Branding

I am struggling to come up with a good name for my site as i feel this will help a lot with the direction and over all design of the site some options i've come up with are

- Vinyl life ( lends itself to the style i am pursuing and stays young and funky)
- Plastic heart (young and fun, could also be vinyl heart)
- Vinyl book ( my lest favorite)

I'm sure this list will grow but it is a point i have to settle on fast

Font

example of the type of font i would like to use its a simple san serif font that's clean very stylish  i will use different weights to emphasis elements

site map

is in my work book and will be up here soon hold this space

colour scheme

this is the colour scheme i intend on using, as stated earlier it is bright playful yet structured and complementary

predominately i would like it to be a monochromatic scheme, This colour harmony is built by using differing shades and saturation levels of one particular colour, They tend to be more polished or elegant and are great for creating a particular mood or just adding some colour to a black and white scheme.

The only real problem with monochromatic schemes is that they can be very plain due to the lack of contrast. which is why i have the bright colours on the left, they will give me that bit of flair and contrast im looking for.

refer to the images in the my website post for examples

precedents

So after looking at a lot of vinyl toy web sites i have come to conclusion that the style and design that is typically used are
- Very large images
- Quite large font
- Simply bright colours mixed with a lot of black grey and white
- Fonts are often san serif
- Fonts are typically quite thin and elegant looking
This is obviously the type of design that my target audience is receptive to, it can look a little childish but it it still very deliberate and structured, that way it stays elegant and grown up felling over all.

Because of this i will be trying to mimic this so my design fits my target audience
examples are

http://www.coarselife.com/content/current/index.php
http://www.kidrobot.com/
https://www.merchline.com/juliewest/category.5208.c.php

My web site idea

The idea for my website is a place where people who collect vinyl toys have a place to
-Share there collection
-Trade,
-List toys they are looking for,
-Blogs over new toys or events,
-Events pages,
-Up coming toy releases calendar,
-Customized/do it your self gallery
There is a large worldwide community but if you are not in a main city around the world it is very hard to have any interaction with events and even harder to find like minded people to trade and talk about with, a site like this could even start to help designers as they have a live source to interact with that can tell them what they would like to see and what they wouldn't.

SITE 1: Pinterest

 The official definition of ‘pinterest’ is an online pin board, Though it is a pinboard, you can find types of ideas for anything you could possibly think of. From decorating to cooking to humorous pictures, Pinterest is seriously addictive.  People who have blogs about innovative ideas or recipes (mostly teachers and moms) can post their innovative ideas for everyone to see. There are now millions of things that have been pinned! Though it is a completely free website, you have to be invited by exisisting members to join the ‘community’ and be able to create your own pin boards. It has become so popular that Time magazine listed it on their ’50 Best Websites’ of 2011.

SITE 2: Facebook

Facebook is the most obvious choice as a example of a social media site, with over one billion active users each month

  The core purpose of Facebook is being able to easily connect and communicate with friends, family and other members around the world all from your very own profile.

Facebook members create a profile which enables them to add friends, once confirmed, keeping in contact has never been simpler. With options of chat, private messaging, wall posts and a 'like' button, these unique features have been copied and used on many sites we see today and has become a leader in social media sites being betten only by youtube

SITE 3: Vemeo

Vimeo has a clean and streamlined aesthetic to it appearance. Uploading videos to your page feels like adding to your online portfolio, everything is organized and easily searchable. In addition the quality of the video is higher and there is no time length limit on the videos being uploaded.

Vimeo fits into a much more niche audience, centered on good filmmaking and inspiring videos. Vimeo filters out the commercial videos, gaming videos and all non-user generated content. The community tends to be a more professional crowd, made up of filmmakers and film enthusiasts. The community is much more engaged with constructive feedback, helping filmmakers form relationships with other users.

An added bonus, Vimeo allows users to upload their own thumbnail image to the video and choose the most enticing image to represent their video. With a Pro account Vimeo allows users to embed their logo or image directly on the video player, which is great for branding.

SITE 4: Reddit 

reddit, is a social news and entertainment website where registered users submit content in the form of either a link or a text ("self") post. Other users then vote the submission "up" or "down", which is used to rank the post and determine its position on the site's pages and front page.

The site is a collection of entries submitted by its registered users, essentially a bulletin board system. The entries are organized into areas of interest called "reddits". Historically, the front page was the main reddit, and other areas were "subreddits". There is now no main reddit, but the term subreddit persists as an informal name for an area of interest.

Registered users, especially those that post new entries, or post comments to entries, are called "redditors", a portmanteau of "reddit editor". Reddit itself is a portmanteau of "read/edit" and of "read it", i.e., "I read it on Reddit".

As submissions post to the site, redditors can vote for or against them (upvote/downvote). Each reddit has a front page that shows newer submissions that have been rated highly. Redditors can also post comments about the submission, and respond back and forth in a conversation tree of comments; the comments themselves can also be upvoted and downvoted.

The home page of Reddit displays front page content from selected reddits. There is a default set, but registered users can customize their set.

Redditors can "friend" one another, which gives a redditor quick access to posting and comments of their friend list.

Postings are typically a link to an external source, with a title provided by the redditor who posted it. Some redditors use the site as a personal bookmark collection. Others, relying on the size and activity of Reddit, and on the crowd sourced ratings of links, use it as a news aggregator.

The commenting system and friend system, along with a certain "Reddit ethos", lend Reddit aspects of a social network, though not to the extent of Facebook, Google+, and other websites aimed at social networking.