website in illustrator?
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- ********0
something sounds wrong here.
- monNom0
if you were going to do it, I'd suggest grouping common elements into symbols. you can share a symbol library and updating the symbol is automatically reflected in all comps.
illustrator is a lousy tool for web design though. wireframes: sure, final artwork: giant PITA
- mydo0
you'll be happy to know, i'm being well compensated for such a ludicrous request.
I've ruled out photoshop, as it's heavily vector based website.
i'm playing with fireworks/flash now while my fellow designer is fighting with a 600MB illi doc. (something sounds wrong here)
- version30
I saw a 100mb logo today
- ismith0
I guess as long as they foot the bill to max out your RAM you should be OK :)
- raskolnikov0
firstly, why would anyone want a 200 page website created in Flash?
- Ravdyk0
I think you rock every body is out of a job and you just got paid for the rest of the year. Do you have a hard deadline? Ps Fireworks seems more suitable. Designing in Flash is really slow. Or are you designing in Fireworks or Illi and than copying to flash now?
- mydo0
main layout and concept confirmed by client.
now the account director (third party) needs jpgs of every page 100 in each language) for tweaking and content edit.imagine, please make the logo 1 pixel lower.
we recreate 200 jpgs for client to sign off. GENIUS!anyway.
Designing in illi and ps, then put all elements together in flash for tweaking, text edits, sign off.- you should buy fireworks, ohotoshop and illustrator mixed together and made better..mild
- ukit0
Although it sounds impractical I've done work for large clients where they would ask to see every page mocked up.
I went through a process where I was designing a "future" customer service response app for Microsoft and they needed every page approved first as a wireframe and then visual design. If that sounds like a lot of work it was - but we also billed them quite a bit so fuck it. It wasn't 200 pages - more like 50 - but I did the bulk of it in Illie/PS.
- Tanj0
You can make symbols in illustrator CS4 just like Flash and you can download a script to export layers as PNG or whatever you want, cropped or not cropped. You can also link Illustrator files inside other Illustrator files, setup pages for printing, link psd files, etc. I'm not saying it's better or anything, but it can be for some projects.
- mydo0
Tanj, i can embed pdf's, don't seem to be able to link illi docs within an illi doc? is that possible?
- ********0
why not photoshop layer groups and comps?
if you import any vector objects you can edit them in illy...
WHY ILLUSTRATOR? Photoshop is bitmap, websites are bitmap, designing in vectors just makes more work for you...
Really confused why you would do it in Illustrator.- flash sitemydo
- ah missed that vital bit of information - sorry! now it makes sense********
- ********0
The best that experience has taught me as a developer is to know when to turn down a project. I'm reading this and warning lights are flashing.
The client sounds like a dinosaur who will not be taught any new tricks.
Run away.
- monoboy0
Draw up your basic templates in Illy, design the rest in the browser using XHTML. It'll be much more efficient, save you and your client a massive headache.
And just for the record, there is absolutely nothing wrong with designing a website in Illy. Use whatever suits you.
- seed0
"and a development team that can't think. so sadly every detail needs to be designed and signed off."
Have them sign off on individual pages when the content is dropped in. There's more than one step in the process.
- wrong0
As a web designer, you should deliver comps of every page to your client. Even the ones that look like every other page. It serves to justify their purchase as well as informs you of all the places where you could improve functionality and see the relationships between pages. Anything else is laziness. However, it's not actually that hard if you make good use of illustrator's layers palette. Have maybe 5 illustrator files that represent the different "templates" and layers that reflect each page.
- mikotondria30
It sounds like the app/site has not been properly planned if there are going to be 200 pages that are significantly different from each other to require separate design, presentation, review and sign-off.. This should have been refigured at the whiteboarding stage before anyone even picked up a pencil to communicate the idea to an outside party.. I pity your endless revisioning and leg-work on this, nothing will every be properly correct for a client like this, and despite going above and beyond the amount of work you'll both agree, they won't be fully happy with the end result and you'll never get any repeat or referral business from them that may have made the herculean task ahead of you worthwhile for your bottom line. You will be doing yourselves and your client a disservice if you don't educate them now on how you're going to present the proposed work, cause all that time of yours and your customer's money should be spent in the later stages of the project. Plan plan plan, develop, test, test, test. You only get something that looks like the final product half way through that.
- felizfeliz0
i'd do it all in flash if it's vectors and going to be a flash website. like you said earlier make each page on a different frame, and where a logo stays the same put that on it's own layer to run across each page. it's simple to export. and easier for the dev team to work from. you can make a grid and layout stuff simple enough.
Perhaps as a first creative step you can mock it up in illy or photoshop - to work out your grid and spacing and stuff like that. then just do the bulk of it in flash. using movieclips will save you lots of time. you can even make simple menu buttons clickable and make an interactive version to test page to page flow.
- and if the other 'designer' can't use flash get a proper web designer.felizfeliz
- i got murdered for suggesting that earlier...mydo
- mydo0
we're on page 40 now (it's midnight)
working with separate art boards in illi, with repeated elements as symbols. and images as linked psds. all working very nicely. files are small. 1mb illi docs.this thread has been keeping me sane all day.
- manonthestreet0
Keep a journal and when the project is done release one of those 'robot client designer' videos to reflect the real world scenarios that develop.