CSS

As I mentioned in my last post, I virtually knew nothing about CSS before completing the Code Academy tutorials. After finishing the module, I came away with a lot better understanding of CSS, how valuable it is, and how an organization could use it. One of the more important takeaways from the tutorials was learning about the cascading style sheet. I learned how to create one, attach it to an html document, and use it to create a template for a website. For example, I now know how to create a style for any element that I may want to customize. If I want all of my headings to look a certain way, I can go to the CSS and do that. 

I can really see the value of a CSS template to the organization. If a company has one, or multiple style templates, it makes it relatively easy to create and edit their website. This way, if more than one person has to edit the site, they won't mess up the original, desired layout or design because it will be on the style sheet.

Code Academy

Working through the tutorials on Code Academy was extremely valuable and I learned a lot. I have very little experience with HTML and CSS, so virtually everything I was taught was new to me. Some of the lessons went over material already discussed in class, but doing them myself was good practice and helped to ingrain them in my memory.

One of the more important concepts I learned about was adding attributes and changing the style of elements. For example, I learned how to change the font-size, font-family, and color of various elements on a page. Another important tool I was taught was the <div> tag, which allows me to break up a web-page into different sections. This will be extremely useful when creating pages because I will be able to create things like headers, footers, and sidebars. 

The hardest thing to remember when using Code Academy was how to link a picture to a site. For some reason it took me longer to remember this than the other lessons. However, eventually I got it down and was able to do it successfully. 

Playing With PhotoShop

To learn a little bit more about PhotoShop, I took a picture of me and tried different ways to edit it. For this I used the adjustment tools that PhotoShop allows you to use on photos. The desired effect was to make the entire picture black and white, except for the piano, which I thought would look cool especially since the piano reflected the wall behind it.
The initial picture looked like this:

 

 

 

The tools I used to edit this photo were the adjustment options PhotoShop allows you to use on images, as well as the selection tools, including the Magic Wand. The rectangular section tool allows you to select a rectangular section of the image. The Magic Wand selection tool conforms to areas of the image and allows for a more customized selection. I simply selected the areas of the photo that I wanted to change to black and white and then pressed the keys "Alt+Ctl+Shift+B". After all of the desired areas were changed to black and white, I decided to play around with the brightness and contrast of the image to further accentuate the piano. To do this I had to go to the Adjustment menu and click on the Brightness and Contrast tab. This allowed me to adjust the levels until I was satisfied with the final product (shown below).



Branding and Logo

Since the target audience for my blog is prospective employers, I want to position myself in such a way that they want to hire me. As a marketing major, I must convey myself as professional, experienced, and creative. I want to stand out among my "competitors" and to do this my site must be unique. 
The logo ideas I am throwing around are simple. They use the letters of my name and while at first I was hesitant about this, I think it looks very clean and is no nonsense. Many companies' logos use the first letter of their name. If I use colors that compliment the primary blue of my site, the logo will stand out and give my name a professional image. 

Planning my E-Portfolio

After thinking about my options, I have decided that my e-portfolio is going to be a "Hire Me Portfolio." In other words, the target audience is going to be prospective employers. The website will be created in such a way that it highlights my past experience, skills, and values that I could add to their companies. 

The first element of my website that I have to make a decision about is color. I played around with some color palettes, and have found one that I have decided to use. 

Not only is blue one of my favorite colors, but it also gives a person a sense of calm when looking at it. In addition, it represents wisdom and loyalty which are both important to employers. I think this color palette provides a nice calming balance of colors, and it is not too flashy or bright. It will make my website look well thought out and professional. 

About Me

My name is Emily Knepp and I am an International Business and Marketing major at Penn State Erie. I am a senior and plan on graduating in the Fall of 2014. Originally I am from Illinois, and just transferred to Behrend last year. So far I have really enjoyed my time here and have learned a lot. I have especially enjoyed my marketing classes where I have learned skills such as conducting market research, market analyses, and portfolio analyses. This summer I plan on traveling to Seville, Spain to study abroad for 8 weeks. When I am not working or doing schoolwork, I enjoy playing the piano and guitar, hiking, and snowboarding.  I am excited about taking this website design class, because at the moment I know very little about creating websites. The skills I hope to learn in this class will prove to be valuable tools to me in the future.