Hello Guys,

 

Last night i decided to have a go at freelancing so i whisked up a homepage and got it online, a little dull at the moment but i think it does the job. How shall i improve the colours and design, should i add some images, i was thinking a red rose.

 

Also, would it look better if i put a canvas effect on the background, and if i was to put a "shadow" on the page which is the best method..

 

Thanks

 

sunlight

 

sunlightdesign.co.uk

Update 21:30 (12th Nov 08)

 

Added Previews of Samples and Fixed some spelling errors.. all seems cool now.

 

Update (13th Nov 08)

 

changed lower gradient to yellow and added sun to logo, added visible borders

 

Update (14 Nov 08)

 

Added a flower downt he left, changed navigation bullets to a red circle matching the colour scheme.. i think its all good now

 

any further feedback much apreciated

http://www.sunlightdesign.co.uk/portfolio.html

 

'I' should be capital.

 

The site is a bit plain and the header.jpeg seems to take a long time to load. I also found this on your other sites that you had designed.

 

I am not entirely sure if the grey is working.

 

I mean 'sunlight' there is so much you could do with that idea- colours (bright but not harsh on the eyes) warm colours I find the grey colours a little cold. I like the text 'to design is to communicate etc etc'

 

There is a lack of content in your site, especially in the wording. You aren't really selling yourself either, why should they chose you? Why is your work different?

 

Is the font you used Georgia or something to that effect? I think it's a bit weak, you need a stronger font.

 

I also think some kind of logo or symbol that can be recognised with your design and brand. For me it's pink and black.

 

char

 

oh wow, great feeback

 

the village itself, port sunlight is a turn of the 19th century tutor-style village and its very old fashioned with lots of old fashioned people, the internet is a scary place for alot of people i was trying to keep it calm and to the point

 

the grey is not all about being cold, i just like to down-play alot of the page so key areas stand out without excessive typography, as putting the words "web design" in red, it is the first thing your eyes hit and that is where i want them to start viewing the page, if you go onto most web pages you can get lost easily

 

but my main reason for it being so gray is because clients usualy love it.. they like it simple, if its in gray they can highlight the things they find important in the website ( www.combinedharvesters.com ) that is another website i excluded from my portfolio for this reason as the boss edits it alot

 

Now as for a logo ...

 

im thinking a rose but a very red rose so that it stands out..

 

What other things could i include so there is more content without flooding the page with useless information?

got to go out but will reply in a while.

 

Why a rose?

 

Because it grows in sunlight. Please explain the reason LOL.

 

I know what you mean about the grey, when I originally loaded your site the background image didn't come up, it came up grey when I went back there was a picture.

 

I need to relook later.

char

 

this is the punishment i get for having a super fast connection, i dont realise my websites too weighty, but i seriously believe the problem is a thing of the past.. i mean every single news, corporate website etc that i visit is maybe 2-3 mb on the front so i try not to worry mine is under a mb

 

Actualy yes, http://www.portsunlightvillage.com/ that is a website i have seen and the Port Sunlight logo seems to be a rose but i dont know if it is official or not, it looks like it.

It's not a bad effort for a first attempt, obviously you will need more content as content will help your visitors understand what you do and help the search engines rank you better.

Finally added the colour, drew a tudor rose in illustrator.

 

As stated above, yes more content is needed but could you sujest content that would not just be put there as a filler, what would make it better and not clutter the pages?

 

And i do not wish to go into Search Engines at the moment, i dislike being found by spiders they just give me ghost hits and spam.. pff

I agree with a lot of the comments here, it is a little plain... It needs a little more colour or other visual interest IMO, and I'm not a fan of the gradients. They don't seem to be there for any reason, I mean, I can't see any reason for them. There's a lot of white space under your content in my browser (firefox 3 linux) which I don't think is supposed to be there, and the gradient doesn't begin until after the content. This doesn't look right to me, and also means I don't benefit from the dividing line you have between the left and right areas on the site until there's no content left to divide.

I don't know why you're promoting firefox & thunderbird on your page, either? Don't get me wrong, I think they're great products and I use them both, but unless you are somehow involved in the development cycle, I don't know if it's really appropriate content?

Your portfolio page would be greatly improved with thumbnail images of the sites you've created.

