Thanks mate! Don't feel like that, though!

You're too kind, sir!

You are motivation to my underdeveloped graphics & visual skills.

Alright, and my coding skills.

Dammit, I hate being a beginner!

Everyone was a beginner at some point, you'll get there eventually. You should have seen some of my work when I was starting out! *shudders*

You should see some of my *current* work

I'm at that unfortunate stage where I know enough about design not to make horrendous faux pas, but not enough to make something I think is good enough.

Frustration is king @ my house

Rob - nice design and I think everyone here's covered the design and, as a newbie I can't really help too much.

 

I am a copy-editor by trade (these days and until I can get better at web design!) so, and please don't be offended, I can maybe point a couple of very minor things to consider that would help maintain the great look of your site?

 

It's all about adding a little 'kick' to the text to match your design... making the text a little more active which means rejigging sentences so they're not passive and lead the reader on a touch more...

 

Here goes...

 

 

ORIGINAL:

'A new design was needed for this Kenyan charity. It was integrated with a CMS to make it easy to update.'

 

SUGGESTED EDIT:

'A Kenyan charity needed a new design integrating a CMS for easy updating.'

 

 

ORIGINAL:

'This brand new gallery website required a layout which was built around Wordpress.'

 

 

SUGGESTED EDIT:

'This brand new gallery website required a layout built around Wordpress.'

 

 

 

The next one is about your own choice of style and is just food for thought really...

 

ORIGINAL:

'Rawkes is a small web design studio run by Rob Hawkes'

'His passion is to create beautiful websites which are handcrafted to pixel perfection.'

 

SUGGESTED EDIT:

'Welcome to Rawkes web design studio'

'My name is Rob Hawkes and my passion is creating beautiful websites hand crafted to pixel perfection'

 

 

Let me explain the last one a sec...

 

These days, especially with so much personality in your site design and being a small studio, I think using the third person (ie. 'Rawkes is a small... run by Rob Hawkes') is less effective - people would feel 'closer to you' if you talk straight at them not sound distant and prententious - which I'm sure you're not!!!!

Maybe avoid using 'small' - although accurate - it has negative connotations.

Handcrafted is usually two words (ie. 'hand crafted')

Consider removing the full stop from the end - as a fragment and a title it's an accepted style to omit it and then it flows more into the content and doesn't put psychological distance between you and the rest of the site.

Definitely think the 'which are' before 'handcrafted to pixel perfection' interrupts the flow of that beautiful phrase - and it should probably be 'that are' anyway!!!!

 

 

 

Hope this is of some help? My design skills aren't there to help with much else but I do know copy!!!!

 

Hey Wizely, thanks for the feedback on the copy! I'll have a look over your suggestions tomorrow or Monday and get back to you. I might need some more advice with the rest of the site, only if you have the time.

 

 

I've uploaded a new illustration for the portfolio page. If people could take a look and give it the thumbs up/down, that would be awesome. It's surprisingly difficult to come up with a good concept for the portfolio area. Please ignore the actual content area on the portfolio, it's going to change dramatically once the illustration is finalised.

I like the layout. Is that vertical rhythm I see matching with the content and the sidebars?

That is indeed

Absolutely brilliant Rob.

 

And sorry to repeat, but I love the RSS image!

 

I love the layout, the colour scheme is, in my opinion, spot on.

 

I love the graphics across the whole site.

 

Top-notch work mate.

 

10/10

Thank you Scott!

 

What is your opinion on the illustration at the top of the (currently in development) portfolio page?

The picture frames?

 

I like it. I think it might look slightly better if one or more of the images was hung "askew" if you get my meaning?

 

The colours work well, and tie in nicely with the rest of the site.

 

Very impressive.

I see what you mean — they do look a bit regimented all aligned like that. I'm not sure that making one wonky will give the right impression, but I could try making the middle one slightly lower than the others, just to break up the uniformity of the pictures.

Wonky...?

 

Highly technical term that!

 

But yeah, I think maybe dropping the middle one slightly might help break it up a bit.

 

Absolutely love the header image on the about page by the way. Brilliant.

