interested and slightly vested in typefaces and fonts. It’s right up my alley. What works and what doesn’t, with letters, with shapes, with space? It’s all very interesting, and it seems the deeper you dive in, the more there is to explore.

First off, I love the bitchiness of the interview subjects. They know what they like and they design it. They have firm ideals and make beautiful work, all of them. I love the world they envelop themselves in and the gusto with which they talk about it. It’s exciting.

One issue I’ve wrestled with for a few years is that of white-on-black, and vice-versa. Black backgrounds are really cool—they lend a real darkness to a page, to the text you’re reading. Just because black text on a white background has been scientifically proven to increase reader comprehension, doesn’t make it cooler.

There is a bit of a reputation for white-on-black pages to be generally more amateurish than the opposite, and well-deserved, I must admit. Lots of metal websites use it, most of which write at a second-grade level. It’s embarrassing. I feel it’s my job to raise the bar for quality writing that uses white-on-black, so I’m sticking to it.

On my main blog, I’ve always used a white text on a black background. I’ve played around with many fonts, sizes and shades of white and grey. Among my white-on-black travels, I’ve found that the text has gotta be as white as you can get it (no greys—too hard to read), a non-serif font to increase clarity (like Arial or Helvetica), and large. If reader comprehension is already gonna be low,  you may as well try to minimize it as much as possible.

As for what’s different about typefaces and fonts? A typeface is the way the letters look, and a font is a version of that, like bold, with X-# pt. value. There ya go. They’re used interchangeably cause people are idiots, alright? Whaddaya want me to say? The difference is subtle—that could be why.

Benton Sans via MyFonts – I like this one. Clean. Fresh. Slim. All fat trimmed. Looks good when fattened up, too. I could see using this one as the sole font in a work, but adding variety by sometimes thickening up the text. It could look cool. This is a font I might use for a business.

Orange Italics have some pretty boss fonts. If I could reasonably afford one, I’d go for it. Diamond actually looks kinda metal (click on the word–not here, on the OI site!) This one represents an elitism, uniqueness, a quiet sturdiness, and sharp edges. Metal. That’s me personally.

Where should I go to build my website, where I’m not restricted by WordPress’ themes? I’m sick of picking from mundane Charlie bullspit, when I could be building something real and cool.

Any ideas? I don’t want to be restricted by a theme to tweak, when I’m spending the money on a domain name. I want complete freedom.

I decided to focus on three of the four people in my group. Since Zack and I already sat down today and went over our projects, I’ll do:

Graham

Katie (4th comment down)

Shelby

This all makes me think I gotta get started really soon!

One thing I realized from RedheadWright’s comment on my Twitter-themed reading reflection post is that Twitter is an awesome resource for information. But if I need info, I’ll use Google. It’s so easy when you use Chrome for a browser–just type your search into the URL bar and there ya go. Easy. No page-changing necessary.

Today in class, when Kathy spoke of Storify and Paper.li, my mind was opened up a little to what can be done with organizing Twitter. I’m going to try those out and get back to ya!

My band is named Born Without Blood. We need a website to further advertise ourselves. Thusly, my final project for COM 495 will the the creation and execution of an official Born Without Blood website.

Who needs it:

–Those in search of modern, solid metal, with good songwriting and a narrative theme to the songs.

–Seattle. It’s too whiny here.

–Your mom.

–Those who miss Metallica and Megadeth’s early days.

Design ideas:

Minimalism, elitism, darkness, depravity, hatred, anger, death, love, parenthood, innocence lost, self-discovery.

Okay, but seriously, I envision black backgrounds. A sweet BWB logo on the front page. An intro page that says something like, “Enter.” A bigass logo. Some artwork, possibly. Nothing too distracting.

I want a design that lends itself to ease of navigation.

There will be, at the very least, News, About, Music, Pictures, and Links pages. (hm, we’ll have to take some pictures…)

The News page will be reverse-chronology, blog-style. Big, easy-to-read fonts for the main text, and metal-medieval-badass fonts for the links and such.

I envision the About page containing a band biography, and an updatable blog for each band member, with commenting available.

Links right on the main page for our Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube pages.

A music player on the main page, that doesn’t automatically play when the page is loaded, with downloadable tracks.

Timeline/To-do list:

Begin setting up the site on WordPress. Establish template, and modifications. Create pages, with basic, skeleton-style content.

