DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Your header will be where it all gets started (the header is the top part of this website that says "Sankofa"!)  Come to our first session with allof the following:

    1. a header image (779X200 pixels) that communicates who you are and what you value (it must be a JPEG file) 
    2. a background image for your site (it must be a JPEG file)   
    3. a photo (or meaningful symbol) of yourself to make as an icon directory (100X100pixels)
    4. an inspirational song that reflects you: find a LIVE performance of it on youtube (bring the youtube URL with you). 

If you do not know how to re-size an image's pixels, this will be demonstrated for you in the session.  In the meantime, just remember that this is a professional website that you are building, not a personal facebook page.  You can still be creative, but you must also be mature, serious, and professional.  

 

Let's look at a sample ePortfolio to see how the header communicates and inspires your visual design. Let's look at Carla Monica Villamin's ePortfolio.  Below, you will see her landing page, also called a home page.  It is the main, "first" page. 

"My Words, My Story" is the title and concept of Carla's ePortfolio.  The header is the section of the ePortfolio that says "PASSION."  It controls the visual theme and meaning of Carla's ePort, in this case an ePortfolio for her writing.

 

The background image, borrowed from an Open Source Image, communicates visually with the "Passion" header by repeating those colors.  This is important when choosing your header.  The three-color scheme of your website must communicate back with the header.  Choose three main colors and repeat those three colors.  More than that will compromise your graphic design.

 

On the landing page, you see that Carla created Word Art that says "Welcome" and offers her name (rather than a photo of herself--- she includes that elsewhere in videos, etc).  Those words, called Word Art that she generated herself, work with the purple/blue/dark pink scheme that she uses. After "Welcome," you see a quote from Harriet Tubman and another Open Source image.  Notice how the quote is in blue, just like the blue words in the top-navigation bar.  Notice the artwork on the landing page as well.  It even has a pink/purple hue that matches the purple/blue/dark pink scheme that she uses.

 

Between the Harriet Tubman quote about dreams and passion in a world that denies as much, the image about doing things with love, and Carla's header, she has communicated to you the value she places on herself and her writing as well as the contribution she has to make.  Your message does NOT need to be the same as Carla's, but you should let Carla inspire how to VISUALLY CREATE A MESSAGE with your ePortfolio.  

 

No color choice on your ePortfolio can be accidental or haphazard.  All of your color choices need to work with a controlling scheme that you decide AND design. Remember that before anyone reads the words on one of your pages, they are enveloped in the visual space of your website.  You need to invite them into this virtual space and invite like Rachelle Ferrell does on this page's soundtrack when she sings: "Come on in, sit down, take your shoes off, stay a while!"

 

Please click here to see samples of other ePortfolios for ideas.  

Click here to see ways to create a header.

 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.