Beautiful great job!

Okay...not had time to read through the pages and pages of comments posted here already, so I apologise if any of the is repeating someone else comments, that have already been dealt with.

 

1. Firstly I think the site looks amazing!

 

The concept for this redesign was to give my website a sense of personality, but also to remain professional, while being fun at the same time. It has been a hard goal to achieve, and I'm hoping that I've cracked it with this design — I've certainly been working on it long enough!

 

This is something that is very difficult to achieve, I struglled for years with my own site to try and get the balance right and with the last re-design I think I managed to get the fun/quirky balanced with the serious/professional. I think your site has managed it too. It's well laid out and gives a very slick, professional outlook and at the same time the images/illustrations add a quirky element that is humerous and fun, but also help to illustrate the content and therefore compliment it.

 

2. Navigation

I think you could hihglight this a bit more as the rollover backgrounds get completely lost against the dark sky - well maybe it's my monito, but I think they're a bit too subtle. Alos make sure the burgundy colour you have as the active state relates to something on the site already as it looks like you've chosen it at random - maybe use something brighter related to the rocket red.

 

3. Alt text on the headers

Should be more that 'blurb' but I guess you're still working on that. Is it possible for you to have the text withint he header as your H1 - would be better for SEO?

 

4. Alignment

The logo / text in header / main content copy - I would personally align all three of these to the left to create a visual line down the left hand side of the page. At the moment they all start from their own point and it make my eyes jump all over the place. But then, I love things to be aligned and neat like that cos I'm a neat freak

 

5. Portfolio Headers

When you click on a link from the homepage to the portfolio - the header changes to be related to the client. I would stick with your own header as it's keeps the site consistent and then just use imagery related to each job within the main content. Also not so keen on the thick grey borders around the image - the border look ok as a rollover state on the thumbnails on the homepage, although I'm nto sure grey is the best colour choice, but they looks really heavy on the images in the porfolio section

 

6. blog

I'd put a header illustration in here to for consistency

 

7. About

I'd ditch the photo and replace this with an illustration of a robot instead - this would go with the other illustrations on the site and also give a bit of ambiguity about who you are, which is always a good thing. If you have a photo of yourself then people realise that you're a one man band and this can sometimes work against you, whereas if you have an illustration and even add a few more characters, like the office mascot - could be the 'optical' mouse or even feature your PC as an employee [goes with the rocket/robot theme] it adds to the humour you've created elsewhere in the site. I mention robots as the rocket and landscapes you've drawn really remind of the Nick Park animation 'A Grand Day Out' when wallace and grommit go to the moon because it's made of cheese and encounter that strange oven like robot who dreams about skiing. Just an idea...ignore me if I'm barking up the wrong tree.

 

8. the night sky

I absolutely love this. it looks so cool...but...have you thought about introducing a time element into the site, in that the sky chamges according to the time of day? I did this in flash for one of my eskymo christmas e-cards and people loved it. Not sure how you would do that in HTML, again just a nutty idea.

 

Top marks all round, can't wait to see what you do next!!!

 

E

ORIGINAL:

'Rawkes is a small web design studio run by Rob Hawkes'

'His passion is to create beautiful websites which are handcrafted to pixel perfection.'

 

SUGGESTED EDIT:

'Welcome to Rawkes web design studio'

'My name is Rob Hawkes and my passion is creating beautiful websites hand crafted to pixel perfection'

Let me explain the last one a sec...

 

Lol twas me that said that handcrafted should be one word! (that's how it is in the dictionary?)

It was very similar to what you said originally, and I found that I "tripped" when I read it. Don't wanna argue with a copy editor, but aren't the three words "websites hand crafted" quite difficult to interpret? You don't want people to have to read the sentence twice.

 

I liked the way "handcrafted to pixel perfection" got its own line, it made way more sense to me that way, but thats a laypersons opinion!!!

You could do a css stylesheet switch for the time of day, i saw an article about this, ill see if i can find it...

