This is the layout for a site I’m making for my cousin who is a furniture designer. He said he would pay me for it. I want some critique on the design as well as an idea of what to charge him. Please bear in mind that he is my cousin. He’s also six foot two. And plays rugby. thank you.
Does he design Gothic themed furniture? because that is the feel I got. The blacks, the crossed O’s.
What style is his furniture. The site design should compliment that.
It’s modern/organic style furniture, i.e. smooth metal and wood in organic curves and stuff.
He chose the colours, fonts and designed the menu style himself. He wanted it mainly black and white. I did the curves and swooshes and stuff because that’s what his furniture is like. He is the designer, I’m just the builder. The content is going to load in as separate swfs into a movieclip with some masked transitions.
I’d show you some pictures of his stuff but I have no idea how to get the pictures on my digital camera onto my PC.
How much do you think I should charge him, bearing in mind we’re related.
If he is the one designing it, I would tell him his expertise is in furniture development and he should seek outside help for graphic design.
Family and business never turn out well. I hate doing any work for family as it’s always a pain in the arse. Charge what you feel your time is worth.
how much time did u spend on it?
Not feelin it.
1st doesn’t give me the feel of a furniture site. Looks like it should be a band site, or some kind of cult, or something.
I feel like I’m repeating myself, as I’ve said for many sites I see here… bad choice of fonts.
Site shape is good and the tweening is good, but the buttons are really weak.
I think mainly you just don’t get the feel of it being a furniture site. I dunno if I’d charge him much for it, if you touch it up maybe there will be more to charge for it.
Ummm…I’m not digging this design either. How about laying out the site in PS before beginning in flash?
I would probably ask $200.
I agree with simplistik, I think always with furniture sites they have vibrant light colors, not black to win their favour to purchase some furniture. I didnt like the font since it doesnt fit well for furniture and since its also used in Diablo. I think you could work on the buttons really better, they seem to be just using the oval shape tool and shape it. I like the tweening of course but having an oval shaped interface?
i agree with simp 2, just not the feel of a furinture site
[center]Selects site fla in My Documents and…[/center]
[center][size=7]DELETED![/size][/center]
So no-one like this site at all? Wow. Erm, maybe I should just start again from scratch.
Here are the apparent problems with the site:
->The design
->The fonts
->The colour scheme
->The menu system
->The feel
Anything else wrong with it? The host (freewebs at the minute)?
The frame rate? Tweens are good though. That’s a plus. So is the shape.
Looks like I need to take more of a designer stance rather than just a putter-together of ideas. Obviously my cousin’s expertise is in furniture.
Well thanks for the critique guys. Looks like I’ve got alot of work to be getting on with.
Good for you Flash. In the end I think you and your cousin will be much happier.
What else could I do with the buttons? They HAVE to stay that shape. That was the one thing my cousin was most determined to have. That curved interface with the oval buttons sliding down it. Gimme an idea for something. What I will do, however, is put the writing inside the ovals and see what that looks like.
CnC: Problem is, those ovals were aliased to crap. Try making them in photoshop or something before hand. Try to go with more textures too. Straight vector shapes without some image assistance is kinda crappy. Try putting some bevels, or something a little more complex around the borders. Your transitions are great, but the stuff you are working with is a little primative.
edit: 400 posts! woohoo!
Try replicating the texture of one of his most “popular” products?
Ummm… I dunno, I think we could all help you out if we knew what his stuff looked like. That way you could theme it correctly. Maybe peep some other furinature sites take a look at their elements and how they made them flow w/ their product.
Unfortunately he only does one off commision work so he’s unlikely to have a most popular product. He’s also just starting out so he hasn’t made a lot of stuff yet and he still hasn’t sent me the photographs which were going to go on the site. Anyway I’ve started a completely different design which has nothing in common with the first one whatsoever except it’s the same size. The shape, fonts, buttons, background, logo etc are all totally different and much more contemporary (IMO).
Here is the 50% complete layout of the new site:
(The longer button on the left is in its “over” state.)
So what do you think?
Hey you guys! The site.^^^^^^ It’s been redone. Guys?
Dang man chill it was only 15min after your first post.
Anywho, IMO that doesn’t work either. Design is better than the previous one but it still seems to be missing a lot. Still doesn’t have the feel of a furniture site.
http://www.favouritewebsiteawards.com/
Go there and check out their commercial section, take a look at their furniture design sites. They have simplicity, elegancy, contemporary design looks. I’m not sayin that you need to be that professional, but it may lead you in what I think is the right direction. But like I said that IMO.
That’s all very pretty and nice but to make him something like that I would have to charge him like £1000+ and he can’t pay that much just for the website. He has to buy materials and stuff too y’know. He’s not made of money and I thought if I could make him something nice looking, that he liked, that would appeal to people and would only take me about 20-30hrs to make I could not rip him off or bankrupt him.
So anyway, when I get some pictures of his stuff I’ll sepia them and maybe have a randomn background or something, of his furniture of course. That picture is really just filler which happens to look really cool. I think I’ll show him both sites when he comes back from holidays and let him choose his favourite. I’ll even show him what you guys said. If he picks the first one then (maybe) his loss, I’ll charge him a little less for it or ask him to pick some better fonts and colours. It’s his site not mine so I really ahve to make what he wants.
Flash:
Here’s my opinion.
Your on the wrong track brother. I think you should stray away from the Flash interface and think about more of a corperate touch. Your site does not have to be in Flash to look good.
Think of a more professional design, as a furniture supply website should really be more on the corp. side of things.