New version of my business website

[Jan]

Ahhhh, the portfolio page! That makes a BIG difference to everybody like me, who thought that it was the home page.

Exactly! Now, it explains many things. I can say only: D'OH!

[Gambit37]

Whoopsie, clearly a big error on my part!

I should have been more mindful of my own advice: never assume the client knows what you're talking about!

[Sophia]

I also thought it was the homepage, and knowing that it's not moderates a lot of my criticism.

[beowuuf]

I think zyx's comments still stand before the confusion for both the front page 'feel and the portfolio scroll issue though. Certainly in the web example you game Gambit, the guy clearly had his website links all in circles, and had the rounded bottle as a feature aswell.

One interesting thing about your old site's portfolio page, is that although the first site seems too far down, at least because it is bisected it seems natural to scroll, and there's also something about the way your logo flares that seems to draw the eye across to the scrollbar anyway.

[Gambit37]

I think zyx's comments still stand before the confusion for both the front page 'feel and the portfolio scroll issue though. Certainly in the web example you game Gambit, the guy clearly had his website links all in circles, and had the rounded bottle as a feature aswell.

Not sure what you mean?

One interesting thing about your old site's portfolio page, is that although the first site seems too far down, at least because it is bisected it seems natural to scroll, and there's also something about the way your logo flares that seems to draw the eye across to the scrollbar anyway.

Exactly. Good design.

[Gambit37]

OK, well here's the kind of thing I have in mind for the homepage. I've changed the colour scheme from that green/white/orange to something a bit more "in your face" Two variations, one orange, one greenyblue. Note that the text isn't final!!!

http://www.friskdesign.com/v/?p=a8d.jpg
http://www.friskdesign.com/v/?p=a8e.jpg

Good, bad, awful?

[Sophia]

I like them both, though I like the image that you use with the greenyblue one much more, for the simple fact that it seems rather silly to have your old website as one of the promotional examples on your new website.

[beowuuf]

I think the yellow/ornage combo, and I like theriffled out websites.

[Gambit37]

I like them both, though I like the image that you use with the greenyblue one much more, for the simple fact that it seems rather silly to have your old website as one of the promotional examples on your new website.

If you look carefully, you'll see that this isn't a replacement for my current site, it's actually a more focussed separate service. I'm going to experiment with running two offerings side by side and see which brings the most business. Plus I don't see that there is anything wrong in showing examples of my personal work and you can't see much of it any way: and I needed a complementary colour against the orange.

@Beo: "theriffled"???

[beowuuf]

the riffled

[Jan]

Oh, it looks absolutely fantastic, Gambit!

I like both colours, and I cannot decide which one is better - the orange one looks more friendly and the blue one more serious (or maybe "professional"). I'd perhaps choose the orange one, but I'm rather undecided. You'd need a psychological survey of whether your potential clients would prefer colder or warmer colours. Perhaps you know some research showing this.

How large / wide is the page going to be - I mean how big will the letters be in reality (some of the lines looks too huge on my screen but I presume it's going to be smaller then)?

[Gambit37]

Nope, that's actual size. Whatever you're seeing is exactly how it will look when turned into a working webpage. (Though the font smoothing will vary depending on your browser and operating system.)

As for colours, I'm thinking I might keep the overall black and white parts consistent, then simply swap out the key colour randomly. This gives me flexibility for things like different coloured business cards, etc.

It's still a work in progress and anything could change

@Beo: I still don't know what that means! Riffled in what context?

[beowuuf]

The fanned out websites

[Gambit37]

Doh! Right!

