New cafe website

I seem to be posting less and less websites these days as I am busy with our own set of websites for the company.

This website is a replacement for a site which was created by the client using one of those template based offerings from their hosting company, but that site was really bad. With this site I have gone for a flat look (as I always do) with a slight retro look it with the colours and to some elements including the logo. The fonts are kept quite large as I think that these days 12px or 13px is too small a font size, I will no typically use at least 15px for body text, headings can be any size above 22pxAlthough the freshness of the ingrediants is being pushed I did not want to go over the top with green so limited it's use.

I initially created a slideshow for the header but then I took it off as I felt it was simply not needed. There is a tendency with designers to include elements like sliders to try and justify their fees but if an element is not needed then don't put it in, so off it came and not only does it simplify the website it makes it load a lot quicker as well. The branding for the website follows through into their social media as well, which again is something which tends to be neglected by clients.

http://www.carlislecafe.co.uk/index.htm

Fun. Do they deliver? To New Mexico? :)

I would give anything to eat some of the food in New Mexico, we've got a restaurant near us which has a tex-mex menu and it's really good.

Once again Skech shows us just how to design a website. I am amazed at how many consistently good examples he shows us. I know it is not all down to Xara, as he uses various elements to bring them together. This is a really good website without taking into account how it was made, a very good design. I have created quite a few websites now but I cannot hold a candle to this guy.
Anyway Skech, have you thought about selling your designs to us Xara users, as I would be first in line.! Seriously, think about it, another income stream? I have just bought a new batch of templates from a company not affiliated with Xara and their latest batch is quite good, actually better than Xara's own. And Skech's are better than that as well, so maybe he can think about it?

yes it's a nicely designed website

but I am beginning to feel that all websites designed to be compatible with the modern devices all look basically the same - lots of white space with text with a smattering of clipart and the odd photo - almost like being back in the '90's <sigh>

If only all websites had lots of white space with text and a smattering of clipart and the odd photo ;))

As far as I'm concerned a website is their to get you business, if you need to showcase a product then by all means have some photos but for me the simpler the better; who are you, what do you do, what do you sell, how can you help me and how do I contact you - that is all that's needed, explained in the simplest way possible.

you said it all in the first phrase of your second line - it's called appeal - and I read so much I need to see something to make me want to read more...

but we are of course all individuals and different [except me :)]

Nice clean site Skech, i like it.

Can i make one suggestion.......... The Aziz Catering logo and text in your footer seem a little too low in relation to its neighbours. small thing but did catch my eye.

;)

Thanks 'Alba will have to look into the aziz logo.

Andy I have posted a thread on here a while back as a survey to see what the posiblity of me creating templates is but it seemed no one was interested and the time it would take to develop a website to sell them and of course design them would not be worthwhile, as it seems that the number of xara users is too small to justify doing so. I have been investigating Adobe muse and will instead look at creating templates for that as I know the market to be very large and I have had good feedback from both the adobe muse community and Adobe themselves.

now that i would be interested in :)

When I say 'template' I suppose I mean, sell a website you have already designed, so that we can modify it to suit our own customers. We would not use/need the existing text or images, just the layout with with navigation. Your original customer should have no concerns if the design is used for another type of business or even in a different country. Of course, they could legitimately complain if a competing business in the same district used the same outline.
It is no different for those of us who use Xara templates, often using the same design for multiple businesses. And if your original customer does not have a proviso that you, the designer, cannot use the design elsewhere, or sell it to another web-designer, then there is no redress there either?
This would add a value-added service to your business and it would be essentially free to you, as you have already designed the site AND been paid for it already.
Just sayin....

The idea was to have completely original themes, all designs done for my clients are original and even when a client asks for a site just like another I have created I will never do so, I might take elements that the client wants from various of my sites but not copy anything exactly. All design is sold as 'bespoke' unless it is a wordpress theme which is customised and then the client is aware that we are doing so. Anyway it is not going to happen as apparently the demand is not there.

Hi Cloud.
Did you do this website using Xara?! http://www.cloudwebagency.com

If you did, then how do you make a background that stretches all the way on both sides, no matter what the screen resolution?

Rik, It's not a Xara-built site.

I believe the site uses divs that size to the width of the browser and the background colour that you see is the colour of the div, not a graphic at all.

Thanks for the answer, Paul.

It must be possible in Xara though.
In my gallery, there are backgrounds like that sort of thing, that can be applied.
They just don't seem to be suitable for me, or editable, and only appear to be for the top of the page.

So, I hope Cloud doesn't mind me asking here, if anyone knows how to do that?

It could be a pretty cool thing for Xara to have a horizontal element that will fit the width of the browser and use CSS to colour it rather than a bitmap.

Rik - the site has been created in adobe muse. It's been a while since I used xara but the background aspect can be done quite easily in xara; simply create a rectangle (of the colour of your choice) on the 'background' layer and set it to fill the browser window and it does use css elements rather than images.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cloud

Rik - the site has been created in adobe muse. It's been a while since I used xara but the background aspect can be done quite easily in xara; simply create a rectangle (of the colour of your choice) on the 'background' layer and set it to fill the browser window and it does use css elements rather than images.

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Thanks for the reply, Cloud.
But...
What width should the rectangle be?
Should it be on, or off the page?
And I can't see where the option to 'fill the browser window' is?

EDIT: I got it. The object has to be on the 'Pasteboard background'. Then you can select 'Fill browser width'. Thanks, Cloud.

You can tell I haven't use it in a while, yes you are correct it is the pasteboard background.