trial web site

[Fred C]

Hi Derek,
I see a couple of little glitches here on IE.
Home page: 2nd line of copy indented.
Graphics page: "Please contact..." line appears, overprinted.

[masque]

Gary
I know exactly what you mean. Its by no means a finished or finalised design and was produced to test the line drawing to solid effect as much as anything, also there is an element of having been 'designed by a commitee' as the print side of the business is two other people and I have to take their initial ideas into consideration to begin with at least.
Fred
It might be that this occured when I uploaded a revision so I'll check and repost it.
I've got something else I want to try anyway.
Derek

[rebeth]

Appears broken in Opera 9.52

[iamtheblues]

Looks absolutely super in Opera 9.25, Derek. I'd go along with Roger's comments about white text on a black background, though.
Saludos,
Bob.

[amoore]

Appears broken in Opera 9.52

rebeth, welcome to the forum. Nice you have you join us. What looks broken? I'm also using Opera 9.52.

Derek, I like the overall look of the site. There's something peaceful in the "brooding" quality that draws me in. As Tao Jones says, some people will have trouble reading the white text on the black background. In this design, it's not so hard on my eyes.

OTOH, given the nature of the site, I probably wouldn't bother reading the text on the interior pages anyway unless...I just realized that there's a disconnect between the text I would expect to see given the lovely artistic design (ie, lovely artistic prose about art or poetry) and the text I would expect to see about designing menus and brochures (more mundane, practical info).

As I think about it, at least two out of the three samples on the Print page similarly clash with the high-art theme. That was my initial reaction when I first saw the page, but I'd pushed it aside while I looked at other things. I think you have a great design for selling design services for art books, but I wouldn't hire you to design my pizza menu from this site.

I'm also having trouble with the icons on the Contact page clashing stylistically with the other graphics. Are they just placeholders? Similarly, I don't care for the switch to two columns on the Print page.

BTW, like handrawn reports, the image on the Graphics page doesn't roll over when you approach from the left. So that's happening in both Firefox and Opera 9.52.

Even so, you've achieved your original aim. The rollovers are lovely.

[masque]

Please see edit note

What looks broken? I'm also using Opera 9.52.

Derek, I like the overall look of the site. There's something peaceful in the "brooding" quality that draws me in. As Tao Jones says, some people will have trouble reading the white text on the black background. In this design, it's not so hard on my eyes.

OTOH, given the nature of the site, I probably wouldn't bother reading the text on the interior pages anyway unless...I just realized that there's a disconnect between the text I would expect to see given the lovely artistic design (ie, lovely artistic prose about art or poetry) and the text I would expect to see about designing menus and brochures (more mundane, practical info).

As I think about it, at least two out of the three samples on the Print page similarly clash with the high-art theme. That was my initial reaction when I first saw the page, but I'd pushed it aside while I looked at other things. I think you have a great design for selling design services for art books, but I wouldn't hire you to design my pizza menu from this site. Decisions, decisions, but no immediate rush.

I'm also having trouble with the icons on the Contact page clashing stylistically with the other graphics. Are they just placeholders? Similarly, I don't care for the switch to two columns on the Print page.

BTW, like handrawn reports, the image on the Graphics page doesn't roll over when you approach from the left. So that's happening in both Firefox and Opera 9.52.

Even so, you've achieved your original aim. The rollovers are lovely.

Thanks for (all) that.
I must admit I was surprised by the previous white on black comments and that’s given me something to think about at least.
The icons on the contact page are randomly chosen and yes can be considered placeholders.
One or two columns of text is also initially so I could tell one page from another when testing navigation and isn't important at this point.
Examples of PRINT are also randomly chosen but will need to reflect work done, which is more important than the pretty graphics in many ways because I make more from designing Pizza menus or similar than I do from drawing pictures of tulips, which brings me back to the "I wouldn't hire you to design my pizza menu from this site" comment because that will affect the final design more than making the tulips look good or the roll over clever. Makes me wonder whether we need two sites inter linked with the printing side taking prominance.
Derek

[jen0dorf]

Hi

On my system I find the black line to the right to eye catching, I suspect that you have made the site a fixed width so on my screen I have a definite black line on the LH side untill I reduce the screen size.

YOu could use CSS to fix this by placing the content in a div and making the margins auto.
The you page will be centred in mosy browsers. I'd start with a width of 700px which means it will display ok at most resolutions.

As an aside if you want search engine sucess avoid the use of excessive code. The serious search engines look for a good title and web page content.

HTH

IAn

[amoore]

Glad to be of service.

What you could do, perhaps, is create two sites: — one for your tulips and one for your pizza menus — since they really don't belong on the same page. That way, you can promote your work in both areas to their best advantage.

[masque]

Hi

On my system I find the black line to the right to eye catching, I suspect that you have made the site a fixed width so on my screen I have a definite black line on the LH side untill I reduce the screen size.

YOu could use CSS to fix this by placing the content in a div and making the margins auto.
The you page will be centred in mosy browsers. I'd start with a width of 700px which means it will display ok at most resolutions.

As an aside if you want search engine sucess avoid the use of excessive code. The serious search engines look for a good title and web page content.

HTH

IAn

I understood some of that. Being made in Xara I'm not sure what adjustments I can make. I'm trying one at 1024x768 rather than 800x600 at the moment to reduce the broad black border on each side of the many of screens and I'm trying one with a lighter background because of the coments about the black with white text.
Other than that I'm unsure what control I have in Xara.
Derek
PS Sorry about the pier.

[jwhitham]

PS Sorry about the pier.

So it's you that is burning down the piers, is it a work of conceptual art?

Web site looks good on my laptop @ 1024 x 768, except for the print page where the left column of text disappears behind the "petite gallery" flyer and the right column being so much wider than the left looks a bit unbalanced.