Web Design Forums

SB Graphic · 04-01-2005, 04:43

Hi people im new to the forum round here im an 18, and an art & design student from newport im interested in any comments you can give about my site and its work and any improvments that could be done.

Dont worry about offending me i just want honest feedback

www.simonbarclay.tk

C4D · 04-01-2005, 06:21

k where to begin....

This is definately a "my first website" design. I wont go on but just pick up on a few obvious things.

1. I wouldnt abuse the tools that photoshop offers i.e bevel, glows, gradients, drop shadows, paterns. If you are going to use them (i wouldnt) they should be used in a subtle way.

2. Center aligning your text does not bring anything to the page and just makes content dificult to read, also look at spacing issues and font sizes try to keep consistancy.

3. Just one more for now cos im boring myself let alone the rest of you, for the portfolio page you have used an outer glow on the buttons but because you have cut the buttons out as you have the glow has been cut off, I would either loose the glow (make it an inner glow if you must) or cut the buttons out bigger.

Anyway the main thing is attention to detail, look at other sites and take inspiration, that is the best way to learn.

Jelly Baby · 04-01-2005, 07:52

Are you at the university of wales newport

SB Graphic · 04-01-2005, 08:17

Not yet im in my last year of college but im planning to go their next year still not sure what course to do yet, out of BA Graphics and BA Computer Game Design im leaning more towards BA Multimedia

Alaska-Design · 04-01-2005, 09:00

no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no

jamiep · 04-01-2005, 09:08

uh oh

jason r · 04-01-2005, 09:34

lord have mercy

SB Graphic · 04-01-2005, 09:54

what?

C4D · 04-01-2005, 10:38

adras · 04-01-2005, 13:40

Very bad design, try to keep the things simple and in a grid layout - make freaking header smaller, or better yet just get rid of it, the top nav it also too big - and the content layout is very poor.

In your portfolio sectin, web design should be two words.

Good luck.

dan · 04-01-2005, 14:00

Why do your web design links not link.
The majority of your graphic design both 2D and 3D would be better described as illustration.

shearnat · 05-01-2005, 05:33

shocked... wait no.. flabbergasted is a better word.

SB Graphic · 05-01-2005, 08:01

Thanks for the sugestions and comments guys
some point soon i am going to completly redo the site

Narate · 05-01-2005, 08:49

Quote:

no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no

Haha

Quote:

some point soon i am going to completly redo the site

Todays the day!

3jorn · 05-01-2005, 10:23

Well I guess everyone did sites like this when we started.
My suggestion would be to not use filters in photoshop, just text is nicer than images with text on, and if you have images always save them as .gif instead of .jpg.
The problem is that when you just start using photoshop, you notice that you can do these COOL stuff with the filters without actually really knowing what you are doing.
Your friends who doesn't really know much about design will think it's yber cool, but for people who are a bit more in to this, it really really really doesn't look nice.
So just start making plain html with as few images as possible.
Make it really simple and then work your way up from that.
Because it looks that you can still code somehow, it's just the design that doesn't really work.
...and why...why...why does everyone that make their first page use black as the bg color, it's really hard to actually get it to look good. I would suggest white for the next one.

C4D · 05-01-2005, 10:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by 3jorn

Well I guess everyone did sites like this when we started.
My suggestion would be to not use filters in photoshop, just text is nicer than images with text on, and if you have images always save them as .gif instead of .jpg.
The problem is that when you just start using photoshop, you notice that you can do these COOL stuff with the filters without actually really knowing what you are doing.
Your friends who doesn't really know much about design will think it's yber cool, but for people who are a bit more in to this, it really really really doesn't look nice.
So just start making plain html with as few images as possible.
Make it really simple and then work your way up from that.
Because it looks that you can still code somehow, it's just the design that doesn't really work.
...and why...why...why does everyone that make their first page use black as the bg color, it's really hard to actually get it to look good. I would suggest white for the next one.

agreed, but save as a gif when you do not have many colours in the image (borders, buttons, titles), when saving images like photographs with lots of different colours in "save for web" as a JPEG and optimise the image to reduce file size.

Oh yeah an get rid of the black, go for something neutral.

etc · 11-01-2005, 14:04

I agree with the black stay away from that look, bring everything down a bit in size, iam on a mac and viewed your site on Safari, it looks to big! Header, buttons, etc.

