Critique my home website comp

[kitki83]

Link

This is an animated GIF to show how it would function. Basically the changing images of the Blog, and Portfolio, are hover images. They would change when mouse scrolls over for those who don't understand. The To Do List is a lightbox effect which I will apply in my portfolio. For now I am working on the home website, once I have this working my portfolio and blog will come along easier.All done in CSS, and the other sections will not contain this theme, its just following my business card, and portfolio designs to keep consistency(seems popular in the interviews).

I would appreciate critiques about the grid system, empty space, alignment, aesthetic, functionality among the forums.

Thank you

ps.Edited to clarify what I meant, sorry if I made it seem differently. Thanks for input.

 

[LeviG]

This might seem a tad harsh here.

You're doing a site and its quite clearly labelled for a 'designer' and you're having issues with the fundamentals of design.
Are you sure you're going in the right direction in regards to choice of career.

As to the site, I assume this is going to be done in flash which I hate, can't say I'm overly keen on the whole idea either but each to their own.

As to grids take a look here

 

[shecky]

i agree with levi. it looks, frankly, like crap. i don't think the idea of a messy cork-board is really what i want to be seeing when looking for a designer. to me it shouts amateur, and i don't mean just the website but the designer also. it is extremely gimmicky. even putting that aside, the way the board is laid out is bad - everything feels very uncomfortable, sort of evenly spaced but not quite..etc... the treatments to the typefaces are bad.

it does not work at all.

 

[kitki83]

i agree with levi. it looks, frankly, like crap. i don't think the idea of a messy cork-board is really what i want to be seeing when looking for a designer. to me it shouts amateur, and i don't mean just the website but the designer also. it is extremely gimmicky. even putting that aside, the way the board is laid out is bad - everything feels very uncomfortable, sort of evenly spaced but not quite..etc... the treatments to the typefaces are bad.

it does not work at all.

Ok I appreciate your comments, better I get these comments with other designs than when showing this from potential employers.

 

[Sdashiki]

If you want to really impress people, especially employers, create a site which uses strictly CSS/HTML.

Then, create it in a way so that you can just change style-sheets to change the entire look of the site without breaking it or losing any information.

The only way to get a job designing websites, and hopefully coding them, is to do it for yourself. only way to show off your skillz.

 

[kitki83]

If you want to really impress people, especially employers, create a site which uses strictly CSS/HTML.

Then, create it in a way so that you can just change style-sheets to change the entire look of the site without breaking it or losing any information.

The only way to get a job designing websites, and hopefully coding them, is to do it for yourself. only way to show off your skillz.

Thats a good point and advice, gonna use the CSS Zen as reference for that. For now I will complete this design and start working on my Website Ideas #2 and see how it would go. Either way its good practice.

Thank you for the feedback.

 

[InLikeALion]

Just took a look at your 'under renovation' home page. Your image is 650 kb, which is really large. Also, something like that you should put as a background image instead of an < img >. And you should get into the habit of using lower-case names in all your files - some servers (linux?) use case-sensitive linking, so i think it's best practice to always use lower-case.

Lastly, at this early stage, you need to get used to naming your files with more detail. Years from now, someone giving your site an update might look at the file hirarchy, and "Board.jpg" doesn't mean much to them. However, something like bg_index_corkboard.jpg or even bg_index_corkboard_1000x650.jpg carries important info about the image. bg for being a background image, index for which page it is used, and corkboard describes the image itself. Alternately, it can be a time saver to include image deminsions in the names for later when you are coding.

 

[kitki83]

Ok I want to take the time to thank everyone here who gave me pointers. I am still new to web design and trying to create a methodology for web.

I been asking people's portfolio questions and some are very helpful in giving me feedback. Good thing this is just stage 1 of the designs. I will get back to the sketchbook and figure out something.

To the naming convention, thank you I was wondering how will I remember what is what in years.

As to those nothing is harsh, I open myself for comments, this forum is about criticism and I think I got the overall feeling. Nothing personal, like I said prefer you guys trash me than a prospective employer. I will try to work on my theme I want to create and still make it user friendly and appealing.

once again thank you

 

[stainlessliquid]

You need to be a lot better at photoshop if youre going to go the "art" route and create real things from scratch. If you cant make it from scratch very well then the only other choice is photography. You can make an actual board by hand and then take a photo of it and it would look a lot better. If you cant do a photo then ditch the idea of real things all together and go with a standard design that just uses colors and stock photos.

 

[ruskiwi]

I think he said "critique" not "criticize"?

Center-aligning the site would be better than left-align.

 

[CMD is me]

simplify, simplify, simplify, simplify, simplify

Sorry, haven't had a chance to read through all the above posts.... I don't mean to poo poo on this, but it sort needs work. It looks cool as a fun family site, but not as a serious designer site. The push pins are pretty cheesy and the torn paper.... well, I hate to say, but it's just not looking professional. Go to CA's site and look to see what others are doing to get some ideas (don't copy a thing you'll be found out!!). Also, personally I'd drop the personal logo. First off, it really doesn't work with your name and signature, but more importantly it looks like you're a studio. You don't need a logo. It only takes away from your name. You want the viewer to remember your name! Good luck.

 

[jdl8422]

I think some good advice would be looking at other designers and maybe even templates. I'm not saying steal their site, but see what works and doesnt work. Also when you see something you like, it will spark some ideas of your own.

 

[ezekielrage_99]

Take a look at some of the bigger branding agencies web sites they are an endless source of inspiration and how to do design well. Less is More and say it with images (but not 50mb JPEG as one of my previous clients tried...)

http://bestwebgallery.com/ (a good one for inspiration)
http://www.endpoint.co.uk/
http://concentric-studio.com/
http://www.wolffolins.com/
http://www.landor.com/
http://www.hugoboss.com/
http://www.farmboyfinearts.com/
http://www.michaelbay.com/ (RW theme Chameleon USD$15)

And when all else fails > Rapidweaver