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About the Norton Radstock site Web Design at The PROCESS
"background information"

 

The Norton Radstock College website is designed
around the history of the Town of Radstock and its coal mining past. In particular its link to the,
'Great Western Railway '.

Now the college sits in a Green Belt of rural beauty
with a heavy involvement in 'IT', Horticulture, International Studies.

The Web design tries to reflect some of these
elements of its history, whilst maintaining its
commitment to future technologies & advancements.

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How it was designed.

 The background for the college home page is a ' Castle class' locomotive used on the GWR network. This type of steam train was commonly used on the Frome to Bristol line that travelled through the centre of Radstock before the demise of the Railway (which has now all been removed ).

The College decided upon the 'Railway' theme for its Internet cafe as a logical extension of the desire to travel. The intention is to easily integrate the metaphors of travelling by rail to that of travelling via the Internet, making the whole process of buttons, links, information and navigation that much easier for those less familiar with the Internet.

The colours used try to reflect the the metals and materials of its Industrial past while allowing the emergence of rural flora to show through.

 
Much research into the past, and in particularly to the Railway.
In the image to the right, old photo's of the steam engines that were common in the town in the past became part of how the imagery evolved.
For those interested the image right, illustrates the , Peckett 0-4-0ST works number 1788. It was a former Withlington Collieries engine working at the Kilmersdon Colliery , Radstock.		 Peckett 0-4-0ST
Caslte class engine

 

This 'CASTLE' class engine provided the basis for the background tile on the HOME page. This class of engine was common on the , Great Western Railway (GWR) on which Radstock had one station (as well as others belonging to other companies).
This particular engine is photographed on the Swansea section of the Line.

Norton Radstock, celebrates its 50 th year in existence this year (1997) as a combination of Midsummer Norton and Radstock. We couldn't resist the inclusion of the no. 50! Also note the lantern in the background, taken from the 'Castle' class engine again.
It was important to keep a harmonious theme running through the imagery. Emphasis, and mood being described through the use of relevant colour. After all a College Website (or company for that matter) should portray visual and aesthetic competence as well as content. Sadly this is not too common on the Internet.

link to home page