7 Reviews4 Votes1 Favorite568 Views
Concept Reviews
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Hey oliver.. your text is 1px off to the left.. kidding.. I'm too lazy to measure.
Overall its a very nice design, however, It looks like another iPod app site, propably because of the lack of content on the home page.
here are some things you should change
Make your logo more apparent, It really gets lost on the home page, I would darken it up so that it stands out more. also, get a symbol!
dump the word "iMac" thats confusing and doesnt mean anything, try "POWERFUL AND CREATIVE THINKING.
The outline of the light bulb and the white text REALLY get lost in this design, Maybe you could make those black/dark grey?
Put your links in order of how i should view them. home, work, services, about, blog, contact lose the RSS.
looking sexy so far, you just need some actual content.
nice color-scheme, Purple is the best color EVAR. but I would throw in another color there to keep it from looking girly o:
Good luck!
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Luke Marohn commented:Thanks! as for the extra color, just make your links like a dark lime green or something, you dont need much, it doesnt look girly at the moment, I'm just thinking ahead.
The thinking inside the light bulb actually looks really good, i forgot to mention how awesome the fonts are. cant wait to see where this goes!
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Oliver Martin commented:
I changed the slogan area and made the slogan smaller and more compact but it still fits in line with the iMac.
I will do more when I have slept, It is 1:36am ooops!
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I must say I really like the whole design overall, the font used for the menu navigation links/buttons look really cool ;)
The latest designs boxes really stand out :)
The Mac desktop looks good, :)
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Oliver Martin commented:
Oh thanks!
I was hoping for a great review, even if it does delude me into a sense of perfection lol. Anyway thanks for the 4444!
Even though I like the top half I still think I can work on the newest blog post section and "the latest designs" bit as they lack something but not sure what yet. Any help?
XD
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Peter Maginn commented:With the latest designs boxes/section I would on each image, have a enlarge button/magnify glass icon so that the user/visitor can view that design image bigger without leaving the homepage, You could use lightbox or fancy box scripts for this which are really easy to use.
Then also have a view more detail/info icon on the image :D
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Oliver Martin commented:
I will have a look into this suggestion tonight and post a new screenshot.
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Peter Maginn commented:
Ok, let me know via inbox that u've posted a revamp design as I don't check this much as off work :)
If you don't know lightbox or fancy box just google them and they are pretty easy and str8 forward to install, Im sure u've heard of them anyways
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Oliver Martin commented:
Yeah I normally use the lightbox v2 as it is stylish and compliments most styles of website. Nivo slider is impressive also, you should look at that one.
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Peter Maginn commented:
:) sweet. Yeah I've seen the nivo slider and nivo zoom and they look wicked, haven't used zoom yet though.
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Show more and tell less. Sample portfolio items show action that speaks louder than the words: "We create vibrant and engaging designs"...ok, let's see more of those designs! Think of Apple. The text on their home page doesn't state, "We create the best personal computers in the world." Their featured product takes center stage and does the talking.
Instead of "iMac Power & Creative Thinking", how about: "The Power to be Creative". Just an idea.
I think that others have addressed many of the design and technical details. My comments are more marketing-oriented in this case.
There is something taking form here. Some more definition will make this appear more focused and deliberate. Decide what customers gain from your business--other than creative thinking; what is the end result? What is the success story? :-)
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Oliver Martin commented:
I really just need feedback on the design. The old slogan "iMac Power & Creative Thinking" was changed so please see latest version, primary image. This is just a mockup so there are only temporary portfolio items to show how things look when they are populated with content.
I'm really not trying to suggest I am a great designer with my slogan, especially with the design in mockup mode.
I do like the slogan you suggested, it speaks well and kind of tells people that the "power" of the imac is my tool of choice. I'll have to see how it feels.
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Oliver Martin commented:
Did a version with your suggestion and the slogan area has improved, thanks again for suggestion.
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Design looks alright. I really like the logo design. Concept is nice, but there is nothing much on the design to comment about. You need to add mor stuff :)
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Oliver Martin commented:
Hi Dipesh,
Great to hear someone likes me logo lol. I'm getting negative feedback about it but I really think it is ok for now, as Im not really a logo person anyhow so I will focus on other design issues raised.
