A CD cover…..

My girlfriend wanted me to do her a cd of some new music i had so i thought, rather than just your standard burn the cd and scribble on it in marker pen i would create a cover for it.

I wanted a mainly typographic cover, i found a cool font to use from dafont.com and experimented in photoshop with brushes, the eraser and burn tools to get a worn/grungey look.

After quite some time tweaking things, ive produced 3 versions, i think i’m favouring the simpler less grunged up version, less is more as they say.

Bantr progress update…..

Well its been a week or so since i updated you with progress on my coursework so here goes. I have got the layout looking pretty much how i want it, still need to tweak things and add some little visual flourishes to give it that extra bit of web 2.0 sparkle, but its there in a basic form.

As for the php side of things, that has been very time consuming and difficult. Ive got several functions working on simple example pages but when i try to integrate them into my site that’s when problems arise.

Anyway, here are a few screenshots of how the site is looking at the moment, its starting to take shape but will look a whole lot better by the time deadline day rears its ugly head!

This is the main login page, its pretty much there but i think i shall make the ‘What is Bantr?’ information image a bit bigger so it fills the space better, need to play around with the columns in the css for that one. Also the footer is currently a bit bland and empty, needs a few more links and possibly a better background image.

This will eventually be a profile page, ive got the layout pretty much sussed, two columns with the left hand containing the main profile info and the right containing links to pictures and a facebook wall type of thing named the ‘Bantr! Box’. However whilst they are roughly in place they could be a lot tighter and i need to tweak the details so they sit better on the page. They just don’t look ‘right’ at the moment and that shall be remedied shortly, perhaps with use of some lovely shiny web 2.0 gradient fills for each section and some lovely rounded corners? Yes i think a rummage into the web 2.0 box of tricks is needed, cliche alert!!!!!

Right its back to work for me, got to get lots of php functionality done, sleep is for wimps!!!

Death of the author

Recently we had a lecture on the subject of ‘Death of the author’, the recent rise in user generated content has lead to anyone and everyone with an opinion being able to get it out their in the public domain.

Is this a good thing? Should we trust people who publish content without editorial control? For decades people who have published information be it in books, film, radio or whatever medium have had to go through strict editorial processes and you could pretty much rely on said information to be reliable and trustworthy.

With the advent of the internet everything has changed, sites such as Wikipedia and the multitude of blogs are abuzz with user generated content and in many ways are a good thing, allowing freedom of speech and the widespread sharing of knowledge. The problem is that many people will still trust information that is ‘published’ in this way in the same way they would trust a book on a shelf, even though it has not had the same rigorous quality checks opposed on it.

I do not think the ‘Author is Dead’ we have more authors now than ever, and if anything that places a greater value on true authors of content, authors that people can rely on and trust that the information/knowledge they give us is worthwhile and factually correct.

It’s good that people can quickly and easily publish things on the internet but there will always be a need for a stamp of approval, a seal of trust that says this author is bonafide, he knows what hes talking about and you should beleive what he says, and i cant see that changing as long as we live.