Viewing Thread:
"Ok, first design"

[URL]http://www.thefantastictortoise.com/design2.jpg[/URL]

I know it's not exactly groundbreaking.. :) But is that ok? Constructive criticism and the like... too image heavy? That background map may be the worst of it, I only put that in to see what it looked like, hopefully I'll be using a small map (or draw one if I can't get one without copyright.. hate this copyright stuff) - may use more of Pembrokeshire and a compass for looks, or something.

And those aren't all the links I'd imagine, but just to see how they looked. I have no idea how to do the main logo so I've left it pretty plain.

So yeah... shoot me down peeps.

Honestly, Comic Sans was a joke, along with the gradient. :) I'm actually going to make it marquee across the page.

Looking good.

Comic sans though = No.

(loving the font on design #3 though ;-))

Comic Sans is like the evil of all fonts, all people who use it should DIE.

.... :P

But yeah, it's looking pretty nice. I love the whole 'scruffy map' effect you have going there.

Good work.

Oh and if you are looking for Royalty Free images: -

[URL]http://www.sxc.hu/[/URL]
[URL]http://morguefile.com/[/URL]

Some photos will have no restrictions on them, and others you might have to ask the owners permission, but I have never found any problems with asking people etc

:-)

Coin wrote:
> If only the circles were clickable... We can but dream...

If they were paying for it, they would be, but instead, they'll eventually contain thumbnails of the main image from each page.

Tyla wrote:
>
> FWIW, in your last post about how much to charge, I mentioned that
> the firm I work for now, produce "Basic" set up sites for
> firms for about £750 with a turn around of 2 days . Here's an
> example of one I'm still working on (Images still to come):
>
> http://ogm.preview.cayenne.co.uk/


Oh sweet site!

If only the circles were clickable... We can but dream...

OMG! For the use of Comic Sans, I sentence thee to slow painfull death by rectal cheese insertion!;)

Looking at it, I cann see the potential, but why do i get the feeling your designing at a stupidly high screen res? The fonts are fookin hooge!

Loving the whole "Celt/Welsh" feel to the design, the map bkgnd works well and with a bit more tweaking the nav bkgnd is ok, though i'd love to see you turn that into working code (Hint:- Alhpa PNG positioned div and don't forget the IE PNG hack!)

I personally like the direction #3 is going in. the title font fits better with the design.

One suggestion, research your market a little more and see what the competition is like site wise. Will give you a better feel for demographic targeted design.

FWIW, in your last post about how much to charge, I mentioned that the firm I work for now, produce "Basic" set up sites for firms for about £750 with a turn around of 2 days . Here's an example of one I'm still working on (Images still to come):

http://ogm.preview.cayenne.co.uk/

But ignoring that brief thread hijack, looking good Darren, though try producing a couple of other designs to work from as you've limited yourself to a basic concept with only typesetting changes.

If your going to run your concepts by the client, they'd expect to see a good couple of contrasting designs to chose from or do the classic "mix n match" fromt he scamps.

N.B, when presenting concepts to a client always present them in the order of "Best", "Average" & "Crap" Design as the first one they see tends to be the one that sticks in their head, though your always guranteed that clients always choose the crap design!

Look forward to seeing how things progress.

BTW, how much time have you spent in the project already?

Oooh, that's weird. My browser is doing something weird, but it might be your webserver. Whichever it is is very clever. I accidentally typed in an address wrong, but it redirected me as follows:

http://www.thefantastictortoise.com/desig3n.jpg --> http://www.thefantastictortoise.com/design3.jpg

http://www.thefantastictortoise.com/desig4n.jpg --> http://www.thefantastictortoise.com/design.jpg

And others as well. Wow!

By the way, if anyone goes to design.jpg, Comic Sans and orange-yellow gradient is like, the best thing ever.

And yeah, that picture isn't mine.. trying to get a decent one to go there.

Well, the target audience is young familys.. I'm not really sure how to reflect that? It needs to be somewhat old I guess, but bah.

[URL]http://www.thefantastictortoise.com/design3.jpg[/URL]

Look, I made it crackly.

Needs a better picture

Looks a bit old and farty... jazz it up tortoise man.