Here it is

Cant see the design. Iw ould like to see the design. You might be motivation to my underdeveloped skills. Do u mind suggesting somethings to my design? If yes , i will send u a screenshot , If i post it here then i will be hijacking your thread lol

wow that css switcher thing is great - thanks for the link - I'm going to have to use that sometime!!!

Aye, nice one Jake.

 

Cheers mate.

 

Very useful!

No Problem

Thanks jake I think I will use that some time!

Lol twas me that said that handcrafted should be one word! (that's how it is in the dictionary?)

It was very similar to what you said originally, and I found that I "tripped" when I read it. Don't wanna argue with a copy editor, but aren't the three words "websites hand crafted" quite difficult to interpret? You don't want people to have to read the sentence twice.

 

I liked the way "handcrafted to pixel perfection" got its own line, it made way more sense to me that way, but thats a laypersons opinion!!!

 

 

Right... sleeves rolled-up!!!!

 

Handcrafted .... hand crafted - you can have that one! I would normally look that one up if I was charging Rob! What I normally do where there are several options for compound words is do a little google digging to see which one is most popularly searched for. In this case google suggests 'handcrafted' instead of 'hand crafted' so I'd probably go with it.

As for "websites hand crafted" - sure it could be a little clunky... it was 10pm and I was trying to get across the need for making sentences active rather than beautifully sculpt the line.

 

In my defence it's kind of like one of you guys posting 'your design needs more colour contrast' rather than creating a full version showing what you mean... if you get to be lazy - why can't I?!!!!!!

 

Seriously though... as my first ever posting critiquing a site I didn't want to spend a chunk of time for Rob to then turn round and say 'I asked for design comments not the copy'! But if there's an interest here then I am more than happy to give guidance and advice (for ErisDS to nitpick! ) on copy matters - just it does take a bit more than a cursory glance to really nail it. I just wanted to give Rob (and you guys reading these posts) some food for thought.

 

Oh, and if my posts are going to be savaged so cruelly ( ) then I'm going to have to stop posting late at night and drink more coffee!

 

Hope I can be of help to someone!

nice work rob, really very, very nice work.

 

quality can't wait to see some of the portfolio work.

 

I wanted to avoid a feeling of unity with the background, hence the contrasting colours. I'm not sure a transparent background would be a good idea, as it would make it very difficult for people with bad eyesight to read the content — not forgetting it will add extra complexity to the website. If I make the text any lighter it will fail contrast requirements in the accessibility guidelines, so unfortunately I can't do much about that.

 

well...its just my suggestion Robh...if you not agree...maybe its just about different style between you and me . but i wanna say Congratulations to you Robh...i can see from every comments in here...that everybody loved your site...

Oh, and if my posts are going to be savaged so cruelly ( ) then I'm going to have to stop posting late at night and drink more coffee!

 

Hope I can be of help to someone!

I didn't mean to savage, or be cruel! Sorry

 

I'm sure that Rob and many others (including myself) will be very pleased to receive your unique feedback.

 

I only "nitpicked" because you changed the exact things I changed lol and you couldn't have known about that You're the copy editor, I'm just someone who always *thinks* she knows whats she's jabbering about!!

ORIGINAL:

'A new design was needed for this Kenyan charity. It was integrated with a CMS to make it easy to update.'

 

SUGGESTED EDIT:

'A Kenyan charity needed a new design integrating a CMS for easy updating.'

 

 

ORIGINAL:

'This brand new gallery website required a layout which was built around Wordpress.'

 

 

SUGGESTED EDIT:

'This brand new gallery website required a layout built around Wordpress.'

 

 

The next one is about your own choice of style and is just food for thought really...

 

ORIGINAL:

'Rawkes is a small web design studio run by Rob Hawkes'

'His passion is to create beautiful websites which are handcrafted to pixel perfection.'

 

SUGGESTED EDIT:

'Welcome to Rawkes web design studio'

'My name is Rob Hawkes and my passion is creating beautiful websites hand crafted to pixel perfection'

 

 

…Trimmed it down — but the reply is in relation to your whole post [- Rob]

Thank you so much for taking a look at the content, it's an area I'm having a bit of trouble with at the moment — it's not my expertise at all!