Yeah I do need to add some more stuff but I never now how to populate a design past mid-way, its a curse I think!
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Hi Oliver! Sometimes it become challenging to re-design our own creation. I do appreciate your new version. Would like to add a few suggestions:- 1. If you want to stick with grey grainy background i would suggest you to go for more lighter shades of gray to white. As i can see your grains effect but its not clearly visible. If you are ready to opt some other color then pl. try light blue(gradient)/purple/green or any other color to give your layout some liveliness. Just a thought :) 2. You can try some shadow effect on right side(upper) image which is currently looks like anything just to fill the blank space. I understand your motto behind it but add smthing to make it the part of layout. 3. Navigation fonts and color are far more better in the last version of the mock up i.e, 6th. Its clearly readable.( Note: if you will choose the lighter shade for bg then you have to make navigation bg lighter). 4. And last, "we create....." was not looking good. Why you have chosen so many fonts at a time? I think two fonts will work...
Hope it will help you in some way... Good luck :)
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Oliver Martin commented:
The same thing has been said before but again people are not listening. The image upload system of Concept Feedback doesn't show details like grains on backgrounds well. I will try a light yellow/skin style colour to try and give it more vibrance. Yeah you wont see how the curtain style header fits into the background (found at very top of image), again because of the upload quality.
Also don't use text style writing because I'm finding it hard to read your sentences and understand their meaning.
Navigation is more visible in 6th image because that is with the hover effects shown. Not because I changed the colours. The image title tells you what the image is about ("MOCKUPwithHOVER.png").
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Hi
Not keen on your logo ... don't like the way it is eaten up by the line and using all those colours in the leafy thing just doesn't work.
Quite like your navigation panel.
Text is engaging.
Have a real problem with that computer picture. Don't feel it sells you at all.
Why the plain grey background. Makes it all look dull. Wavy lines just draw your attention to the top
So I guess 2 out of 5 (-:
But none of the elements work together they have just been stuck on a background.
Keep going ... I think you have a way to go (-:
Lisa
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Oliver Martin commented:
Thank you lisa for your feedback,
I like the grey background and from the start I added noise in photoshop and a darker grey gradient which starts strong at the top and fades away below the iMac image. So I think I will keep the colour of the background the same. I was going for a modern and clean/minimalistic feel but with a subtle rough texture.
Thanks for the like of my current site at oliversportfolio.com. I wanted two different styled websites so that is why my main site is more background intense and this one is a bit more eye friendly (i think).
Due to the basic colour scheme in the background I wanted to add some complementary colours to the foreground, hence the logo has a multi coloured V shape.
The computer image (iMac) is there to show people what I use to create my designs. Nothing more nothing less and I added some watercolour gradient drips and border to it to make it more designer friendly. I love macs so I don't want to change it lol.
I too like the engaging text and the navigation area, they really grab your attention to travel further into the site.
Again thanks for the comments, I hope this clears up why I chose the elements you didn't like so much, maybe suggest something I could add instead, you never know I might want to change something if your suggestion is good enough XD
-Oliver
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BACKGROUND To be honest I'm not keen on the grey background. It drags the whole thing down in my opinion. Why not go for a white or very pale grey background? Aim for somewhere between #FFFFFF and #F0F0F0. As I feel that may bring out the vibrancy of the purple and the blue more, and of course, the dark grey text goes well on a white/very pale grey background. It would give a cleaner feel to the site. As it is, it feels slightly dull/dingy to me.
If you want to keep the noise then that's possible on a white background to give it some texture. Just be sure to keep it very subtle because "less is more" applies here.
FONTS When I first looked at the screenshots, I felt overwhelmed by the different fonts you have there. It confused me a lot for a couple of minutes. Not a good thing. I would suggest losing most of the fonts from the "WE CREATE VIBRANT AND ENGAGING DESIGNS" and just go with one easy to read display font, but use purple OR blue to highlight the important keywords, such as "VIBRANT" and "ENGAGING" and use different font sizes/weights.
Not keen on the font in the navigation - it feels off balance and doesn't really fit in with the rest of the site.
Generally, there should only be a maximum of 3 different fonts for any given website (not including the logo). You've got about 101 in use here. Okay that's a bit of an exaggeration but you get the idea.
