Brett Varga Final Essay

           My website, http://www.bringyalunch.com/, is meant to look unique and unlike most websites on the Internet. The design is inspired by Banksy’s website http://www.banksy.co.uk/. The design was implemented to give the viewer a sense of the personality behind my brand. I also didn’t want to shy away from showcasing art I create outside of the brand as well as art from artists around the country. I want to attract anyone to my website, but by design I feel it appeals to independent thinkers, people who enjoy a variety of humor, and those who are not afraid to openly express themselves. My website should give its viewers a sense of the person behind the brand. I want people to get a sense of who I am, the philosophy of the brand, and see how art can relate to them.

            My website has a plethora of images ranging from pictures of Bring Ya Lunch apparel, various art from myself and other artists, and images from a variety of things relating to the brand on the blog. I implemented a slideshow system by using a (galleria) script that I got off the Internet. I upload the images on to my Flickr account into specific sets. Those sets then correspond to specific parts of my website be it my fine art, digital, lunch, friends page, etc. The color palette of these images and the sizing depends on what images I upload to Flickr. The images on my website like the Last Supper banner and the images I utilized for my header are black and white. These header images change from words to images when the mouse rolls over them. The bunny head logo, which brings you to the homepage, is the only header image that changes from black and white to a colorful version of the logo. I did this to show significance, which I hope will indicate that this is the way to return to the homepage. I wanted to keep the images and words of the header black and white. This helps draw attention to the slideshows shown on the website.

            When text is implement on my website, this is outside the blog and Facebook, I use (courier, serif) because I feel it melds best with the font I utilized for my header images (uncle typewriter). As I previously stated my website’s font and images outside the slideshows are black and white. I want to draw attention to the slideshows and videos, and I accomplished this by making all the other aspects of the design black and white.

            On http://www.johnnycupcakes.com/ they incorporate the blog into the home page of their website. The main banner image changes from a variety of images via a slideshow, while my website’s home banner is a single static image. They have a family section, which showcases friends of and people who work for the company. My website has a friends section that showcases a variety of artists from around the country. Are website have drastically different color palettes. Both sites implement social media links, but their links are at the bottom of all their website’s pages, while mine or strictly located on my contact section.
            Most of the problems that required some significant work were the issues relating to my blog’s construction and design. I wanted to create a simple and clean looking blog.

Here are a few problems and their solutions:

-       important tag & Facebook like button / plugin

     // changed the position of the Facebook like button

Wordpress Facebook Like Plugin” by AJ Batac

http://allanjosephbatac.com/Wordpress-Facebook-Like-Plugin/

** allow the use of a facebook like button at the bottom of each post

#wp_fb_like_button{margin-bottom:-70px !important}

-arranged facebook like button to the left so it would position correctly on smartphones

#wp_fb_like_button{width: 100%; margin: 0 auto; margin-bottom;-70px !important; float:left;}

- This took away “Image Borders” in blog post

/*Image borders*/

border: (any number)px solid #ddd;

padding: (any number)px;

            Bring Ya Lunch has been around as a website and a brand for over a year now. Since the website launched last April, I have been constantly creating and showcasing content and advertisements via social media networks. I mostly utilize Facebook, Instagram, and my recently created Bring Ya Lunch blog. I give away stickers for free to help promote my website and brand. I feel I’m approaching this venture very similarly to how Shepard Fairey did for Obey. I keep putting the imagery and philosophy out there and the more its out there, the more it matters. The more it matters, the more people will want to find out about it.