EmpyreanDream

It would be beneficial to pick up a graphic software before moving on to the more advanced programming aspects involved on the web. Designing your stuff in something like photoshop or fireworks before hand is the way to go. Then its just a matter of cutting the pieces out and coding it in html/css.

A simple layout which is always best for small personal sites. The code is nice and clean which also good. As someone with a bigger background in design my only critique would be the colour choices, and I don't like seeing tiled backgrounds like that either. You may want to stick with a solid colour for the main background. Personally I'd go for a gray and then colour the other elements on the page to mesh together nicely. In that case the content areas would probably look best in white perhaps with a light grey 1px border. Of course if you do that you'd probably need to tweak the banner too. You should check out Pattern Tap to get an idea which colours work well together depending on the interface concepts. For the most part, simplicity is everything in this field. Whenever you need inspiration head over to Pattern Tap, it always sparks an idea. I hope you found this helpful.

Hello everyone, as I'm sure my post count indicates I'm new here. I'll admit although I've been meaning to join for a while now, recent thoughts gave me the extra push. I'm planning my first big web project out and I could really use some advice. I know this is a designer forum, but truthfully I'm looking for general advice and some hints on the more technical aspects of things. The site I have planned is sort of like a network revolving around anime, providing news, a list of series/movies, the ability to sign up, rate them, review them and discuss them. For reference sake, I'm hoping it will end up with a similar, although probably a less advanced form of how MyAnimeList works. Of course my clear option for a project like this is to stick with a solid CMS. In the past I've opted for Joomla as in most cases it is my favourite. Unfortunately I'm still not too experienced when it comes to CMS, or their technicalities at least. I of course know HTML, CSS and a small amount of PHP which is hopefully enough to make small tweaks to the CMS itself if needed. Other than how to actually use Joomla there isn't much else I've had experience with, including coming up with a theme to use within it. So, I guess my first question would be for any advice or tutorials on how to go about making an efficient template for Joomla. My second question would be relating to the features I want this site to have, and how simple or difficult these things would be to implement, as well as if there are any good plugins which can help ease things along. I would, in the beginning at least, like to do as little independent coding as possible, which is why I'm hoping there are some plugins I can use initially, or at the very least modify to suit my needs. I am doing a degree in web development shortly, so I should be able to expand things as that progresses, and hopefully I'll get some other web folks to help out at some point as well. I'm not really in any rush and would rather take my time and gather experience instead of making a mess of things. Finally I suppose I should ask for some general advice for a project of this type, scale and how I should be going about it in terms of planning. Hopefully I few of you guru's can help and I haven't sounded too clueless or vague hehe.

Hey everyone, its long overdue that I signed up here, but I finally got around to it. I'm quite new in the field but I like to think I've got the design skills down already. Ideally, although I'm sure it'll be a while, I'd like to end up as a freelance designer. I'm taking a college course in web development starting shortly to brush up on the more technical side of things as at the moment that is definitely my weaker area, and knowing the ins and outs of things just gives you the ability to make more interesting designs. Hopefully asking questions and keeping an eye on things here will provide me with an alternate source of education and advice. Very nice to be here!