Octavio Corral

Looks great! I like it a lot.

For sure a few things I would tweak:

1) Make the body text more legible. I'm not sure what you're using but it is hard to read. Go for something easy on the eyes and everyone will love you remember. Legibility first. Design second.

2) The 'Join Us' button......is that a button? It feels like a button....... never mind i get it now, its for the chalkboard below. I just want to click it really bad. For sure if you make it clickable, it should go to the Events page.

3) The social media icons don't match the rest of the design. keep looking! Other than that it looks pretty solid

4) Maybe a tiny bit more contrast on the menu background. Make that leather like 10% darker

Very nice! I like the look and feel and where its going. The only thing bugging me is that the homepage does not feel like a home page. It feels like an inner page.

I think if you make the home banner Much much larger (to the bottom of the white line), then I think that will feel bigger better and more dramatic.

I like it a lot! I feel it just needs a tiny bit extra to make it superb.

I feel like the whole site in general is too clean and too compartmentalized for a Irish Pub. My recommendation would be to see if you can integrate the header with the green BG a little better. I love the overall look but it feels a little "stiff" see if you can grunge things up just a tad by making the black header go into the green.

hehe just an opinion. take it or leave it. overall, very nice!

Everything looks pretty solid. I would just change the place of the REGISTER button on the home page banner.

In its current position, it makes me think it is part of the current series text. Is it supposed to be?

your website is very soft. I feel like the vertical bars in the banner need to have slightly rounded corners. This can be achieved through CSS3 though in the coding.

btw, not sure if you used this for 'inspiration' but your website looks eerily similar to http://www.slidedeck.com/

everything overall seems pretty nice and I understand it is a template to be used but overall....

1) its almost too generic

2) if this is a design studio, there should probably some type of design work on the home page. it feels too bland.

In terms of design, it looks really great!

But I honestly have no idea if this logo is appropriately designed for your client. If you could enter more information about who the client is and what type of industry they are in, that would better help us review the logo concept

is this for a student encyclopedia? or what?

i like it a lot and think it works great!

Only thing I agree with on Sean is the Wavyness of the letter "i"'s that bothers me alot as well and I don't know why.

The first logo is your strongest and I definitely think you can take that concept and make it better.

2) through 5) are pretty bad and suffer from lots of issues.

I would stick with one and refine it and play with it

1) your header and footer do not match the website's background and visa versa.

2) Interactive 3D flash rooms are very 1997. I would recommend going with a completely different concept all together.

Remember, when it comes to showing off portfolio, you want your work to be the star of the show. (not a tacky flash movie or gimmicky background)

I feel the minimal style goes very well when trying to represent the architecture industry. The inner pages work very well, much better than the home page at this point.

Some critiques upon first glance:

1) Had I not known it was an architect before seeing the design, It would have taken me 10 seconds too long to realize what I was looking at.

For example: the first thing to catch my eye was the big banner. then 2nd, I read the main tag line ( I still don't know where I'm at), then I look to the top left to look for a logo, then realize its on the right hand side. THEN after seeing DBA, I look below to see what the text says and then get confused because its very close the the main navigation. Granted, this all happens in less then 3 seconds in the brain, but you can cut that confusion down to .2 seconds. My recommendation would be to stick to Steve Krug's first rule of usability. "Don't Make Me Think."

Of course, all of what I just said can be completely avoided if you just include some text in the flash banner with the word "architects"

2) The logo subtext blends in too much with the menu. Needs more separation/contrast. They are currently too close. maybe try making the subtext that bright blue?

I would recommend printing a sample of this out at home to make sure you can read that white text. It always looks legible on the screen, but try it out on actual paper to make sure its legible.

It is a tad dark (although I really like that, I can almost guarantee you it will be even darker when it comes time to print). So I would lighten up the backside just a tiny bit. nothing major.

also, see how the logo on the front would look with that nice brighter blue from the backside.

I like the card immensely. its good. one tiny issue that bugs me is the .com text. its very thing and a bit close to the DFIRM.