You have a bunch of alright starting work but need to concentrate on one look that will run through your whole site. This way it looks together.

04-01-2005, 04:43	#1 (permalink)
SB Graphic Student Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Newport Posts: 99	My Graphics Portfolio Hi people im new to the forum round here im an 18, and an art & design student from newport im interested in any comments you can give about my site and its work and any improvments that could be done. Dont worry about offending me i just want honest feedback www.simonbarclay.tk

04-01-2005, 09:00	#5 (permalink)
Alaska-Design ™ Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Brighton Posts: 353	no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no __________________ Alaska-Design / BM Photography

04-01-2005, 10:38	#9 (permalink)
C4D Registered User Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Brighton Posts: 97	lol

04-01-2005, 13:40	#10 (permalink)
adras Zły Join Date: May 2004 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 1,920	Very bad design, try to keep the things simple and in a grid layout - make freaking header smaller, or better yet just get rid of it, the top nav it also too big - and the content layout is very poor. In your portfolio sectin, web design should be two words. Good luck. __________________ Be Crisp (tm)

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version Email this Page	Search this Thread: Advanced Search

04-01-2005, 06:21	#2 (permalink)
C4D Registered User Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Brighton Posts: 97	k where to begin.... This is definately a "my first website" design. I wont go on but just pick up on a few obvious things. 1. I wouldnt abuse the tools that photoshop offers i.e bevel, glows, gradients, drop shadows, paterns. If you are going to use them (i wouldnt) they should be used in a subtle way. 2. Center aligning your text does not bring anything to the page and just makes content dificult to read, also look at spacing issues and font sizes try to keep consistancy. 3. Just one more for now cos im boring myself let alone the rest of you, for the portfolio page you have used an outer glow on the buttons but because you have cut the buttons out as you have the glow has been cut off, I would either loose the glow (make it an inner glow if you must) or cut the buttons out bigger. Anyway the main thing is attention to detail, look at other sites and take inspiration, that is the best way to learn.

04-01-2005, 07:52	#3 (permalink)
Jelly Baby 'And are you cooool?' Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Frome Nr Bath Posts: 1,286	Are you at the university of wales newport

04-01-2005, 08:17	#4 (permalink)
SB Graphic Student Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Newport Posts: 99	Not yet im in my last year of college but im planning to go their next year still not sure what course to do yet, out of BA Graphics and BA Computer Game Design im leaning more towards BA Multimedia

04-01-2005, 09:08	#6 (permalink)
jamiep Ledge Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Birmingham Posts: 22	uh oh

04-01-2005, 09:34	#7 (permalink)
jason r Registered User Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Southampton, UK Posts: 36	lord have mercy

04-01-2005, 09:54	#8 (permalink)
SB Graphic Student Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Newport Posts: 99	what?

04-01-2005, 14:00	#11 (permalink)
dan Iris Folder Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: smokey Posts: 2,676	Why do your web design links not link. The majority of your graphic design both 2D and 3D would be better described as illustration.

05-01-2005, 05:33	#12 (permalink)
shearnat Registered User Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 1	shocked... wait no.. flabbergasted is a better word.

05-01-2005, 08:01	#13 (permalink)
SB Graphic Student Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Newport Posts: 99	Thanks for the sugestions and comments guys some point soon i am going to completly redo the site

05-01-2005, 10:23	#15 (permalink)
3jorn Registered User Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 23	Well I guess everyone did sites like this when we started. My suggestion would be to not use filters in photoshop, just text is nicer than images with text on, and if you have images always save them as .gif instead of .jpg. The problem is that when you just start using photoshop, you notice that you can do these COOL stuff with the filters without actually really knowing what you are doing. Your friends who doesn't really know much about design will think it's yber cool, but for people who are a bit more in to this, it really really really doesn't look nice. So just start making plain html with as few images as possible. Make it really simple and then work your way up from that. Because it looks that you can still code somehow, it's just the design that doesn't really work. ...and why...why...why does everyone that make their first page use black as the bg color, it's really hard to actually get it to look good. I would suggest white for the next one.

11-01-2005, 14:04	#17 (permalink)
etc empty the can Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Chitown Posts: 45	I agree with the black stay away from that look, bring everything down a bit in size, iam on a mac and viewed your site on Safari, it looks to big! Header, buttons, etc. You have a bunch of alright starting work but need to concentrate on one look that will run through your whole site. This way it looks together.

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)