 

I agree with all the changes you suggest, and will implement them asap.

 

I'm not 100% sure about the suggestions on the home page illustration text, though. I'm not sure about everyone else, but I really dislike those "Welcome to…" messages.

 

It's a hard one, though. I'm torn between going uber personal with the "My name is…" suggestions, or keeping it in third person. I suppose it is something I'll have to ponder about.

 

Would you mind having another look at the website after I've got all of the draft content up? I would be willing to give you something in return — a free layout (so long as it can go into the portfolio), or help/advice, a beer.

 

I would really appreciate it, as I realise how important the content is, and you have given me some amazing advice so far.

 

 

Wonky...?

 

Highly technical term that!

 

But yeah, I think maybe dropping the middle one slightly might help break it up a bit.

 

Absolutely love the header image on the about page by the way. Brilliant.

I'm going to update the portfolio illustration to have the slightly less aligned picture frames, I'll post again when it's updated for people to look it.

 

Thanks for the kind words about the about page illustration, it is one of my favourites as well!

 

 

Beautiful great job!

Thank you!

 

 

Okay...not had time to read through the pages and pages of comments posted here already, so I apologise if any of the is repeating someone else comments, that have already been dealt with.

 

1. Firstly I think the site looks amazing!

This is something that is very difficult to achieve, I struglled for years with my own site to try and get the balance right and with the last re-design I think I managed to get the fun/quirky balanced with the serious/professional. I think your site has managed it too. It's well laid out and gives a very slick, professional outlook and at the same time the images/illustrations add a quirky element that is humerous and fun, but also help to illustrate the content and therefore compliment it.

 

…Trimmed it down — but the reply is in relation to your whole post [- Rob]

 

8. the night sky

I absolutely love this. it looks so cool...but...have you thought about introducing a time element into the site, in that the sky chamges according to the time of day? I did this in flash for one of my eskymo christmas e-cards and people loved it. Not sure how you would do that in HTML, again just a nutty idea.

 

Top marks all round, can't wait to see what you do next!!!

 

E

Thanks for showing up E, I've been looking forward to hearing what you have to say about the layout.

 

First up, I'm glad to hear that you like the design — it means a lot hearing that from you, as I absolutely adore your work.

 

Navigation: I'm not sure what you mean about the "burgundy" active state being different — it's the same colour as the rocket, just slightly transparent for effect (as solid colour was too in your face). I might try making them a tad brighter maybe, that way it will address both issues, as I agree that they are slightly too subtle.

 

Alt text on headers: I'm currently working on them (as you noticed) and they will eventually have the H1 headings built in to them, along with the descriptive text you'll see on the image. The title will be updated to to display the H1 text (the real h1 will be hidden with CSS on), and not the illustration text. The illustrations will also be updated to display the H1 text on the image somewhere. Do you think this is the best idea?

 

Alignment: The logo and content are actually aligned the same distance from the left, it's just the illustration text that is out of sync. I'm considering upping the content side margins to 20px (currently 15px), which will let me align all three elements: logo, illustration text, and content, without it looking too "tight" to the left. I'm a neat freak as well (this layout has already been going through about 2/3 weeks of tiny tweaks ), so I understand what you're saying.

 

Portfolio headers: Agreed, I thought they were a bit too out of character and bold myself. I've created and uploaded a new illustration for the portfolio area, but I will be changing it slightly (as the frames are too neatly aligned), and the text sucks! I've dimmed down the image borders, but I don't want to remove them as the images need to be distinguishable from each other, as they are so similar. I'm all ears for any other suggestions on achieving that.

 

Question for you: Do you feel I should have the main portfolio illustration across the pages that are for particular case studies/clients? Or do you feel no illustration would be better? Or a different illustration with one picture frame and different text — to explain that this is a single item.

 

Blog: I was toying with the idea of putting a header up there, as it looked so lifeless compared to the rest of the site. Having you suggest it as well as forced me into action, I've set up a placeholder for the illustration so you can see what the dimensions would be like, I'll update when I have an illustration up there — need to come up with an idea for it!

