A Review of Film Festival by Ryan Bentin

I love your style here!

  • Ryan Bentin

    Ryan Bentin

    Rank: 10 Newbie

    2085

    • Design: 4
    • Usability: 3
    • Strategy: 5
    6 Votes
    This review has been awarded.
    I love your style here!

    Posted on Jan 02, 2012 at 3:24 AM

    Hey Simon,

    Each page is looking wonderful. I've got to say, job well done so far. Your typeface and spacing are comfortable and easy to read. And your oversized footer with the park scene is incredible.

    Being said, I think there is a lot of room for improvement. I believe the main reason it's looking off a bit is because you have some major alignment issues you may have missed.

    1. On the first page: You have your blocks of elements sorta all over the place. Try aligning your large image, wide copy, and your navigation all to the right side. Then your title, bullet points, and newsletter to the left under your logo. Or vice versa could work too.

    2. Page two: This looks fine like this but again, it may work better if you have your map and location do a switcha-a-roo.

    3. The third page seems to have achieved balance. Here though, you seem to be missing where you give your name/email etc. to leave a comment. Looks fantastic!

    4. Forth page: Again, this needs more balance. Seems as though it's your nav that is throwing stuff off. You could always play around with that as well. :) You could decrease the size of the photos and place the info below to line up with in the column.

    5. Your last page seems to be fine. I suggest placing that first paragraph under Program, just to give some balance because it looks empty on the left.

    Great design, I particularly like this style. I think your colors looks good as well. Overall it needs some consistency and balance within the layout and you've got a winner in my book.

    Peace, and Happy New Year!

    ~ Ryan

    • Simon Jackson
      Simon Jackson commented:
      Posted: on Jan 03, 2012 at 10:30 AM

      Thanks for the in-depth review!

      The image on the homepage is actually a video, so im not able to make it any bigger.

A5 - Blog Page.png

  • 1

    Needs a place for name, email, etc.

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  • 2

    Some ideas : Search by date, Categories

    • Simon Jackson
      Simon Jackson commented:
      Posted: on Jan 03, 2012 at 11:06 AM

      I showed this to the client and they actually wanted it all removed

  • 3

    pagination? maybe filtering?

    • Simon Jackson
      Simon Jackson commented:
      Posted: on Jan 03, 2012 at 11:04 AM

      There is pagination on the "browse posts" page, but CF seems to have a bug that wont show any uploaded comps after the 5th image

A7 - About.png

  • 1

    Too much vertical white-space

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A2 - Location.png

  • 1

    Switcharoo?

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  • 2

    Maybe remove the line from below the headers to next to them?

  • 3

    Maybe make the map smaller and the text bigger?

A1 - Home.png

  • 1

    This could use some tweaking to make it look more interesting.

    • Simon Jackson
      Simon Jackson commented:
      Posted: on Jan 02, 2012 at 9:24 AM

      Yeah, unfortunately I dont have any control over the logo

  • 2

    This is very wordy. Tying using some quote pulls like you did for the "event" page.

    • Simon Jackson
      Simon Jackson commented:
      Posted: on Jan 02, 2012 at 10:45 PM

      Good Idea! Just waiting to get the actual content from the client.

  • 3

    This is so attractive!!!

  • 4

    Nice

  • 5

    This is floating here

  • 6

    Great typography here

  • 7

    I totally want to push this! :)

  • 8

    The font here seems very small and a little squished. Any chance of increasing the font size and/or the space available for the navigation.

  • 9

    These seem to be a little lost up here. But I also feel like I can't figure out another spot that they'd be better suited. I'm not sure if their location up here distracts from the "Buy Tickets" link. Running a click test might help. Maybe if you added a 100% width thin black bar at the very top of the site, these could be added in there as text instead of icons. Not sure how that would look though, just a suggestion to help move them away from your primary CTA.

    • Simon Jackson
      Simon Jackson commented:
      Posted: on Jan 03, 2012 at 10:36 AM

      Good Idea. This is where the client wants them to be and adding colored icons removes focus from CTA.

      I'll play with it and see what I can come up with.

  • 10

    Quite frankly one of the most beautiful footer designs I've seen in a long time.

  • 11

    Love that your newsletter sign-up sets the expectations for what a user will be getting when they hand over their email address. Maybe include a small "we don't share or sell your email address" below the actual email input box.

  • 12

    Without the context of the copy here, it's hard to figure out what each of these icons represent in relation to the content. Perhaps a single bolded title, within the body copy, for each of them would help the content flow a little better.

  • 13

    I feel like these paragraph blocks could use a little more spacing between them.

    • Simon Jackson
      Simon Jackson commented:
      Posted: on Jan 03, 2012 at 10:32 AM

      I increased the spacing just a tad and it looks great. Thanks!

  • 14

    I feel like this is where some of your "something missing" is coming from. This block of text feels like it should be some how called out a little more than it is. I'm not for adding borders just for the sake of borders, but maybe some of these suggestions will spark something: - A think solid or dashed border on the top and bottom of this entire block. - A 5+ pixel white border around the image - Another photo *below* the main image, but on an angle, like a pile of photographs. - Bringing some of the blue from the footer up into this section in some way. - Changing the entire background colour of this section, either 100% width white, or a slightly darker beige than the current background OR just boxed in around this content block. - A border just on the bottom edge that is fancier than just a solid line (similar to how the footer separator is fancier than just a solid line).

    • Simon Jackson
      Simon Jackson commented:
      Posted: on Jan 03, 2012 at 10:37 AM

      I forgot to mention that the "giant image" on the home page is actually a video so I have a little less control over the size

  • 15

    Maybe just a shade too much spacing above and below this primary content block. *maybe*

  • 16

    I feel like there should be another Call to Action button in the bottom right of this content block.

    • Simon Jackson
      Simon Jackson commented:
      Posted: on Jan 03, 2012 at 10:33 AM

      Another "Buy Tickets" maybe?

    • Steve Comrie
      Steve Comrie commented:
      Posted: on Jan 03, 2012 at 11:18 AM

      It wouldn't hurt if that's your primary goal. No point in explaining all the reasons why someone wants a ticket right there in the copy and then sending them on a scavenger hunt to find the button :-)

  • 17

    I would include some basic contact information down here + copyright blah blah blah.

  • 18

    Love the shines myself, especially in buttons; might I suggest a small tweak? Add a small line of white at a width just bigger than the shine itself, on top of the shine

  • 19

    Hate this; if you have even some control over the logo, ask them to edit it a bit, at least

    • Simon Jackson
      Simon Jackson commented:
      Posted: on Jan 03, 2012 at 11:05 AM

      I wish I could, they have another designer for the logo :/

  • 20

    I'd ditch the boxes and replace them with white outlines of the logos themselves, would make a nice effect

    • Steve Comrie
      Steve Comrie commented:
      Posted: on Jan 03, 2012 at 12:54 AM

      I think that would be really nice too. Not sure if the sponsor's would all go for it though, but I'd say better to ask forgiveness than permission if it looks really good.

    • Simon Jackson
      Simon Jackson commented:
      Posted: on Jan 03, 2012 at 11:05 AM

      Good idea, ill just do it and see what happens

  • 21

    Beautiful!!!

  • 22

    I like it!

  • 23

    Super!

  • 24

    Great font, color and style!

  • 25

    I think that you need better logo.

A4 - Program.png

  • 1

    May want to work on your row spacing here. Seems a bit broken up.

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  • 2

    I would move this headline to the right, above the content. Would be easier to follow.

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