Images

So i have designed my idea for the final website.
The images i have used on the website are not my own, but i will be using my own images for my own website.
I have a chief who is going to make the meals for me to photograph. These will look professional and bring the page to life. They will be the traditional French cuisine meals that i have included in the menu section.

Content

The content for the website is the most important thing, there will be different content on each page of the website.

The background, the image banner and the menu banner will stay on each page. Looking something like this:

I like this design because i think its classy but still friendly and appealing. The pictures of the food brightens up the page and makes it welcoming.

There is a large area on the page which will be used with the content of the page. For example, the menu, the reviews, the contact information and the about us information. 

The first page after the home page is the 'Menu' page, this will contain the menu for the restaurant, in french with an english translation. Ive kept to the colour theme and scheme. Ive added the colour grey to the text to break up between the list. 

Ive kept the lily in the background but put it at the bottom of the page. I think this suits the style of the page. 

The next page is the 'Reviews' page. A small page with a few reviews from newspapers, magazines, and restaurant reviewers.

The page follows the same colour scheme, and keeps to the theme. 

The next page is the contact us page. Possibly one of the most important pages, this will show the customers where you are located, how to get in contact with you and even see the location on a map.

Again the theme is the same.

The last page is a short explanation about the restaurant, this is important to any restaurant.

These are just designs which i have produced on Adobe Photoshop they more of a template for me to work off when producing the website on Adobe Dreamweaver. 

I have got new images to put on the website when the previous ones are. 

Background

I decided to have a black background to make all the images and text stand out. Also to make it look more classy and cosy.

I wanted to have an image on the background which relates the genre of the restaurant.

As the restaurant im making is French i wanted an image which would relate to this.

I looked into:

Eiffel Tower

The Arch de Triomph

Cheese

Wine

Frogs Legs/ Snails

Lilly

French Bread

In my sketch book I have shown drawings of the Eiffel Tower and The Lilly.

These are the two ideas which I am drawn to.

I want to use the Lily as the main background image, as its classically French and not a typical representation on France.

After drawing them using colour i decided a black and white copy would work better and fit in with the style of the website and of the chosen Eiffel tower picture (shown below).

I want to drawn it in the style of the Eiffel Tower picture which i created.

I think the final image will fit in with the style of the website, being black and white.

It also matches the image i made of the Eiffel tower...

Layouts

There are many different ways to layout a webpage.

There tends to be a menu style banner on most websites, which will appear on everypage.

Here are a few different examples of the way to display a menu bar.

http://www.simpsonsrestaurant.co.uk/
The way example shows the menu bar being used across the top and down the side, these are the two classic ways to show the menu. Here they have both been used, which is useful if there are a lot of different pages to show.

http://www.purnellsrestaurant.com/michelin-star-birmingham
Here we have the main image as the focus of the page, this is a good eye catcher and makes the page look inviting. There is one main menu bar which is at the top of the page below the main image.

http://www.opusrestaurant.co.uk/
I used this example to show a different style of the menu bar, this website has used 3 different menus, one of the left, one on the top and one on the right hand side of the page. This can make it difficult for the visitor to navigate their way around the website.

http://www.metrobarandgrill.co.uk/
The most common way is to show the menu down the left hand side of the website. As shown above.

For my website I wanted to make it bold, clear and easy to use.

I chose to use one menu bar which went horizontally across the page underneath the banner of images. This image below is my main page for my website, this will be shown on each page, with the content changing accordingly. Having the menu bar on each page will help people navigate their way around the website easily.

I wanted to use a black background to help the images and text stand out. The images look bolder and more appealing when up against a black background.

I wanted all the text to be in white so it stands out and can be read easily.

Extras

Quite a lot of websites these days have links to popular social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Myspace, Google.
This can able you to 'like' the page, visit the page, or comment.

I could add this to my website to enable people to comment on things, like certain meals etc.
There could also be a Facebook page for the website, or a twitter account.
This would be somewhere for people to comment on the restaurant, add their own images and basically self promote the restaurant.

My Idea

I have looked through a lot of websites for different types of restaurants. Including all cuisines.
I really want to make my website look sophisticated but friendly and inviting.
The website i liked the most when looking through was:

http://www.atozrestaurants.com/loranger/

I like the style of this page and how simple it is. The bright colours in the main image bring the page alive, and match with the colour of the name of the restaurant.
This is also a French restaurant so it is good to look at the style.
I took the idea of using a black background which helps to bring out the colours in the image.
I think this is a good idea along side with images of food. Making the food more Appealing and interesting.

My Chosen Idea

I have decided to go with the restaurant idea. The restaurant which is having the refurbishment is taking longer than expected and the work has been pushed back untill after christmas. I have agreed that i will still create a website for them, but will not use it as my project.
Instead i have decided to create my own restaurant website. Using my own images and my own ideas for the design, layout and content for the site.
I have decided to do a website for a French restaurant as i have been to quite a few over the years.
I came up with the name 'Chez Alice' which means along the lines of Alice's House.
I want to go with a very modern look, minimalistic look.I first looked at fonts for the name of the restaurant, which i have shown in my portfolio.
My Chosen font is called 'Black Jack by Typadelic'.
I think its classy and shows the type of restaurant i want it to be.
I will use this font for the name of the restaurant and the page headings.
I also wanted to look having something on the page to define the restaurant as being French.
There are obvious foods that are typically french, such as: French Bread, French Fries, Frogs Legs, Snails, Cheese. etc.
Getting hold of some of these would be hard and i dont think an image would really work.
I also thought of places and landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, the Arc De Triomphe, and Le Louvre. I thought the Eiffel Tower would be the best as its the most well known and highly associated with the capital of France, Paris.
I also wanted to incorporate another image to use for the background. I though of using a lilly as its a French flower, the Fleur de Lis is the French symbol and mean lilly.
I have done a few scetches of the eiffel tower and lilly flowers to find a design i like, these are all in my Portfolio. For my two chosen images i am going to scan them onto the computer and make them look simplistic. For Example, for the eiffel tower i have used the simple outline:I think this looks more modern and classy.