Who is your site aimed at? I think this is the key question, because if you're trying to reflect the town where you live (and it seems like you might be), then you risk potentially putting off the visitors who are not local or know nothing about this town. The background image does not work well for me as it seems to have no real reason to be there other than that you live there. If you're trying to attract business through this site, I think it needs to be more focused on what your visitors want to see.

Good luck

thank you for the feedback, some good points

 

the 2 dividing lines are purely asthetic aswell as the lower gradient (which is used to create the ilusion that there is no white space, but white space is not rearly a bad thing somtimes when somone looks at the page you do not want them to be looking everywhere, you need them to be scanning the upper parts

 

going to create the portfolio previews soon once i have got this layout fixed

 

the logo's for thunderbird and firefox are there simply because i usualy end up recomending them to my clients anyway and i think they add great character and depth to a web page - if somone asks me about email clients or a new browser i just instruct them to click on the icon on my homepage

 

I am aiming my services to the mature businessman (think people who have ran businesses all there lives), they all know about port sunlight it is world famous everytime i cycle though i see tour busses and always people at the museums.

 

But a wise businessman once explained to me why there are random lines and gradients, they are there to make everything else come together, it is like the tie on a suite..

 

What i would love to know is what content (text) would be apropriote so i can fill the white space, i cannot think of anything... i do not want to put too much information that would be a bit cheesy you dont go onto a big companys website and get the life story (unless its cadburys ofcource).

 

What do my visitors want to see?

Hi.

 

I personally, do not like the rose you designed. It feels very tudor rose to me.

 

I would prefer to see a sun/sun beam (in nice bright colours) with the rose in front of it. That is just my personal taste.

 

I am not entirely sure of the red/green theme though the colours work.

 

Hm! I am drawing a blank because I just want to jazz it up.

 

As for content worthy of being added- I would just mention why your designs are different, for me mine are about going for a unique look as opposed to a clinical, corporate site (unless someone really wanted that!)

 

I design everything, so i dont use templates/template buttons/ downloaded menu's etc etc

 

Hm I test it in multi browsers etc etc

 

Things like that.

 

Maybe a small part about who you are, what makes you tick...

 

I mean, I tend to go with the angle that I am female, young, etc etc

 

I don't mean I try to entice men, I mean I have a different perspective, say to a 50 year old computer gentleman

 

char

 

I have not downloaded any scripts, templates or buttons - its all in dreamweaver, illustrator and photoshop.. once you have mastered these you can create any template you like in a few hours of eyes down.

 

I do have an idea for incorporating your idea of a sun though - it was actualy in one of my origional designs before i switched to this more simplistic look...

 

I admit i am not the most artistic guy in the world, i am not an old businessman myself, probably alot younger than yourself, i just worked as a professional graphic designer and in marketing for some very professional companys who need everything uniform and it has shaped me, i cannot just throw paint on the wall.. i need to add it slowly..

 

 

I think the established uniform look will look for atracting business, i will do my next piece of work based on some inspiration pop-art so i can get that across in my portfolio.

hey im 22!!!

 

 

i didnt mean you didnt design everything originally, maybe you can put in there the software you do use.

 

i think your design is a bit serious but that may be what you want... i mean i wanted mine to be a bit fun and colourful.

 

it depends what kind of image you want your freelance web design service to represent.

 

looking forward to seeing new logo with sun incorporated.

 

char

 

I am just 20!

 

I didnt go to university just got jobs in design, and i doubt 2 years experience is less of an asset of 2 years university (though im extremely lucky i found somone to take me on so early).

 

Main problem is some people still ask for degree's and stuff - and when you apply for university courses they turn you down bacause you dont have the "academic experience".

 

Though i think most (like 90%) of people who probably read such forums as this started off from scratch and taught themself/learned from online tutorials (youtube is great for learning adobe stuff).

 

 

The sun is rearly hard to incorporate as the colour sceme may not allow it and i want the text to be on a white background - though i could probably get rid of that green gradient and replace it with one.. going to try now.

I decreased the background image size from about 500kb to 140kb, changed some of the text.

 

I think the reason i had the links the other way around was going from short-long, i do that automaticly without thinking.

 

I might add a businesscard design service and order them online you can get them pretty cheap - i designed my own ones last night using a customised design which i incorporated from my website (but before the sun, but i dont think it matters).

 

Might be able to make a 200% profit on the cost of buying the cards when selling them to clients i think.

