Site Web Template Help

talk design
1

Hi guys,

I present myself, I’m Alex and I’m a newcorner around here. I’ve been browsing the forum and saw some very good friendship between members. A friend of mine told me about this place so I wanted to come by and see if you guys could help me in my problem.

Let me start here. I wanna build a web site. I know how to do all the programming part (HTML, ASP, CSS, etc.) but I only know the basic graphix since my main job is programming. I would like to use my site as a place to get known by my software that I will be developping. I’m planning to make this site my homepage for all what I’ll be doing.

I’ve recently bought a host plan and a .com, combined together, that cost me quite expensive and since I bought it, I haven’t been able to release my web site yet, 'cause I never think my web design is nice enough.

SO, my request here would be to have some help from people that are good in web design and wouldn’t mind helping me finishing, recreating, improving, (etc.) my web design so that I can start doing the rest.

I suck at graphix, all what I’ve done so far is mine but it took me months to get that done and it looks too newbie. I want some site to kick *** and look really professional. In order to accomplished that, I would need someone that wouldn’t mind spending some time working on it and having a chat with me on how we could improve it better.

So, that’s the site. Check it out and let me know your thoughts.

www.alexricher.com
The main area

Now, here are the jobs that I’d like to be done.

[list]
[]I’d like to have a nicer logo than I have atm… since that definitely sucks! :wink:
[]I’d like to have a new flash animation that would kick *** like some I’ve seen on your site guys, I can give examples if you want :wink:
[*]The REAL request is the web design of my site. That would be really nice.
[/list]

To be honest with you, I’d really like to help by paying the person who’s gonna help me… but I’m still a student, and I don’t have any money… It took me so long to finally be able to buy myself a host and now, I’m wasting all that money by hosting nothing useful.

So, please, let me know if you’re able to help me out on either one of those 3 things, and I’ll be the most grateful person on earth. I’ll see what I can do for giving you back what you did for me :wink:

Thanks people, you’re all awesome!

2

Well, I can lend a hand if that’s any help. :slight_smile:

I’ve had a look at your site, and I have a few comments that might be of use.

First I like the crystalline type piece of artwork in the left corner, that’s cool. I think you should extend that idea a bit.

The blue is maybe a little dark, and could just be overpowering. Perhaps a lighter blue would work better with the grey.

I’d also say that a bit of texture or lighting kind of effects would be a good thing to put in there. Give the grey sections perhaps a metallic finish?

I like the font you’ve used for the menu at the side, but I’m not a fan of Times New Roman in the centre panel. I’d go with something more like Arial or Verdana if I were you, makes it more readable for users. Actually, looking at it again, I’d say get rid of the grey box that the text is in, and keep it on a white background. Save the grey for highlights in the surrounding area.

It’s also helpful if the site resizes on higher screen resolutions.

I hope this doesn’t sound overly critical. It’s just meant to be a few things I noticed initially. :slight_smile:

3

*Originally posted by Kitiara *
**Well, I can lend a hand if that’s any help. :slight_smile:

I’ve had a look at your site, and I have a few comments that might be of use.

First I like the crystalline type piece of artwork in the left corner, that’s cool. I think you should extend that idea a bit.

The blue is maybe a little dark, and could just be overpowering. Perhaps a lighter blue would work better with the grey.

I’d also say that a bit of texture or lighting kind of effects would be a good thing to put in there. Give the grey sections perhaps a metallic finish?

I like the font you’ve used for the menu at the side, but I’m not a fan of Times New Roman in the centre panel. I’d go with something more like Arial or Verdana if I were you, makes it more readable for users. Actually, looking at it again, I’d say get rid of the grey box that the text is in, and keep it on a white background. Save the grey for highlights in the surrounding area.

It’s also helpful if the site resizes on higher screen resolutions.

I hope this doesn’t sound overly critical. It’s just meant to be a few things I noticed initially. :slight_smile: **

First, I’d like to thank you for your quick reply.

Also, I’m not thinking that you sound overly critical at all! You’re exactly what I need for help. I needed to know what people thought about it.

For the abstract art, I must admit that it’s the only part of my site that I like. I wanted to make a random image in ASP so that each time the page loads, it would be a different abstract image that would go there. I can manage that in Photoshop, since it’s the basic for me. But I haven’t done that image, I just took a really small piece of a nice abstract project and changed it a little to give it the personal feel for my site. Since I ain’t a graphix expert, I don’t think I’ll be able to do all what you told me. In short, I don’t like my design at all. I would like that someone work closely with me in order to improve it a lot better. Maybe with all your skills, we could get something done easily and fast. I worked on a lot of different version of this template, but I’ve never really liked what I’ve done so far. If you could help me out on the design mate, you can get in touch by ICQ/MSN with me :wink: I’d be really happy to have some graphix that would help me. And that goes for anybody else. :smiley: You’re more than welcome to help me on a little part of this template, 'cause I’m going crazy about making it… :hangover:

4

Sure, I’m more than happy to give you a hand. It’s all practice for me, which is what I need. :slight_smile:

Getting a random image to appear every time you load the page isn’t too difficult, as long as all the images are made. You sound like you know what you want so that’s good. I’ll be the first to admit that I suck at the 3D crystal thing - someone like Eilsoe, Edwin, Lost or Dan would be better at that than me. Dan has done some incrdible things with 3D, I’m sure if you ask nicely… :slight_smile:

I can’t use MSN or AIM or stuff like that - the company I work at has a nasty firewall, so programs like that won’t work. You can email or PM me though, or just keep posting stuff in this thread. You can attach zip files and graphics and whatever, so not a problem. :slight_smile:

5

Souds good then, I’ll try to keep going on that thread then, so people see the template improving.