 

I'm also toying with the idea of having no illustration / a different illustration on the single blog posts page (similar to the portfolio issue). I'm not quite sure yet if this is a good idea, or not. Comments?

 

About: I'm still in two minds about the photo. In one corner I want to make the site very personal and be as open as possible, and in the other corner I don't want to look too amateurish and would like to keep some mystery. I really like your idea about the robot illustration, and I'm going to come up with something and see how it looks. Would you mind if I PM you the illustration when it's ready?

 

Changing background with the time: Can you please stop reading my mind!! I've been contemplating this idea for a while now, and have some ideas with what I'd do with it — would be related to the footer illustration (which isn't ready yet, but will be quite a large feature ) and other illustrations on the website.

 

As for how I'd do it — I would use PHP instead of the Javascript method suggested. Simply because I can be sure it will work on all browsers and I don't need to worry about people having JS disabled.

 

I think this might be a feature I work on last — watch this space!

 

 

Thanks again Eskymo!

 

 

nice work rob, really very, very nice work.

 

quality can't wait to see some of the portfolio work.

 

Thanks mate! I'm working on the portfolio area at the moment, I will update everyone when there is something more to see.

 

 

well...its just my suggestion Robh...if you not agree...maybe its just about different style between you and me . but i wanna say Congratulations to you Robh...i can see from every comments in here...that everybody loved your site...

Thank you

 

 

 

 

Keep the comments coming people, the more the merrier, as I won't stop working on this layout until it's perfect!

PM me with any questions / illustrations...glad to help. I'm so glad you're considering the robot illustration for the about page...then maybe my little Eskymo can have a virtual friend!

 

Let me know your PHP solution for the time-based stuff as I would prefer not to use javascript either.

 

Can't wait to see what develops next.

 

E

I'll definitely do that then, thanks!

 

The only issue with the PHP solution is that it won't be based on the visitor's time, it will be the server time — which would be the UK. I'm sure I could do some insane scriptage to work out the visitors timezone with PHP — but I think it's too much hassle for a feature that most people won't even notice. I'll make sure to post it on the forum when I've done it.

 

Look forward to plenty of updates on the site this week. I'm brimming with inspiration after all these comments!

More than happy to have a proper look over your copy when you're ready. No need for anything in return - I'm sure I'll be bugging you at some point for advice and you and Eris have made me feel really welcome.

PM me when you're set?

It'd be good to get a 'proper crack' at it! Maybe it'll give me inspiration for Copy Corner. Speaking of which.... I must get on with that!

That's excellent news, thank you very much wizely. I'm more than happy to give you advice and help whenever you need it!

 

Glad to hear you feel at home on the forum, just watch out for Eris, she bites!

Great work, well done. Thats the sort of site I'd go to just for the sake of it to look at

 

I quite agree with splashtech, you have one awesome site. I've actually gone back to look at it several times. Really great work. Well done.

Fantastic website Rawkes, great stuff

 

All I could change is the active link currently have the red box behind it? I think it would be much better suited to maybe a slightly darker version of the orange used on the "Social Showcase" thumbnail?

 

Just an idea Great work

I looked at your website today Rob... I just... WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That site is the best designed site I have EVER seen!!! Mann... You have really good graphics skill! Looks AWESOME!

 

Okay, enough ranting and raving lol,

-Agent

@Jake: Found a style switcher based on the weather in your chosen location, which is equally cool if implemented right.

OK, I'll wade into the copy question

 

In terms of the top text, I agree with the third person comment, if only on the basis of consistency. e.g. you have third person at the top, and then elsewhere on the page you are referring in the first "...what I do..." "...I provide..." etc etc.

 

Personally, I think the top needs to be as snappy as possible.

 

Rawkes webdesign

Beautiful websites, handcrafted to pixel perfection

 

Could be an option. Then you remove the 1st/3rd problem, and it tells the same thing in fewer words. However, I would argue that text is a deeply personal thing so nothing is ever "right". As people in my business say - "what's the best daily paper in the UK?" You could argue the Times or another broadsheet but the Sun outsells them all with awful copy and horrendous use of language. So "best" is not always successful .

