But he’s not a company as such and he doesn’t ‘supply’ furniture. He makes ‘one off’ custom pieces of contemporary furniture on a commision basis. I think the site should reflect the style of his furniture and not look very corporate. It is a personal site, not a company site. Also I think he is very keen to stress the point that he only makes one (set) of each design. The customer specifies what they want the item to look like/do and he creates it for them with his own stylish personal touch.
after checking out a few other furniture sites, i think urs ROCKS! heres one of the flash furniture sites i visitied. [color=blue]eyesore[/color]
Ooh! That is nasty!! But some of them are incredibly stylish. Check out this site:
Then see the fourth post on this page. (My third)
Xperiment, that is pretty frightening. FG, I think you need to just calm down on the “designer designs”. Creative art sites are different than consumer / advertising based sites. An all flash site is probobly a bad idea for that sort of thing. Try a 50/50 combo, and keep it clean, and professional looking. Make use of stock photos of people, and take some good perspective images of the furniture. Apply those to the design somehow.
I agree with disco stu. I’d also like to add that creating all flash sites can be bad for business if you’re trying to drive traffic, which most everyone is. hehe
On another note, when you’re new to the industry money should be the last thing on your mind. Put lots of effort into every piece you create and eventually you’ll end up with an amazing portfolio and surprise! You’ll also be creating much better work from all of the practice.
Well believe it or not my web design started in January of this year with Flash MX 2004 Pro so I have no experience working with html or any other stuff. I don’t know how to make a 50/50 site as D-S suggested so I kind of have to use all flash. Anyway, since he isn’t having any online commerce why is all-flash bad for business? I have Dreamweaver MX but I find it hard to use.
Eewwww tryin to run b4 you can walk. You may need to take a step back.
You also said you have to make something that he wants or the client wants or w/e.
I have many clients, and although they give me a direction it’s really in my hands on what is presented to them and what the final adoption looks like. Unless they are telling you exactly what he wants and exactly where he wasn’t everything to go then you have complete creative freedom. And from the looks of the two different styles, it looks like you do.
As for charging like 1000EU or w/e (I dunno how that translates in $). I dunno if you have enough caliber of design to do that anywho, so I think if you put your best foot forward and try something more elaborate then you’ll be more pleased w/ it in the end. I some instances time = money but I dunno if that should be your focus.
On the first site he told me exactly where to put everything. He sat beside me for about 70% of it’s construction. The second one is nothing to do with him he hasn’t and might never see it. He’s on holiday in France at the moment so I can’t talk to him much.
About the site building, not knowing html, what I said isn’t strictly true. I have built quite a few working sites in Dreamweaver. What I should have said is that I never made any of them live. I didn’t have webspace, 'cept AOL but how anyone can be bothered with AOL I don’t know. In January I dsicovered FreeWebs.com and I was able to post a site Imade for my band on it. That was the first entire site I ever made in Flash. However, I can’t ‘write’ html by hand. I need Dreamweaver or something similar. The reason I don’t really use Dreamweaver is that I often can’t have the layout I desire in Dreamweaver. Flash gives so much more ‘creative freedom’.
I’ll give Dreamweaver a go but I don’t think he’ll like what comes out. He was pretty chuffed with the first site that everyone else hated so much, and don’t say he hasn’t got taste because he used to do alot of art and it was amazingly stylish and good (great colours, shapes and ability), like his furniture.
I’d try putting something together in Photoshop first, then transposing your design into dreamweaver. You have to remember the rules of HTML though. Even if you ever want to be good in flash, you have to learn a decent amount of HTML. I’m not sure if I could build an entire massive site out of notepad again or not, but I still have knowledge of it. Don’t be intimidated by the limits of a program. I suggest reading up a bit on the mechanics and behaviour of HTML (www.webmonkey.com is pretty nice), and see what you can do, and then do a design up in PS.
You don’t have to do it all in HTML either though. If you think his business would benefit from an all flash site, then by all means go ahead. I would DEFINITLY make more of your interfaces in photoshop, and put them in flash. Unless you are a flash HaX0r, going with bland vector shapes for a menu sucks. Try out that new “glass button” tutorial on kirupa.com or something. 
And we’re not trying to cut you down man. We’re just a bunch of guys (and girls) on the internet who are offering our constructive criticism. We still love you man.
First site:
Well, not to be rude - just honest: The buttons heavily needs replacement! It really doesn’t look like a furniture site! But I do not doubt your abilities as a designer, I just think your limitations are crap. You’ve got to go with your own design ideas, and not let inexperienced people tell you what to do! He’s got the talent in making furniture or what ever, so tell him/her YOU are the designer - he should but off on the buttons. Make the site as you want it to be, and I’ll bet he’ll be much more pleased with it! Yeah…
New site:
Looks a lot better:)
I think I’m gonna go with a slightly more more corporate, but very stylised look. Something a little like that site I put the link to. Starting from scratch btw. Thanks for the crits guys I never meant to sound angry but sometimes it’s difficult not too when you put a lot of work into something and then people tell you that it isn’t right or something y’know. Thanx again and I’ll post the new(est) site up again when I get more done.
-Paddy:D