I know what I want, that’s for sure. But I don’t know how to get it done. So, I’ll give you some concrete example of what I’d like to have and if you can do something similar, that will just kickass! I can supply you with the original PSD file of my current site, but since I ain’t happy with what I have atm, I’d prefer that we’d go for something new by keeping the style I want.

For the 3D, it’d be more than AWESOME to have “Dan” helping me for that. I will try to PM him but since he doesn’t know me, it may sound kind of weird. I’ll let him know about this thread and if he can help me out, I’d be in business. :wink:

What I’d like…

[list]
[]I want a header with a top menu where the main site section will be displayed with a nice top header design with my logo (which doesn’t exist yet) on the top left corner. On that header, I want that we keep a place for an abstract image where it would change depending on either the section or randomly. So, the header must be the coolest part of the site with the logo, some abstract art and the top menu. Top menu will contain (HOME | SERVICES | PRODUCTS | PORTFOLIO | ABOUT US | CONTACT | etc…) I also thought that the top menu could use some flash in it, but I ain’t a flash master at all. I was hoping to get someone that is good at it (I saw that the board if full of it ;)) Then, I could do some nice effect and leave a little place of HTML on the header for that abstract art.
[]The left menu is also 1 of the interesting caracteristics that I’d like to keep. I have no clue on how to implement a nice menu, so I’ll let it up to you… but I want it with rollovers or simply with text and CSS (but I want then to look really nice, depending on what’s feasable, with some nice effect and that would go with the tones of the site. Also, on that left side of the menu, I’d like to be able to put some other section for a poll, links, etc.
[]The main area is what I have no clue on how to implement. I wanted to make it look like nice with some kind of tables so that when I put something, my table have a title (ex: news, products, etc.) so that it doesn’t look like plain text on a white background.
[]The bottom part of the site is what will be the most simple I guess, but at the same time, something that leaves the user with a little taste of “Wow…”. I want to have the same design as the top, with the site style, but having some kind of ending… you know, that the top is the opening of the design and the bottom is the end, like I tried to do with my current template.
[*]In overall, I would like to have the look of a futurist, professional, abstract and good looking web site. I like the blue tones, as well as the standard tones. I’ve got those 2 sites that has some AWESOME web templates. I’ve looked at www.4templates.com to get my design working, but www.monstertemplate.com has some professional ones as well. I’m hoping to make a mix of the futurist from 4templates and the professional of templatemonster. If you have any suggestion, let me know.
[/list]

So, as you can see, it’s a big project, but don’t be scared. It looks bigger than it is actually. It’s only to rework the design with your graphics skills.

Btw, you have anything to show of what you’ve done in web design?

Thanks mate!

6

Um… Only a couple. I’ve done:

www.snooplife.com a few years back.
www.espresso.co.uk which was my last job.
www.churchill.com which is my current job.

That’s really about all the sites I’ve done.

As for your site, I’ll have a think and post some things up in a few days. :slight_smile:

7

I must admit that those are some nice jobs you’ve done there! Wow! :smiley:

I really like the one you’re working on right now. It’s really professional looking and actually something kind of close to what I’m looking for when you think about the design.

Well, I’ll let you work on what you think that can be done. If you need anything, just let me know by emailing me… You’ll have a quick reply, that’s for sure.

As for the logo, flash and 3D, I should maybe ask some mates around.

[SIZE=4]To the others that are reading this thread:[/SIZE]

If you could help me out on a logo, I’d really like that. :slight_smile: Anything that you can do like Flash, 3D or vector logo, just reply, it’d be awesome! :smiley:

Thanks to you all and particularly to this nice forum that really helps the people!

8

I can lend a hand with the 3d and logo design stuff. I did not read the other posts…too long…I have been programming all weekend and everything looks like response.write “garbage”:beam: BUt fill me in on the name of the company any concepts you may have colors intended audience and I will see what I can whip up. I need to boost my logo portfolio.

9

*Originally posted by 3d-iva *
**I can lend a hand with the 3d and logo design stuff. I did not read the other posts…too long…I have been programming all weekend and everything looks like response.write “garbage”:beam: BUt fill me in on the name of the company any concepts you may have colors intended audience and I will see what I can whip up. I need to boost my logo portfolio. **

For the 3D, it would be MORE THAN welcome 3d-iva! What I’m basically looking for is a logo. I’m a young programmer and wanna make some software to share with the user and make myslef known in my area in order to find a programming job.

I like the abstract arts… I really do. My web site looks like this so far. (www.alexricher.com and main page, www.alexricher.com/main.asp) As you can see, I ain’t graphix. I’m more a programmer. I can’t do much in Photohop, but I like Abstract art. I really like your frontdoor (ww.implod.com) and looking foward a frontdoor with something as cool as that.

For the logo, well, I like 3D and I want it professional looking. I’d like to be able to put it on a business card, as well on my web site and banner. I’m not sure what I could put but you’re the expert, so I’m trusting you all the way on what you will do.

Maybe something with “Alexandre Richer”… or play with my name. My domain name is www.alexricher.com. You can probably do something with this.

For the rest of the 3D, I’d like to have some abstract art to put on my site. Maybe you could play around and show me what you do :wink:

Thanks a bunch for all your nice help! It’s really appreciated!

10

How much are you paying for hosting and the .com? If you are paying more than 7 or 8 a month then its too much. www.Ipowerweb.net offers 7 or 8 a month and they register the domain for free…

11

I didn’t pay too much for my hosting by I got ripped off… for the packages. I really liked the idea of no transfert limits even though there wasn’t too much space, BUT I have no SQL server, no everything… :frowning:

So, in short, it cost me about the same price just without all the services…