VagabondofLimbo

site is ugly. its lacking a creative touch. the index banner has big massive black borders. looks pretty bad. i certainly wouldnt trust a web company with a site like that. especially if they didnt even design it themself!...sorry, im hard to please!

It bugs me to no end when people say "Graphics Design". It's "Graphic Design". NO s.
 
In any case... it is quite ugly and outdated. Looks like a cheap CMS template and all the content looks slapped there for SEO reasons without a second thought for the user experience.
 
- horrible crappy stock photography
- no portfolio
- cheap looking layout
- horrid logo
 
I really feel sorry for anyone to take this company as a serious one.
 
This looks like a money grabber site ready to rip off it's next victim. Sorry. First impressions are everything and this one leaves a very foul taste in my mouth.

try this? http://www.tineye.com/

Font squirrel has a bunch of free ones, ready for @font face.
You can browse them HERE

The original desktop format "influences" the webfont product. All webfonts will give you the same set of web-safe formats, but the character set will be determined by the original desktop font. For example, you'll get more characters in a webfont based on a multi-language Pro font than you would from an old Type 1 package.

i think you would be better learning some web design practices first before you go much further
 
yes, using images for everything is a bad idea. use as much real text as possible
 
and your logo should be a gif or 8-bit png (not 24 bit png) because it is a solid colour and not photographic /complex gradients
 
have a look at these resources
http://www.htmldog.com
http://www.opera.com/company/education/curriculum/
http://www.w3schools.com/
http://www.cssbasics.com
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/html-css-beginners-guide/
http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/html-css-techniques/design-and-code-your-first -website-in-easy-to-understand-steps/

Those ARE the English. The foreigners spell much better

NEVER WORK FOR FREE
 
The less people pay, the less thya respect your work, you, the product you sell them
 
I can back this up with a thought from a previous life where I used to be an Optician (reminds himself of the good days)
 
If somone spent £500 on a rimless pair of spec's (very special generally fragile spec's") 2 years later, they would come back in with a perfect pair of clean spectacles
If somone spent £0.00 on a fairly solid pair of spec's (paid for by the NHS) they broke them, sat on them, lost them within weeks or months
If I charged them a nominal amount - £10, £20, £30 - they lasted 2 years - Amazing
 
Advice
- develop a few magento / Joomla / Wordpress modules, plugins, components, and sell them for a fiver a throw
 
In that way you make money, you show off what you can do, and you elevate yourself above allthe people that have never developed, or never visibly developed anything. That makes a difference to you and the way customers see you

What kind of company are you creating the mascot for?

Give it some space, some air to breath. The text should not be that close to the borders of the wrappers, it looks kinda stuck.
Also try to give the whole site a bit of a more "adventurous", spirit

Put this code at the beginning of your external CSS
 

html, body, div, span, applet, object, iframe, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, p, blockquote, pre, a, abbr, acronym, address, big, cite, code, del, dfn, em, font, img, ins, kbd, q, s, samp, small, strike, strong, sub, sup, tt, var, b, u, i, center, dl, dt, dd, ol, ul, li, fieldset, form, label, legend, table, caption, tbody, tfoot, thead, tr, th, td { margin: 0; padding: 0; border: 0; font-size: 100%; vertical-align: baseline; }
 
It should remove all the browser default styling, so that your code can be the same regardless of browser. Maybe that is causing the problem.

I know this is a web design forum, but seriously? Recruiting for the IDF? All those pictures of smiling people... Seriously?

Generally it is a good design, I like it. I only have a couple of remarks:
 
- Why do you talk of yourself in the 3td person? It is your site, not "his".
- You need a logo.
- You need improvements in your "about me" page (better picture, smaller frame, more info about your skills and services)
- Make the background decor a bit smaller.
- It would be good if your portfolio had valid XHTML (THIS is your current state).
 
I hope this will help

ok. so here ya go. it is impossible to comment on a design that is just 3 boxes placed on a white background but i'll break the image down for you....
1) there is a simple logo which is just straight arial font but split into 2 colours? in my book thats not a logo.
2) the search facility is sitting on its own. it doesnt make any sense as you have not put any content in to explain what the user has to do.
3) navigation bad is fine. Simple. nothing to it.
4) the lower boxes are just boxes. i dont know what they are so am not going to comment on them.
5) the twitter and facebook icons are probably the most prodominant thing on the whole page for some reason.
6) I know its a work in progress but what is the point on posting something that is clearly about 3% of the way there? no content, no description on what the site is for, no imagery, just doesnt make sense. if ya ask me pay a web designer to design you a site...
 
Other than that i think the colour scheme is awful...nice choice of background colour though