[Mark L Bentley]

Please take a look at the early stages of my new portfolio and let me know what you think

this site

[Allister]

Good work, some points:

• There is no title
  
• You should experiment with fonts, for example a hand writing one would go nice on the notepad.
  
• IMO, the footer and header are far to big.

[Boyles Web Design]

Look at the logo again, it needs some work, also the header doesnt really fit in with the rest of the site.

[T_break]

Good stuff so far but I would agree that the footer and header are a bit too chunky, some nice coffee cup rings would look good on there.

The turned up corner on the welcome post it note may look a bit deeper with a touch more shadow under the corner.

Site validates aswell which is always a plus.

Good start

[Peter000]

Hi

Well done

The header does need to plug you a whole lot more as mentioned.

You only need your name and details in one box.

So I would look to perhaps making these right and the website should then come on a ton.

Minor adjustments are exactly that.

Good luck

[LYKC]

Hi, Love the concept! But the graphics you have used aren't fulfilling the design to its potential. Look around on the net for some better graphics or edit them with more shadows and details etc so that they look so home-made. As most have stated though, a nice start!

[adx]

Well as people have mentioned above the header and footer are way too big, but more importantly they don't match the rest of the page in the slightest. I don't really think that they should be wider than the rest of the content, since it makes you page look rather off. If you just squash them to the size of the rest of the page and change the colors/logo it'll do a whole world of change.

[empek]

The first thing you need to address, is the logo.

1. Make it bigger, maybe you can make the reflection get covered by the content body.

2. Reduce the glow on the logo letters, its is too difficult to read especially at the given size.

Other than that, you need to use as much reference for your graphics as you can get your hands on.

ie: Take a post-it, and bend it in the way desired, you will notice that the actual bend of the post-it is a little darker than the rest of it. The notepad looks like its been printed and layed on the table because it has no shadow and/or darker edges to give it dimension.

Good luck on creating the dream portfolio page. The key is not to rush it.

[bumfluff]

Not feeling it. It looks like a bunch of common graphic elements used together in one site - reflected logo? Seen it before. Wood background? Yup, seen it before. Notes left on the desk? Again, seen it before..

The trouble is, it's just not original. Everything I can see on that layout, barring the actual logo, are things I've seen before. To stand out, it's going to have to be either exceptionally well done (tough considering some of the other examples out there), have an original twist, or restarted with an original idea. In it's current state, it just isn't memorable.

[Mark L Bentley]

Thanks for the comments everyone. I've had look at them and implemented a few things. This is where I am now

[T_break]

Hi there, Coming along nicely, I think the only things lacking now are a handwritten font on the note paper and maybe a bit more depth to the polaroids for some reason that i cant put my finger on right now they dont look as real as the other items, maybe a shadow or 2 is needed.

I was thinking maybe you could put a subtle background image in so it looks like you are looking at the floor past the desk if that makes sense.

I like the additions you have made the stains on the desk etc think it is coming together well.

[Peter000]

Hi

You have grossly spammed your name and killed the goose.

If you think it will win then stick by your guns.

Good luck.

[Ren]

It's a good start, but there is always room for improvement. The top right navigation is overlapping with some other text that I can't read, so sorting out the positioning out there would be one comment. The glow for the post-it doesn't seem so natural, perhaps reducing the glow and using up shadow as well should be useful. For the bottom left section where the text paragraph is, will this be scrollable?

[traxor]

Sorry to be blunt, but I'm really not a fan of it, the reasons being:

• The images take far too long to load;
  
• Another one about the images, it's just texture over texture over texture; there's nothing new to it, it looks a bit like a souped up Frontpage website;
  
• The colours don't do anything special, I have Brown/Green color-blindness, and to me it just seems flat;
  
• Not a fan of the little blue logo thing in the bottom of the site;
  
• It seems a little too split up, there's nothing wrong with a little break between each area, but it just seems too far apart;
  
• The margins etc are a bit dodgy, as in, the text is too close to the edges of the image to look natural;
  
• The text doesn't blend in or fit with your website, so you need to work on typography;
  
• There isn't a <title></title> tag, which takes 20 seconds to type in, so always make sure it's there (remember, it's easier to keep your xhtml valid whilst you're working.

If I think of anything else, then I'll come back on here. I hope you understand that I'm not moaning at you, it's just a little constructive criticism, because you want to display your company as best as you can, and that's what we're here for... to help .

[empek]

Nice improvement! Unfortunately there are a few things that don't match up, at least in my opinion.

First thing I noticed was that the fonts don't look handwritten. Big no-no if you're using graphics like post-its and pieces of paper. Then when i looked at the post-it... I saw the blue doodling on the bottom right corner (and i liked it!), but I don't get why the writing wouldn't be blue as well. I mean, I take it that you've used the same pen to "write" on the post-it?

Quote

...maybe a bit more depth to the polaroids for some reason that i cant put my finger on right now they dont look as real as the other items...

About the polaroids. I think what T_break can't put his finger on is that the round corners take away from the entire idea of it being a polaroid. Also before you go into redesigning them, image-google a polaroid to see what it looks like for good visual reference.

A HUGE problem I ran into was that you "desk items" aren't proportionate in relation to one another!!! I mean how is a business card as small as a post-it as big as an a4 piece of paper!? You need to re-think that entire layout because those things do NOT look right.

But like I've said earlier, good improvement.

-Empek

[nickyoung]

Stick with the desk idea, but make it better by making the desk look like a real desk - add in some legs/the edges of the desk. After that, make it so that all pages load as documents in the middle of the desk, and the stuff around it can be used as navigation....I thought it was very flat for a 3d-like environment...just an idea.

[MolotovRuss]

IE6 support for the PNG?