[zoom]

a few suggestions, on the fly:

the space on the right is not clear enough for me, the effect of a paper lying over the background.
make it a bit broader to help it read. 10 px maybe instead of 5.

you could test this:
the sample pictures of webservices already done next to the WEB DESIGN SERVICES cut off, you don´t need to see them fully imo, at least not there at once. too irritating
cut them off at the end of the orange bar, so that they(the photos) appear to be behind the next paragraph
(As a web developer (...) accessible and effective websites)
try to put this text then align=right. Maybe the Caption WEB DESIGN SERVICES would have more room (white space, relaxation room for the eyes of the viewer)and thusly stand out better.also for my eyes the way it is now the text size(As a web developer ..) is relatively too big for my taste,it is not small not big I don´t know where to put it mentally-- it is not clear somehow.- the other texts are perfect btw.
if you put this text to the right, as said, the size it has now should be ok/irrelevant then.. because just it is allocated to the right you have it optional to read or not.. if it stays left aligned I have to read it..
generally I would not write too overly much(you have to say something however that is clear, so anyway. put it right side)


the bottom frisk design logo looks cool. It is like a price tag I like it. It could even be animated some time in the future or,
to make it maybe graphically more exciting move the price tag
---------
<design|
---------

10 ° degrees downwards. Is that clear. This is all just my opinion, so hopefully it gets you something to try out or kick off.

EDIT:
you could re - use the price tag theme in your site several times.
GET IN TOUCH could be cut off diagonally on one end twice (like the K form " < ")
even in the orange bar on the top you could cut in the diagonal stuff. the logo would appear more often.

the randomization of colours is a good thing, I would do that randomisation also with the "praise quote" on the lower section.

[Sophia]

If you look carefully, you'll see that this isn't a replacement for my current site, it's actually a more focussed separate service. I'm going to experiment with running two offerings side by side and see which brings the most business. Plus I don't see that there is anything wrong in showing examples of my personal work and you can't see much of it any way: and I needed a complementary colour against the orange.

Ok, I didn't know this wasn't a replacement, but I stand by my point. It seems like intellectual masturbation, essentially. "Look at this great website I made! For myself!" But do what you want.

[Gambit37]

@Zoom: Some interesting points, but they are a bit vague:. Plus for it to make sense I need to see a screenshot of exactly what you're viewing, could you provide one? I suspect you are viewing at 1024 and I haven't optimised for that resolution yet.

if you put this text to the right, as said, the size it has now should be ok/irrelevant then.. because just it is allocated to the right you have it optional to read or not.. if it stays left aligned I have to read it..

That's exactly the reason why it's on the left, to immediately tell you what the site is about. It leads your eye over the pictures on the right.

the bottom frisk design logo looks cool. It is like a price tag I like it. It could even be animated some time in the future

This is the logo I designed for my new brand. The Frisk Design website (which also will be revamped) will have this as the main logo. The sample site I'm showing you here is temporarily called "Designs for Devs" and will eventually have a similar logo -- so that they all tie into the same brand.

Sorry all, it's probably a bit confusing because I'm making all sorts of decisions during this design phase that you're not privy to. Including this double brand thing. I'm only posting up these designs to get reactions on colours and style, so you can pretty much ignore the content for now.

It seems like intellectual masturbation

LOL, what a great phrase!

[Gambit37]

An improvement (?)

http://www.friskdesign.com/v/?p=d5n.jpg

[ian_scho]

Nice!

[Gambit37]

After another day of experimenting and tweaking, I've got something I'm very happy with. Ignore the previous orange version -- that's for my secondary brand. This new version is for the main Frisk Design website HOMEPAGE. Content is subject to change, but overall layout, colour scheme and implied functionality are pretty close now. What do you think?

http://www.friskdesign.com/v/?p=fd12b.jpg

I'd be interested to hear if there are still scrolling problems.

[Sophia]

I like it, with one exception. I'd change "Ready to chat?" to something more promotional and motivating, like "Ready to take your website to the next level?" or whatever you want to say.

[ian_scho]

You got the paper plane in there! Awww sweet.

Looks smart and clean. I like it. Well done.... Now get some REAL work done

[zoom]

it´s good! You put quite some work in there, and I do think you can be happy with it.