 

 

Also i just managed to connect my dreamweaver to my server after about an hour of fussing so i can update it alot quicker now, which helps my work flow alot.

only way im gonna get clients is face-face anyway i doubt the actual introduction will affect anything.. unless they are showing to friends

 

how did you find your design job's (gigs) freelancing.. etc

how did i find my job?

 

sorry i typed that wrong, how do you find your freelance jobs..

 

i havent done it long

First few I did free of charge and kept those sites on and improved over the years.

 

Then mostly my husband got most of my recent jobs through his own website (word of mouth) plus I charge ALOT less than other companies/freelance people which has it's drawbacks (it takes time and I get paid very little) but I enjoy it and it covers cost (software updates etc)

 

I think mainly word of mouth to be honest.

 

When I have time next year I am going to put business cards/posters out but need to sort out registering with tax before I go about becoming a business rather than just a hobby/freelance from time to time.

 

charlotte

 

my websites where done during full time employment with a company i also did there brochures ( in in-design ) and well, i havent ever been paid for a website individualy - im gonna hit the town as soon as i get my business cards though

 

big drawback is i dont have a laptop im running a very nice computer though.. i get all my software for free because im a pirate.. freelancers cannot afford to buy this stuff its stupid prices

 

i hope i get a word of mouth going soon

Sorry to interrupt the conversation but I wanted to give my opinion

 

The Code:

The coding of the site is very clean. However there are a couple of little things

 

when using <li> tags you need to say if it is an ordered or unordered list...to do that wrap the tags in <ul></ul> for unordered and <ol></ol> for ordered like this@

 

<ul>
<li><a href="index.html">Home</a></li>
<li><a href="portfolio.html">Portfolio</a></li>
<li><a href="contact.html">Contact</a></li>
</ul>

 

 

Second is a hand slapping moment Always use the alt attribute with all your images.

 

 

Lastly something that will help you a lot is if you use an external stylesheet for all your style information rather than having some at the top of the page as well as a style sheet, this just makes styling your site a lot quicker and keeps the HTML file for all the structure rather than some of the design as well

 

 

 

The design:

A nice design, I like the basic layout of it and that it is very simple and easy to navigate

I don't like the image in the background as it doesn't really fit the style of the site and makes it a little dull, but that is just a personal opinion.

Look at giving the navigation a little something to make it stand out more.

Try reducing the main font size and also giving it a bit bigger line height.

Add screen shots you your portfolio and maybe a little bit of text explaing what you have done on the sites/ designs you are showing.

Sorry to interrupt the conversation but I wanted to give my opinion

 

The Code:

The coding of the site is very clean. However there are a couple of little things

 

when using <li> tags you need to say if it is an ordered or unordered list...to do that wrap the tags in <ul></ul> for unordered and <ol></ol> for ordered like this@

 

<ul>
<li><a href="index.html">Home</a></li>
<li><a href="portfolio.html">Portfolio</a></li>
<li><a href="contact.html">Contact</a></li>
</ul>

 

 

Second is a hand slapping moment Always use the alt attribute with all your images.

 

 

Lastly something that will help you a lot is if you use an external stylesheet for all your style information rather than having some at the top of the page as well as a style sheet, this just makes styling your site a lot quicker and keeps the HTML file for all the structure rather than some of the design as well

 

 

 

The design:

A nice design, I like the basic layout of it and that it is very simple and easy to navigate

I don't like the image in the background as it doesn't really fit the style of the site and makes it a little dull, but that is just a personal opinion.

Look at giving the navigation a little something to make it stand out more.

Try reducing the main font size and also giving it a bit bigger line height.

Add screen shots you your portfolio and maybe a little bit of text explaing what you have done on the sites/ designs you are showing.

 

great feedback

 

ill get it all done right away

 

i have made the background as low-profile, it was a full colour image, the point it in is to give the clients somthing they can trust, its a very respectable place

 

 

oh btw, i carnt add those tags to the list because it knocks it over to the right which brings it out of alignment with the page

whats a pirate?

 

you mean illegal copies?

 

 

I work on a laptop. don't bother, pc is more better. Having it on my lap is irratating for long hours of computer work.

char

 

hehe

 

ye i love desktops but showing clients stuff requires laptop

how about signing up for broadband with free laptop.

 

that's what i did and paid extra fee to upgrade to proffessional vista

 

24 month contracts are not my thing =P

 

laptop would probably die before the contact