TOWNHALL DESIGN WORKS! Working With Images

	Working With IMAGES

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Welcome to "Working With IMAGES", the area of DESIGN WORKS! dedicated to helping our clients understand the relationship of "images, logos and buttons" to HTML programming, web site design, content and navigation. By now we have either completed your Strategic Internet Business Plan or are at the "Design Considerations" planning point. The purpose of this area is to present a brief review of images as visual tools to support corporate / product identification, logo's, navigation buttons and web site content.

Images should be used to support the text content of your web site. They can also be useful to help clarify, illustrate or draw attention to special content areas. The most common uses are logos and navigation buttons. Images can also be used to present photographs, maps, graphs and illustrations. They can help to make your web site more attractive, interesting, professional, informative and easy to browse.

However, improper use of images can also make your web site too cluttered, confusing and difficult to navigate. Too many images on one page can also severely delay download times and frustrate viewers.

There are two image formats commonly accepted by web browsers: GIF and JPEG.

GIF, which stands for "Graphics Interchange Format", uses special compression technology to reduce the size of the image file for faster downloading by browsers. The image's original data remains intact producing an uncompressed image that matches the original image. Another advantage is that GIF images can be easily animated. (See Working With Animated GIFs)

The GIF format is the most widely accepted image-encoding format on the Internet today. Gifs can be used to render excellent logos, icons, reduced colour images and illustrations. Their one draw back relates to a the limited colour selection supported by the format. A GIF-encoded image may not be appropriate if photorealistic quality is required for pictures.

JPEG, which stands for "Joint Photographic Experts Group", shares many of the same characteristics as the GIF format. In addition, the JPEG format supports tens of thousands of colours and as a result, produces more detailed photorealistic images. The JPEG format uses higher data-compression ratios than GIFs which result in significantly reduced file sizes (and data transfer times) for photographic files. Due to the large compression ratio, JPEG does lose some image data. While the data loss does not impact photorealistic images, it does affect images such as illustrations. For this reason, JPEG is generally used for photographic files only.

The following examples focus primarily on GIFs and their "strategic" use as logos and buttons. For your ease of reference we have included a brief review of design strategy with each group of examples.

The Thomas, Large & Singer logo is a composite design representing a cross section of food products including: seafood, fresh, packaged and beverages. We felt that the individual elements of the logo were interesting on their own merit. Therefore, rather than simply reproducing the corporate logo as a "home" button, we chose to break it into its' original parts and assign each part to an specific area of the web site. We believe that this brings the corporate logo to life, adding interest, colour and a sense of character!

It was a natural progression to integrate a golf ball into the Canadian Professional Golfers' Association logo. We used an animated sequence on the main page of the CPGA web site to introduce the transformation (See Working With Animated GIFs for an example).

The revised logo was then incorporated throughout the web site for use as major navigation buttons. We utilized an animated GIF for the "TOURNAMENT" button. This allowed us to maintain a standard size for the main navigation buttons. It also helps to focus attention and increase traffic through this important area of the web site.

The reduced size buttons presented above, were developed to provide continuity in sub-menu areas of the web site.

This photograph of the CPGA headquarters is presented in JPEG format.



Believe it or not, our "TOWNHALL Internet Communications" logo (top) existed before we created the "TOWNHALL" building (above). We grew a building from our tower to create a cyber home and to help reinforce our corporate positioning, i.e. down home values and beliefs.


Wherever possible, we have attempted to reinforce the "TOWNHALL" positioning via logos, buttons, animated GIFs and supporting variations on the theme.

Contact: TOWNHALL Internet Communications

IT'S POSSIBLE YOU SHOULD EXPECT A WHOLE LOT MORE FROM YOUR WEB SITE !!!