Initially I had fears that mirroring the "price tag" was not a good idea,
having it point to the left in FRISK DESIGN and then to the right in the buttons,
but I guess it is all right really.

sorry for the screenshot
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/4026/websitea.png
it is 1024 x756 or so..see the space on the right and left? I thought they were too small in previous post,
but you will lose much needed space where the action takes place if you made that space bigger..


http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/1300/websiteb.png
there is a slight difference of space between the 2 captions, not? It really does not matter!!!
above the first caption to the computer it seems there are a few more pixels 2 or so compared to the lower caption
probably due to the keyboard or mouse ..


http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/517/websitecc.png
erm. for completion. You can cut the browser control panel out to see how your design would match with the surrounding
in a mac-style browser(looks fine )

[Jan]

It's a beautiful work, Gambit! As Ian said, it's smart and clean. I like it a lot. If I ever need to design a web, I'll hire you ... or my brother... definitely one of you.

[zoom]

with the windows7 firefox it looks much better than with the apple 13" laptop.
the side issue is over...
http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/7681/homepageb.png

[ian_scho]

Interestingly enough, I've just discovered the Adobe Browser Lab. I had to register but can see the same web site in various browsers... Of course, poor Gambit has to support IE6 users as well, STILL at up to 10-20% market share!

[Gambit37]

I like it, with one exception. I'd change "Ready to chat?" to something more promotional and motivating, like "Ready to take your website to the next level?" or whatever you want to say.

Good idea: writing snappy copy has never been my strong point!

You got the paper plane in there! Awww sweet.

The plane was originally going to be a big focal point, but it just wasn't going to work the way I originally intended. However, I decided to include the sky texture as a 'nod' to the previous version of the site, and so it seemed appropriate to add it in. It's a bit contrived, but it allows me to to do my cool little marketing thing:

There will be a 'hidden' page on the site that has the instructions on how to make this paper plane. You'll only be able to get to it by finding a clickable plane somewhere in the site. On the back of my business cards, I'm going to have one of the steps from the instructions, with a link through to the page (since one instruction on its own isn't very useful!). I'm sure no-one will actually make the plane, but it's just a bit of fun, and it has an emotional connection for me as it was one of the few things I remember my Dad teaching me to make when I was very young.

Looks smart and clean. I like it. Well done.... Now get some REAL work done

I have to design all the other pages yet. Then write the content. Then code it all up into a working website. It *is* real work -- a full project. Just not paid for. Several more weeks of spare time will be going into this.

it is 1024 x756 or so..see the space on the right and left? I thought they were too small in previous post,
but you will lose much needed space where the action takes place if you made that space bigger..

I'm still not really sure which bit you mean. Do you mean the space to the left of "Beautiful effective websites" and to the right of the computer is too small? It's all perfect -- it's been designed to cleanly fit into a 1024 maximised display and still have breathing space. If you're viewing on a wider monitor, then you simply see more of the surrounding background, like this:

It's a beautiful work, Gambit! As Ian said, it's smart and clean. I like it a lot. If I ever need to design a web, I'll hire you ... or my brother... definitely one of you.

Thanks I'm much better than your brother

Interestingly enough, I've just discovered the Adobe Browser Lab. I had to register but can see the same web site in various browsers... Of course, poor Gambit has to support IE6 users as well, STILL at up to 10-20% market share!

I tried that browserlab thing a while back and it was stupidly slow on my aging PC. Regarding IE6 support -- this design will have some nice bells and whistles for newer browsers, but it will work fine in IE6 even if it looks a little different. Progressive enhancement and all that jazz.

Thanks for your patience everyone, and all the great feedback, I really appreciate it.

EDIT: For fun, here's the first site I built back in '97. This was crap, even then, but I think it shows how far I've progressed

[zoom]

Gambit, you are right, I meant the side´s space.. and I figured out the increase ike your screenshot shows. Best luck with all the customer stuff in the future

[Gambit37]

PANIC!

As is usual with me, I've just had a panic that this new design is completely wrong. I'm concerned that it still doesn't look professional enough. I'm worried it won't attract the higher paying customers -- I think it possibly still looks a bit "hobbyist."

Difficult to ask for your gut reactions now, since you've all seen it -- but what is the overall impression you get from this new brand image? Let's say I'm a company rather than a sole trading freelancer: What do you think about the company when you see this new website?

[Zyx]

Have you considered reconverting to paper planes construction?

The new design blends perfectly cleanness, aesthetics and creativity. I think you're good.