- I'm not a fan of images of text. When images are turned off you're looking at a blank screen, or for blind people, a silent page.
- I also don't see why you have it setup in frames (maybe iWeb did it?).
- You could use some rollover effects for the links.
- The copyright statement is unreadable. Needs contrast and to be bigger.
- Some of the other text could use some more contrast as well to make it a little more readable.
- It's more common to have navigation at the top or left area, though not that big of a deal. (I do notice that the breadcrumb navigation is at the top.)
- Takes forever for pages to load (probably in part from all of the image text).
- I like you artwork.
- I like the simplified look of the design so that your artwork is able to take a center stage on the page.
Don't take my list too hard, I'm always able to come up with my comments about any design no matter the design. Blame my art teachers and professors. I try to make a couple comments on what I think is good to offset my opinions.
Thats fine, its exactly what I was after. I said the text was made into graphics to make it appear exactly as I want. There is no point in taking ages over a design with good typography only for someones browser to go and turn everything into Comic Sans.
The site is aimed at professional design agencies (i.e. visual communication) so its not very likely a blind person would be looking at it. Also most design agencies will have images turned on in their browsers (they would be stupid not to) but I do take your point on board.
It is set up in frames because the website actually resides elsewhere on the net with a crazy long URL. So the address I gave is a mask for that address. Unfortunately to keep the 'short' address in the address bar I have to set it to use frames. Its all about image and how the thing looks not functions. Form Vs function and all that crap
If the copyright part is unreadable how did you know it said copyright?
That part obviously doesnt have to be immediately readable and should really be unseen anyway. If anyone rips off my work I can at least say I warned them about copyright.
I agree contrast is borderline annoying to some people but having loads of different contrasts would be distracting and so large lettering is used to combat that. Also text is displayed in a hierarchical style so the more important stuff stands out more than the less important.
Navigation took a bit of thought as always. Really trying to keep it minimal was the key so it fits with my style of work. To prevent having to put 'back' buttons in random places I utilised a breadcrumb thingy at the top. So you use the bottom buttons for main sections i.e. info, portfolio etc. The middle portion of the screen to scroll through artwork etc. and the breadcrumb to go back. Its also a typography thing. Top and bottom was crying out for some text to fill the space and frame the box.
Its hosted on .mac which is notoriously slow for some reason and yes all the images will slow it down to but thats the penalty for having the site display exactly how I want it to.
Thanks for the compliments about the artwork too.
