Please Review A Site I Made

[thetzfreak]

Hey, I recently made a website for a real, photography fine art studio, 21st Century Pictures.

http://21stCenturyPictures.com

This is the kind of layout that the owner wanted, and when he saw the ending result, he became IN LOVE with it.

Maybe I can do a little something to this website? Nothing too major, though. Also, since I am a good friend of the owner, could you please tell me what you think of the pictures in the picture galleries? And also, if the prices were good, would you go get pictures made from him?

Thanks

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[StudioWorks]

Hey,

I would improve the graphics. The eyes in the header are really nice but it loads kinda slow for me. Same goes for the other image with the two girls.

I would use a smaller text size for the " The best way to preserve memory is to merge the best of the tradition of visual art with modern technology." text and also.. i would make some changes in the color scheme too.

All the best,

- SW

 

[thetzfreak]

Thanks for that StudioWorks! I think I'll do just about everything you said there; the colors of the website are the best thing he liked about it It's his style.

 

[GeneCosta]

Hey there,

I too like the colors. I'll comment on the eyes first. The blending seems sort of out of place. How about moving it to the right so we can't see the right side being blended. And then perhaps (assuming you use Photoshop) use a lasso around the left, feather 20-30, and then hue it to a red color.

How about getting rid of the underline in the top links? Not the side though.

Lastly, maybe a border around the picture of the two girls?

Not bad, though. :] Simple, and easy to navigate.

 

[thetzfreak]

Alright, thanks for that Do you mean around the left side when you say use lasso around the left?

 

[GeneCosta]

The left side where you blended it, yes.

 

[thetzfreak]

Hehe, I didn't read what I typed lol. TYPO! I'm not that dumn

Let me rephraze that: When you said the left side, did you mean the left side of the baby's face?

 

[GeneCosta]

Yes

 

[thetzfreak]

Yes

lol ok. Anyone else wanna give a review?

 

[daze]

if its your first site, good attempt. however, i'm going to be the a-hole in the thread by tearing it down since you wanted a review. it is definitely not professional work by any means.

- colors are too harsh for a professional company
- the big sentence in the middle of the homepage breaks in a bad place
- the slogan text looks bad in the header
- the filenames in the pages are bad (spaces in filenames are a no-no)
- logo is unprofessional

also, i'm going to go out on a big limb and assume that the idea was heavily "inspired" by jefflubin.com. i dont know who that is, but i see it referenced a couple of times in the code (where you try to call spacer graphics from his site, but end up messing up). it looks like some of the basic design ideas in your site (color scheme, date at bottom of the page) were "borrowed" from jefflubin.com. maybe jefflubin.com is an affiliate of yours -- i don't know. like i said, i'm going out on a limb.

 

[ripemedia]

Pretty good detective work, DAZE. I had an issue like that once where I was searching my site name on Google and came across a site that had completely lifted my design...graphics and all. They too forgot to rename some of the graphics, which is why it was showing up on the search engine. It was a trip.

I thought, "oh well. I'm in the middle of a redesign anyway." I guess it's somewhat flattering to have people borrow from you. I suppose all designs are derivative in some way. That's what keeps the art going. But it's important to gain enough experience to be able to "borrow" more descretely.

I agree with Daze; if this is a first site for you, then kudos. Your next one will be even better.

 

[daze]

i've been designing websites for almost 10 years (though i'd hardly call any of it real design in that first year or so -- especially considering the limitations of the browsers of the era). i've had my work swiped at least 2 dozen times. the most glaring was when i designed a site for a very popular online radio station and found a spanish station stole the entire design, put their logo on it and change the nav items to espanol. the radio station's threat of a lawsuit saw that go away quickly though. most of the time, the stuff that is "borrowed" from me is minimal stuff that is more flattering than anything else.

 

[thetzfreak]

Thanks for the reviews guy. Yep, I got influenced by jeff lubin's site. It's a very nice site, I must tell you (if you saw it). I took the basic design of his and just rearranged it to make mine look original. And thanks about the tips you guys gave me. I already had some of them in mind, but I'm glad you brought it more to my attention.

Thanks

 

[bhyraj]

nice site design. I like colours. thanks.

 

[carlb007]

Colours are good.
The menu really wants to be down the left hand side tho.
Id suggest u fit the page into a fixed width table to keep it centerd with 2 solid colour panels running down either side ot the page. When u resize the page at the moment them yellow lines stretch the entire thing and it spoils the look.
The eyes freak me out and i think id also go for a standard white font on the black background for your main text.
hope this helps,

Carl.

 

[DanT07]

I agree the eyes are scary. I would also not have 2 banners at the top, i would probably try merge them into one somehow.

 

[thetzfreak]

Colours are good.
The menu really wants to be down the left hand side tho.
Id suggest u fit the page into a fixed width table to keep it centerd with 2 solid colour panels running down either side ot the page. When u resize the page at the moment them yellow lines stretch the entire thing and it spoils the look.
The eyes freak me out and i think id also go for a standard white font on the black background for your main text.
hope this helps,

Carl.

Alright, thanks! I wanted to put the menu on the right side to be more original, because just about EVERYone has a menu on the left. Plus, it's really noticable on the right anyway, so I don't think that's much of a problem. I'm not really sure what you're saying about the yellow lines stretching the entire page... maybe you mean if you maximize the window they go all the way to the right? If that's the case, then it matches with the menus that run all the way out, too.

I would also not have 2 banners at the top, i would probably try merge them into one somehow.

I completely agree with that. Definately gonna do that.

Thanks for the feedback, guys.

 

[armstrong]

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Ephi, PM sent.