[kbarrett]

Hi. Thought I'd post this. Thx

:: colorspretty ::

[Mandy Moo]

Hi Kbarrett.
Beautiful homepage! Although the navigation needs to stand out more from your other doodles so that I know that they are buttons.

Sorry to say this but your portfolio page is disappointing. "Hi. Here are some design samples"??!! then there's a link to Flickr to see more work? If you are having a portfolio page, show your work there. Everytime I click on a link, it opens a new window even when there's a button to link back?

Final words... Beautiful designs and artwork. Could be displayed much better.

[kbarrett]

Thanks Mandy,

I get what you are saying about the portfolio page. If you keep reading it says that I'm going to be updating that page. That's the plan. I whipped up that homepage design this weekend and I'm giving it a few days to see if I like it. (So I will be working on getting more samples on that page instead of linking to other places)- You saw the horizontal flash widget, right? At the top of the page?

I'm not sure how to make the the buttons stand out more. I guess if I import it in to flash and animate there would some rollover effects that would help make that distinction. I can see what you mean, though.

I didn't realize that opening up the pages in new windows would bug people. I guess that's a quick fix. Thanks for the helpful feedback. When I first design something it's really hard to look at it objectively.

[kbarrett]

So I came home and tweaked the design a bit. I shortened it and moved the elements around a bit. Do you think it's improved? I'm still not quite happy with the buttons and may have to open up illustrator and work on those a bit. Here's the updated graphic (which will eventually be in flash) and the older page beneath it. Let me know what you think. And thanks for the feedback.

[Mandy Moo]

Version 2 is better. The buttons are a bit more prominent. I personally think it's too busy and the buttons still don't look prominent enough.

This is a rough example of how I would have done it...



I think your style is already very school-style and the wood background looks like a table surface. I'd use various different coloured hand written post-it notes as buttons stuck to the table. Leave out the doodles. If you really want your doodles on... perhaps make them look like they've been scratched on to the table but still have them very very faint.

[Pencil Rebel]

cool stuff
I want some interaction / animation there now !
go on

[kbarrett]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I've been staring at this for too long to be objective. I'm looking at it again this morning and I'm bugged by the text inside of the hearts. Does it seem blurry to you guys? Maybe I should lose those. I dunno, what do you guys think? Still feels like it's just not working.

I am happy about keeping the aesthetic running throughout the pages. The contact and portfolio pages have wood backgrounds, too. But I've mixed it up a bit.

[brooks]

i'm not a fan of your new darkwood theme, seems less cheery now.

[kbarrett]

Yeah, it needs work. I'm playing with different backgrounds.

The more I look at the heart buttons the more I cringe. I think I'm going to lose those. We'll see. It's tough getting the color right. Firefox mutes everything so it looks drab so I've been increasing the saturation before I export. But now I'm looking at it on my iMac instead of my laptop and the color of the hearts is ULTRA bright. Arrg.

[kbarrett]

Switched back to the light background on the homepage (for now) - will be working on that homepage graphic tonight.

[Emanuele]

I really like it. Anyway it doesn't look so good in IE6, becouse of the trasparency. (I think, you should use the alpha transparency filter in css for ie6 if you want to use png: "filter: progid: DXImageTransform. Microsoft. AlphaImageLoader (src='xxxx.png', sizingMethod='crop');")

I like the nav. But I think that if i had to change something, i'd change the yellow in the "my resume" button. I don't like too much the white on yellow text.

Anyway, good work.

Bless.

[kbarrett]

Thanks for that ie6 reminder about pngs (*shakes fist at IE*). I will take try to transfer these elements into flash this weekend and export them with a transparent background and that should fix the ie6 issue.

[wheedwacker]

I like the current design at :: colorspretty ::
It is very nice.
The dark backgrounds look OK, but not quite as good as the lighter one.

One complaint: Have something that says the resume is in PDF.

[John Good]

Originally Posted by wheedwacker

One complaint: Have something that says the resume is in PDF.

I was about to post just the same.

[Hunch]

So far I'm liking it. Unfortunately my great eyes have let me down and I don't have anything else that immediately springs to mind.

The first time I glanced over it quickly, I did read "Contact Me" as "Contact Men" due to the proximity of the envelope, which made me raise an eyebrow for a moment.

[Coops]

Too late Hunch, she's gone off you now.

[Hunch]

Yeah, I always come too late.