Cherokee Jewerly Static Website Interface

With the website interface project, I wanted to present the Native American culture with a deep sense of respect, and virtue and not so much the actual jewelry itself. I felt that the audience would be more attracted to the jewelry not only because it looked nice, but because of the honorable history that was attached to it. The first image on the top was the original interface created, the middle is a revised interface, and bottom image is a screen shot of the actual running site for the Cherokee Jewelry company. When I was approaching this project, I had the movie "Dances With Wolves" engraved in my mind. I haven't seen this movie since probably the 5Th grade, but it just stuck out. I wanted to incorporate leather texture as much as possible. To me, it represents toughness and endurance, as well as being flexible. To me those are characteristics of the Native American people - they endured horrendous trials and tribulations, and yet seem to overlook and forgive injustices of the past. I wanted the site to not only honor the culture for it's endurance, but I wanted it to convey peace and a welcoming feeling. I created the letter in Photo- shop by using a canvas texture and sporadic selection and erasing techniques. I also used the burn tool quite a bit to create a worn down, western looking parchment that would hold a personal message from Jimmie, the founder. I really wanted the font to look like it was written late at night by candle, using a feathered pen - but it turned out that in order properly size the whole message and keep it readable, I had to settle on a font with less "feet" and "hooks", but was still happy with what I saw. In the first design, I incorporated a silhouette from a painting my parents had since I was a kid. It was of an Indian Warrior on horseback. Whether this warrior was returning from a battle, mourning a loss, or just resting I do not know - but I always liked that painting. After some good critiquing, I decided to lose that image and incorporate some of the actual jewelry. I think it was good balance of Native American texture that complimented the product nicely. I created the double sided spear out of a stock image, and added the hanging arrow heads with creating the rope and coping the image several times. I tried to change each arrow head slightly in order to eliminate a "cookie cutter" array of arrow heads. I placed the gazelle skin to the left, serving as the menu board. I changed the levels a bit in order to make it blend well with the leather texture.