Process
The Hotel Travel has first and foremost been a fantastic collaboration between friends. Tony has been working on the stories for a long time and was very keen to put them on web. He also understood that any web project needed an original visual element so he asked Damien to contribute images he had compiled while the two of them lived in Taipei . The outcome is that Daimen has provided an incredible array of photography for THT.
In this regard, the site is a gallery of stories and images of the remarkable time they spent in this city.
My involvement happened by chance when one day Tony mentioned, he required a web designer for the project and was quite surprised to know that I had a passion for this area. Gradually, we started discussing ideas and surfing the web to see how people had showcased writing and photography.
As a designer my aim was to design a consistent minimalist format for our virtual gallery which was true to the stories and the photos. Obviously, there were technical issues which had to be considered before hosting it on the web. We didn't want to weigh it down too much and it had to be more user friendly and highly responsive at the same time. In summary we wanted a simple and yet a different conceptual layout for THT.
The whole composition had been an intense and passionate process. A labour of love I guess.
Observations
What, I like about our web site is the simplicity and originality in its design aesthetic. Though, we studied the web looking for ideas, we couldn't find anything suitable. It may be because our subject area is left field. Certainly we didn't wasn't a commercial field. It is our artistic expression we wanted to put in front of the reader.
It has been a difficult chore to give it a final shape, but with frequent discussions and by exchanging ideas, we came up with the layout which I am sure justifies the concept. It has been a mutual effort and, more importantly, a shared attitude. We have all contributed according to our different skills. We had the advantage of Tony's journalist background which has guided us through the final editorial stages and we had Damien and my graphic skills to get the layout and images in the right shape and tone to match the stories.
Message for Readers
Thanks for visiting our website. I hope you like the concept and the content. We would also appreciate your comments. We won't promise to adopt your ideas because this isn't a project we want to evolve through consensus. Nothing good ever happened that way. We can promise we will listen to your suggestions with a view towards being as different and creative as we can be. Any encouragement or criticism in that regard is truly welcome. It shows you understand our intent and recognise our effort.
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