 

To me, the website design itself is quirky, personal, shows a lot of enthusiasm and is interesting. Therefore, I'd make the copy reflect that personality. To take an extreme example: if you had your design and then the text was "Rawkes will deliver key performance measurables in the online sphere, giving you excellent brand recognition in the virtual market place." It makes sense, but it would be completely incongruous to the look and feel of your site. Therefore I would recommend following that (excellent) design and the feel of it into the text. It doesn't have to be much, but the odd reference in a quirky way to ideas like space, robots, taking off, blueprints etc etc will tie it all together, inject some humour and keep the visitor reading. It doesn't have to be much, but it could make a big difference.

 

I agree completely with removing any references to perceived negative words like "small". The one good thing about estate agents is learning their tricks such as "easily maintained outside area". So subsitute words such as small for "bespoke", "personal", "intimate", "dedicated". Don't be too trite with it, but it'll come naturally once you get the idea.

 

I also agree with using the robot theme throughout, make the computer "employee of the month" or something. Personally, I'd replace the about pic with an illustration. You in a spaceman suit, anything, but keep it in the feel of the piece.

I think the top of the content needs rounded corners... or a decoration of somesort on the top of it like in your bottom.

OK, I'll wade into the copy question

 

In terms of the top text, I agree with the third person comment, if only on the basis of consistency. e.g. you have third person at the top, and then elsewhere on the page you are referring in the first "...what I do..." "...I provide..." etc etc.

 

Personally, I think the top needs to be as snappy as possible.

 

Rawkes webdesign

Beautiful websites, handcrafted to pixel perfection

 

Could be an option. Then you remove the 1st/3rd problem, and it tells the same thing in fewer words. However, I would argue that text is a deeply personal thing so nothing is ever "right". As people in my business say - "what's the best daily paper in the UK?" You could argue the Times or another broadsheet but the Sun outsells them all with awful copy and horrendous use of language. So "best" is not always successful .

 

To me, the website design itself is quirky, personal, shows a lot of enthusiasm and is interesting. Therefore, I'd make the copy reflect that personality. To take an extreme example: if you had your design and then the text was "Rawkes will deliver key performance measurables in the online sphere, giving you excellent brand recognition in the virtual market place." It makes sense, but it would be completely incongruous to the look and feel of your site. Therefore I would recommend following that (excellent) design and the feel of it into the text. It doesn't have to be much, but the odd reference in a quirky way to ideas like space, robots, taking off, blueprints etc etc will tie it all together, inject some humour and keep the visitor reading. It doesn't have to be much, but it could make a big difference.

 

I agree completely with removing any references to perceived negative words like "small". The one good thing about estate agents is learning their tricks such as "easily maintained outside area". So subsitute words such as small for "bespoke", "personal", "intimate", "dedicated". Don't be too trite with it, but it'll come naturally once you get the idea.

 

I also agree with using the robot theme throughout, make the computer "employee of the month" or something. Personally, I'd replace the about pic with an illustration. You in a spaceman suit, anything, but keep it in the feel of the piece.

Those are some great tips there Dusty! I'm starting to agree with you and the others about the conflicting 1st/3rd person wording, I'll make sure to implement some of the changes when I get round to properly working on the content — thank you!

 

 

I think the top of the content needs rounded corners... or a decoration of somesort on the top of it like in your bottom.

I see where you're coming from, but like I said in a previous post, I'm really not feeling the whole rounded corners look for the website. The footer is a major work in progress at the moment, so the site is going to look crap for the next few days/weeks while I tweak it up and add bits.

No problem mate.

 

Good luck with it

Hey Rob, just wanted to say that I like your site, very well done.

 

It is nice and clean and has a great 'feel' to it.

 

Only one suggestion I could make, it is with regards to the background 'star field' - any chance of have less stars? They kind of feel a little too bunched up - but hey, that's just me;)

 

 

Either way, very well done!