Fill in with content.

Purchase domain name.

Import WordPress template to host site.

Background: My final project will be the creation of a website for my black and death metal band Born Without Blood.

Following are three websites I would like to submit as examples of those exuding the look, feel, and brutality quotient BWB requires. Our Internet self-representation will not be anything less than pure blast-beat burning negativity.

Gorgoroth

Site Plusses:

I like the simplicity and minimalism of the design. It’s metal, and dignified. It’s not going for some obvious theme–they’d rather you dig to discover what they’re about.

Take the main page(after you click thru the introductory, “cover” page)–all the elements flow together really nicely. Black background–no distracting adornments. Sleek. Fit. The large, grey skull grabs the eye first, then we’re directed leftward toward the band logo, big and white, standing in the foreground and creating a third depth of field. Very cool.

The page links are very organized, and take up minimal room. When you go to a new page, those links don’t change location. This lends an ease to maneuverability–thus the site is easily navigable. I also like the type of drop-down menu on the “Discography” page, where you can choose types of releases.

Critique: listenable, free music is there, but difficult to locate. One must click the “Discography” section. Scrolling down, we see some of the tracks are available as MP3 samples. Two negatives: hard to find, and no whole songs.

Their “Biography” section is totally metal.

That being said, now would be an appropriate time to say that, in my humble opinion and mine alone, metal doesn’t necessarily have to be sacrilegious. But don’t be offended if it is. Metal is meant to cater to the dark side, as in the case of:

Ghost

Site Plusses:

Right there on the front, you’ve got a depiction of the band. No music available, but that’s cool with me–they’re a new band, with only one album out. They need to make money. (Going on tour with Mastodon and Opeth won’t hurt, tho)

Their site is sleek and easy to get around, yet it seems to be left purposefully, and curiously empty. I know why, but I’m not going to tell you. I’m in love with this band right now, and they want everyone to personally find out who they portray themselves as. They don’t give anything away.

Take the “About” page, one of the five pages with handy links right up top, is left meticulously … empty. There’s just nothing. This is very cool to me, and I believe purposefully done.

It entails a type of elitism. A kind of, “We don’t care if you don’t like us, but if you do, we’re going to make it fun for you to dig deeper into us.” Metal is known for this, especially black metal. For a genre that’s continually around, yet never the most popular thing on the market, this self-righteous attitute helps to rally all true black and death metal fans, who tend to be outcasts anyway.

BWB’s website will contain a bit of F.U.-ness. I will actually write up a biography of my band, and throw it on our “about” page, but it will be written from an elitist point of view.

I don’t really see much about Ghost’s page I don’t like. Love the font, love all the blue, the corpses, the zombies, the reverse Catholicism. Very cool, when you take the band’s sound into consideration, but again–find out for yourself.

Megadeth

Here is a band I love, but I must post their website as an example of both what BWB does and doesn’t want in their site.

First, we’re not going to have a picture of ourselves right up front with arms crossed, stern looks on our faces, corny t-shirts, and processed hair. But it does look sleek, how they pop out in front of that black-and-white drawing. But hey, if you want to sell yourself, you create an image, and let people know who you are. The Megadeth website does just that for the band. They look sleek, too.

Site Plusses:

Content in a wide middle vertical column, with cool background on either side. Good color scheme. Design comfortable on the eyes.

Well-organized menu on top. Words light up red when highlighted. The logo looks cool on top, all shaded pink, between the pages’ links. There’s a lot to choose from up top, but it’s not necessarily cluttered.

The audio player that opens up in a separate window is sweet. It looks good, and it’s shaped so that you can have it covering the unoccupied left or right sides of the screen.

Critiques:

Scrolling down on the front page, we see there are widgets filling up both sides of the content section, squeezed in the middle. The text is small and difficult to read. 10lbs of $h*! in a 5lb bag.

Douchey.

Pictures of them in sunglasses at the bottom, looking aloof. Drawings of in-your-face, grimacing military-comic-zombie-style characters. Too much lowest-common-denominator metal here

Megadeth used to be hard. Now they’re just good musicians with crappy lyrics, predictable songs and a bloated sense of personality. BWB’s website will hopefully never give people this feeling. We’re not going the for Top-40 feel, like I get from the Megadeth site.