scifunk

If you use photoshop screenshots in a site (that is subscribed to, ie you make money from it) or book for tutorial purposes do you have to gain permission from adobe? Or is it Ok if you just reference the screenshots as adobe photoshop ones?

Serious progress - guess you just needed a kick up the a**e

Good work. Only error I really noted was that you have the same customer quote for both work examples on the homepage.

There's "making web design simple" (to quote one of the templates) and there's "not making web design at all" -I'm afraid that you fall under the latter. As others have said, you need to study other sites, books etc to develop your eye for design. Sticking generic nav words on a background and pasting in a semi-relevant image is not web design.

Hi Gemma, I hope you don't mind me saying but I'm really not a fan of the green colouring - it has a slightly 'sick' colour to it and doesn't sit well over the background colouring. There's a clash of textures which doesn't work for you. The nav text is too large and would work better over to the right, instead of over the logo.

Sorry Webby - I didn't realise it was +ve feedback only here. By saying, "it wasn't professional enough" is my polite way of saying its rubbish and essentially you should keep working at it for much longer to produce a better standard of work. So, constructively, you just need to work on the colour, gradients, arrangement and text. The water droplet picture is nice though.

...and where does the donation go?

...there's no account for taste or quality. If that's all you need to sell a template I'll be a rich man.

Potentially good work. I'd like to see work examples on the home page though. The quoting gets a bit cliched - ok for the homepage but don't carry it on. It's a little 'clip arty' too, which just cheapens the site. Invest in some proper stock photos. I wouldn't carry through the massive text heading either. It eats up too much space and becomes annoying. You coudl set it in the background and turn down the opacity. That would ad some depth too. Too texty too, as others have said.

....another 7 or 8 days and you might have something. Is this something you want to sell? If so, IMO, it's no where near good enough. Ok for your dad's home site perhaps.

Great start. You've done your wife's art proud. I agree with alzer above - it should be written "I love..." I'd also use a more artistic font on the about page. Not too heavy on the caligraphy but an easily read arty font will fit nicely. A BW photo of Sarah at work would be a good touch. I'm never sure about blue text. Perhaps try a very dark grey or 'light' black (can't believe I wrote that), even red could be worth a try.

Stick with the first and adjust its navigation

Hi, If you're talking about technology etc I don't think the muted green and red is 'exciting' enough as a colour scheme. You need to give a sense of speed, hi-tech, excitement and all I'm thinking is this should be a history page about stoneage tools. Your nav headings have a mixture of upper and lower case starting letters which looks messy. You could line elements up with other elements and it would look tidier. Looking at it again it's a very dull and boring sounding website. Have a look at magazines like Stuff and other gadgety mags for some inspiration on how to make technology look good and interesting. Cheers James

Hi Joel, IMO I don't think the lilac (no 'K') sits well over the paisley background image. There are too many boxes and the mixture of transparencies and gradients looks messy. It's all too 'chunky', and needs thinning down drastically. I was expecting 'Leopard Studios' to have a golden yellow, black and white colour scheme? You could use the spots of the leopard as nav rollovers perhaps. James

Hmmmm, first off I thought it looked ok, then I thought it was too texty. I read the first line in the web design box and there were two errors - ok, so now I'm thinking this company doesn't pay attention to detail. The navigation drop boxes are pretty terrible, as are the fonts used for most of the site. It's like you've tried to be arty (and it could work) with a few basic everyday fonts - use some that are more interesting. If you click on the web design example you are taken to an unfinished website. Also, have you any evidence of working with blue chip companies? The thing I did laugh about was that you've used a very grainy colour scheme and your company is called Sharpenson Ltd. Back to the drawing board as they say.

I'm also in a similar situation. In future, if taking on a job that is awaiting content, I will try to specify a date by which the content must be provided or the site will be billed for in full and then updated when the content comes in.

I can't quite see the 'cartoony' influence, and I'd advise staying well away from trying it unless you are a very talented graphic artist. Cartoony and professional don't sit easily together.

Nothing too much wrong here. It's clean and tidy - typically 'American'. If anything it's a bit cold and dull due to the white and blue. I don't get the impression of any excitement or energy, which may put off certain clients.

I like the header design, except for the wilkom box. It doesn't fit with the 'torn' look of everything around it. The bit of green spoils the look. I'd search for another brown tone. You have a major error too - the flier says "1 drink too much" and you've titled it "1drunk too much". It's a bit bare too. I like minimal but you have to be spot on with the design. I'd advise making the site shorter and dragging up elements lower in the page up to make the page more interesting - I hate scrolling.

Looks promising - I'm liking it.

Agree with Snowy totally. You could do with lining up things a little better and providing some space around the navigation. Also, your text doesn't read nicely - you need a native English copywriter.

...isn't this site great (WDF) - and you've made a great start here. I've tidied up a few things at the top of the page and in the logo. You could have a slogan above the product matrix, as it doesn't look quite right going straight into pictures for some reason.The page sort of peters out as you go down. Try to keep the energy of the design up all the way to the bottom of the page.

Hmmm, now I quite liked the bare, minimal look. It made the images stand out even more. However, if you are trying to get large energy uses to use this company's service then I think it may be the wrong style. The site doesn't give the impression that the company is able to deal with large organisations - does that make sense? The site has a 'small' feel about. Also, do Norwegians use UK style 3-pin plugs though??

No problem - I was restricted with what you had visible LOL and I knew you wouldn't like the orange. I'd go with post no5. Possibly put a 1/2px stroke border around the two sections. That's two of us who've said to use your grey signature logo (without the www bit and reflection IMO)