IMAC Perhaps you could use the iMac image as an automatic slider to showcase some of your work, with the images linked to your main portfolio.
I think the paint behind the iMac image does absolutely nothing for the design. It's like an after thought. I would just remove that and add depth by adding a proper shadow instead.
SUMMARY To sum up, I recommend the following changes to improve the quality of the design:
1) Lose most of the fonts used and stick to a maximum of 3 different fonts. Make sure they are as readable as possible. 2) Change the background to white or very light grey - somewhere between #FFFFFF and #F0F0F0 would be ideal. 3) Give the iMac more purpose i.e. use it as a slider or something like that.
Hope that helps.
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Oliver Martin commented:
Hi,
I have tried adding noise to white backgrounds and it lacks the amount of noise I need, whereas the grey gives me a noticeable amount of grain to the background. Also in addition the grey background is essential to the round spotlight that starts above and ends over the logo. If you look hard enough you can see it. Making the background white would also make the site more vibrant but it would make your eyes only focus on the slogan, just left of the iMac, because the contrast of colours would be immense.
The rules about fonts were established by stupid designers who believe in strict and boring boundaries. Like many designers I use fonts like colours and what I mean by that is I use as many as I feel are necessary to bring across the engaging and vibrancy of my work, in this case a slogan. It would be so boring to have a single font with brighter colours for the main words. I see that used all the time so I'm not going to do that!! I'm not trying to be original, I just want to stand out a bit more.
The iMac is a slider but because it is in Photoshop I can not show this effect and so I have chosen to leave it as it is. Thanks for mentioning it as it should help others see the reason for it being there.
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Gavan Brown commented:While I agree that blanket rules to number of fonts is antiquated and no longer valid, that does not mean rules do not exist. One rule that is definitely still valid, is DO NOT STRETCH TYPE, as you've done with the "NS" impact fontface there.
Another typography rule is that some fonts are not intented to be put in all caps. Generally these include script (excluding for use in anagrams) and medieval fonts. The font you've chosen for "we create" looks absolutely horrible in all caps.
Gemma's concern is a valid one. However, it's not the number of fonts, it's the fact that they do not compliment each other in any way. It looks as though you've gone to dafont.com and just randomly downloaded the first 20 fonts you saw that looked neat. The randomness in the font choice feels spastic, and not well thought out. The effect is that the design feels extremely disjointed. The menu doesn't feel a part of the same website.
The color palette is unfortunately the same story. The blue and teal you've used, clash.
A design can have as many fonts as the design can make WORK. Unfortunately, these do not work.
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Gemma Weirs commented:There is nothing stupid about the guidelines concerning the number of different fonts used in a website. It's there for a reason, ans still applies today. There is nothing stupid about designers using these guidelines in the majority of their work. But there's something stupid going on when I land on a website that has a gazillion fonts everywhere because that just throws me off, confuses me and makes me want to get out of there as fast as I can. And I won't be the only one who will feel that way. There is nothing wrong with breaking the mould, as long as you can pull it off skilfully. Which isn't the case here.
The grey could be a lot lighter in. You'll still see the glow thing but you may have to adjust the opacity to get it right. As it is, I cannot see the glow behind your logo, except for the shadow thing under it.
My eyes already focus on that clash of fonts you call a slogan. And all for the wrong reasons.
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Hello!
Thanks for your informative feedback Luke. I will be changing the slogan area, left of the iMac as I too feel it isn't up to scratch. I often take a few moments or a second independent viewing to see this fact.
Glad you feel it is sexy so far, kinda wanted an attractive design and thought purple was an ironic colour for a man to use on his website. Besides it's dark enough to fit in with the grey scale design but vibrant enough to add contrast. I will look into the extra colour idea.
Originally I was planning on turning the word "thinking" into a bulb shape but I'm not a Photoshop pro so I am unaware of how to achieve this so far.
The iMac word at the beginning of the slogan isn't needed, I realise that now because there is an iMac to the right so people will know I am an Apple freak. Though I think "Powerful and creative thinking" is not good enough so I will change it. It was a spare of the moment idea really.
Looking forward to more feedback!