Also when u get this printed, it would be really cool if u could make printed on a matted paper, then only gloss over the color portions

I like it a lot but feel that the curvy text along with all of the tiny dots, the hat, the french symbol, the circle,

are all doing too much.

Try to simplify the center a bit.

I'll chime in since no one has brought this up, but I'm a little confused as to what the difference is between ACTIVE and RECENT concepts? I feel like there will be a large overlap in terms of the sites appearing.

If I'm wrong please correct me. Either way, as a regular user I'm a tad confused.

I also agree that "Disliking" something should not cost you a reputation point. That is ludicrous and we just end up promoting a culture of "being nice" instead of "being good." (Paul Arden quote)

to be honest.... I completely missed the "DR". From far away (and when viewed small) you cannot make out the "dR" at all. Instead.... the viewer is left trying to imagine what that shape could be.

a train comes to mind..... clouds too........ I feel like the shape is border lining on looking like a penis. Either way. The DR is completely missed

the "auto" is almost completely dominated by the dr shape as well

While I feel the design is pleasant, My main gripe with the whole site is..... it takes way too long to figure out what you do...

"Coaching, Learning Design, and Facilitation" doesn't tell me much. So you coach design and facilitate things? What does that mean?

The paragraph below the tag line confuses me even more.

I feel like your service needs to be described through an example on the home page. I read your entire homepage and I still have no clue what it is your company actually does. The 'Lord Byron' quote confused me even more.

May advice to you is. Be very clear and upfront on the homepage. Show the user what you do through an example. All of your copy is too floaty and abstract to even comprehend what the company does

DESIGN WISE Like a reviewer said previously, you need more pictures of happy people....

I would even include some of the photos from the We-lead page on the home page. This would cheer things up and put a face to those you'll be working with.

In regards to the text. Just a few padding issues exist. Your main content is much too close to the sidebar on the right. Space those out a bit more. There is too much tension. On the homepage, play with the line-height and size of the text and headers, currently it does not flow very well.

On your "What If - > We think... We-create" sidebar...... once again.... its very confusing as to where I will be going if I click those, so from a usability stand point, I less inclined to click it if I don't know where it will go.

While I agree with Matthew to a certain extent, if you still plan to move forward with this, I do have a few critiques.

First of all, I think the first layout works better. On the second wire frame, you seem to put emphasis on the blog and the site's credibility with testimonials. I don't think this is necessary at all since the main highlight of the site will be beautiful designs.

On that note, I don't think your site's design is designed well enough to be handing out those awards. I would recommend with going something more minimal to let the other designs shine.

Getting into specifics....

1) The whole design does not feel cohesive

2) The icons do not match the design, either get rid of them or find some that match the site's style

3) It is too difficult to tell that the 'make nomination' and 'award winners' are actual buttons/links. They are styled the same way as the intro paragraph.

4) Try including actual images of designs and avatars to get a feel to how the final site will look.

5) Your intro paragraph has way too much text. Keep in mind the type of site you are building, no one will be reading. They will more than likely only be browsing the designs. Your site is practically a CSS gallery. (when was the last time you read more than a sentence on one of those sites? minus blog posts)

I'm not sure why but at first glance.... the dots remind me of a woman's breasts. then I see finger nails.

I agree with what as been said. a bit too abstract.

For sure something can be done with the M4U. the current concept takes 10 seconds too long to "get"

While I agree with everything that has already been said ( You won't be attracting the clientele you want with this style). Here are a few things I see that could possible 'save' this design. Specifically I feel that if you really push the typography, this design could work.....

1) Titles and Subtitles need to be aligned to the left. 2) All of the regular text feels very close together, increase the line-height on the text to let it breath a little. 3) On the services page, everything is too close the the edges. too much tensions. 4) I think what makes it feel 'boring and static' is the regular border you have chosen for the main content. Try and replicate the same border style from the menu to the main content.

I feel if you still want to go with this style, you're going to have to really go all out with it. If it isn't executed perfectly, it's just going to come off as old static and bland.

I like it a lot. Although it is possible ithe 906 could completely go over someone's head.

small suggestion to lessen that confusion, see how it looks if you add some very thin spacing where the 9 and the 6 touch the outer circle.