hey guys, i just redesigned www.njcombatsport.com but i am having a problem with really making it pop! i'm dissatisfied with the way it came out and was just wondering if anybody had any suggestions?

thanks

add a nice image or graphic. maybe a good blend of martial art photos

it needs images....a large good quality featured photo on each page would do it.

http://www.templatemonster.com/category.php?tid=-+Any+-&search_words=martial+arts&from_=-+Any+-&to=-+Any+-&type=&cat=&style=&author=

You're missing some colour and imagery should be good for solving that one. The small images and title along the top are really pixelated as well.

 

Try bringing the background image more in to focus rather than having it so transparent and blended with the black that it can barely be seen. Take the original full colour image and maybe give it a 25% opacity over black and then see what that looks like. Adjust until theres a good balance between reading the text and seeing the image.

those logos at the top are really ugly looking. Can you not get more crisper logos? (looks like you have just down scaled them in an image editor).

Ok i found out - looks really cool

 

 

yea it was a jquery plugin i found and just modified it

For a start, I think you should start by adding a striking, full width (1010px) banner image across the top, above 'Strategic Combat Academy' portraying what the site is all about.

 

Then to draw the user in, maybe come up with a tagline... ? Display it in the same colour as you've used at the bottom..?

 

I would recommend sorting out that image top left also. You haven't scaled it down but squeezed a 685 x 545 image into a tiny square. browsers aren't that great at rendering squeezed images. Use gIMP or Photoshop to reduce it properly. I would in fact have it a lot bigger than that anyway.

 

Hope that helps.

 

 

Nick

A little time on the planning board would be good idea here. Start with a joomla template that gives you a solid structure to work on. Use the red titles at the baseline as a real menu on the left hand side and jump users into a page on each style of combat. It will feel more personal to their sport and therefore them.

 

If you get a template with a slideshow in it you will bring life to the page. Here's a basic swimming club site that uses a joomla template.

 

Give adequate space to items and your logos need fixing really bad. Better to use text than a pixelated old scan I would say. There's usually a designer that can help you out for a club or good cause and a logo to just copy and maybe update a little won't take them long.

 

 

Good luck

 

James