About the Project

Our task was to design and develop a website based on a movie, book, or video game. Well, I had seen the movie 'Frida' earlier in the year and was mesmerized by it! I was familiar with the work of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, and find it strong and striking. But the movie added a deeper dimension to my understanding of this brave artist and her work. I chose to base my site on the movie, because I felt passionate about the movie, because the movie was so incredibly lush and visual, and because I loved how the movie literally brought her paintings to life.

We were to create the site using the DreamWeaver software. After two terms of handcoding, this was, for some of us, our first exposure to DreamWeaver. (note: I have previously used this program). We were to use the template and library features.

To do this site properly required a lot of research, and this is where I spent the bulk of my time for this project. I not only had to find out about the movie, and choose reviews to feature and photos to use, but I also had to research the life of Frida Kahlo and find examples of her artwork, and links relating to the movie and its two main characters, Frida and artist Diego Rivera.

About the Site Features

I worked hard to obtain a vibrant, strong, and Mexican colour palette. To make the navigation very clear, I separated the sections dealing with the life of Frida Kahlo from the sections that were more about the movie. The navigation for each of these are in clearly separate areas. The treatment of the movie navigation is to contain it within a cinematic film roll. I also changed the main image I used for each section: in the movie area of the site, I featured a photo of actress Salma Hayek, made up like Frida Kahlo. For the Frida area, the main image is a self-portrait painting of Frida.

I am particularly pleased with the cropped thumbnail images of Kahlo's artwork, and of the photos from the movie. I like their design within a tight rectangle. Another aspect I like are the quotes I feature in every section: I came across such wonderful, direct, and moving quotes from both the artist herself and from Salma Hayek; that I felt I just had to highlight them on the site.