Spring 2007: Professor Paula Petrik’s Creating History and New Media is a graduate seminar at George Mason University that explores the conjunction of history and the digital world—what problems does the teaching of and presenting of history encounter? how can websites be designed so as to improve the study and learning of history?
CSS Assignment
Part 1: Using an example from McFly at Project Seven, I created a web page with my own content, making many changes, to create a stand-alone, standards-compliant site. view website »
Part 2: Create a portfolio page to house your Clio II work. This is it. I added a page in WordPress and wrote the XHTML and added special CSS styles for this page. view css »
Type Assignment
The type assignment is to demonstrate knowledge of type for informational and design purposes. We are supposed to include certain elements and consider type as it may fit into our final project.
Image Assignment
The goals of this assignment are to demonstrate mastery of image editing skills, color, and composition as well as the use of images to tell or illustrate a historical narrative. The narrative should be an account of the steps taken to achieve the effects. Note that combining techniques in a single image is perfectly acceptable. For this assignment, create a web page that includes the following:
- cropped & resized image
- a restored photograph
- a hand-colored photograph
- a vignetted photograph
- a matted engraving
- a “before & after” of two examples
Design Assignment
This project should demonstrate our understanding of design and its application to the presentation of history on the web. We are to compose a web page that integrates a design theme into its typography, composition, color, and layout so that it enhances the presentation of the historical content and creates a visual identity for a prospective site. The assignment should also implement correct typography and layout strategies.
Attempting to sort out where I failed with the first design I posted here, I’ve started yet another redesign. Through all of these various versions, I have concentrated most heavily on information architecture and grid layout. This latest design is obviously not yet finished. It needs more color work: the project boxes are too dark, the banner probably too light. The Tools logos need to be resized. I’m sure there is more, but I thought I would post just this PNG version of the redesign, as I haven’t had time to code it.
Final Project
This final project is to create a small history web site, demonstrating the cumulation of knowledge throughout the semester. For this project, with the advice of Prof P and the powers that be at CHNM, I have chosen to tackle a redesign of the Center’s very good, but very dated Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution. It is a work-in-progress, as the complete re-design will involve some work with the database, which will take some time and probably some skills I don’t have yet. Here is my redesign.