Bronz Posted June 28, 2010 Report Share Posted June 28, 2010 Due to someone in that thread saying my two personal sites looked a little similar, I threw a new design together over a few hours: http://harryroberts.co.uk/ Blog post explaining the redevelopment here: http://harryroberts.co.uk/2010/06/a-redesign-so-soon/ Thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke Rainbird Posted June 28, 2010 Report Share Posted June 28, 2010 Big. Blocky. Boring. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
that NBR dude Posted June 29, 2010 Report Share Posted June 29, 2010 I'm pretty sure you can get similar looking designs in the Microsoft Front Page wizard? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hannah Shucksmith Posted June 29, 2010 Report Share Posted June 29, 2010 I'm pretty sure you can get similar looking designs in the Microsoft Front Page wizard? It's all about Freewebs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronz Posted June 29, 2010 Report Share Posted June 29, 2010 Big. Blocky. Boring. Straight to the point I guess… I'm pretty sure you can get similar looking designs in the Microsoft Front Page wizard? Having never used Frontpage I can't really comment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N.Wood Posted June 29, 2010 Report Share Posted June 29, 2010 I'd say there was a difference between 'clean' and being stark, boring and somewhat uninteresting. From a punters point of view it seems like all groups of people who are trying to be different all end up being the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronz Posted June 29, 2010 Report Share Posted June 29, 2010 I definitely agree to an extent. This style is different for me personally, but there's a massive amount of repetition on the web. I'm not a maximalist kind of person, design isn't my strong point so I tend not to attempt to over-design things. With minimalism, the risk of similarities gets naturally increased anyway I'd imagine. I'm quite happy with how it turned out, it's not something I (wanted to) spent a lot of time on either. Plus it's a personal site, I am the client, the client is happy. I'm definitely open to suggestion and whatnot though. Cheers, H Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-Stop Junkie Posted June 29, 2010 Report Share Posted June 29, 2010 Plus it's a personal site, I am the client, the client is happy. I'm definitely open to suggestion and whatnot though. See, that's interesting. I *absolutley* get that it's your playground. You build it how you want, it serves a need only you really know. The web developers I know and have worked with put so much effort into their personal work because it's a real public portfolio of what they do. You're only as good as the websites you've produced. If you want to work on personal projects which may reflect badly on you (despite what you may have wanted from it) then I'd advise doing it offline If I was considering you for a comission, and I Googled your name and saw that site, I wouldn't get a good impression. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronz Posted June 29, 2010 Report Share Posted June 29, 2010 That isn't my portfolio site and I don't do freelance, so it's not an issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
konstant Posted July 9, 2010 Report Share Posted July 9, 2010 (edited) Thought I'd post this here as my Twitter following is pretty minimal to say the least! A client of mine is considering commissioning a promotional video for his business. I know there are a few video guys on here so if anyone thinks they could help or knows someone who does I'd appreciate them getting in touch with me via here/PM or Twitter He is based in Somerset and Dorset. Edited July 9, 2010 by konstant Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD™ Posted July 9, 2010 Report Share Posted July 9, 2010 This popping to the top reminded me that I didn't show my potential business cards for the real designers to critique. These images are ripped off the site I sent them to for a free sample so they are shocking quality. I'd wait till I got home and put them up properly, but I can't be arsed. So, critique on the actual design rather than the quality would be great before I order a full batch: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeanuckleJive Posted July 9, 2010 Report Share Posted July 9, 2010 One for the business card heads. That was awesome. Business card related injuries to rise by 400% Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Quinn Posted July 9, 2010 Report Share Posted July 9, 2010 JD: I'm no graphic designer but I have done in the past and would like to think I've got a general eye for design. Not a fan at all man Sorry. Reaallly not liking the shadow, just looks amateurish and the kind of thing word art would do. As for the text, I'd stay away from outlines and fills, just have a solid colour. I like the orange and white colour scheme, but I think it works a lot better with white background and orange text. On the back, those orange bullet points look irrelevant unless the text is butted up a bit closer to them. Sorry to be harsh or whatever, but this is you're business at the end of the day, maybe think about paying one of the designers on here a small fee to do them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omgnoseat Posted July 9, 2010 Report Share Posted July 9, 2010 I have to agree, it doesn't look very proffesional I have been fiddling around trying to create a logo for myself for quite a long time. This is what I came up with so far. What do you guys think about the general design and which do you like best? Just tell me if it's a complete failure, I don't mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD™ Posted July 9, 2010 Report Share Posted July 9, 2010 Appreciate the replies so far. I've given myself till Sunday night to get it sorted, so I'm happy to hear some more thoughts till then. Gotta say I prefer Max's critisism though, constructive with ideas is a good idea - I'm used to designing (very rarely) ads for tiny bike shops who seem to be happy with whatever I send so it's good to get some tips. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muel Posted July 17, 2010 Report Share Posted July 17, 2010 So then guys, recommendations for business card printing services? I would just use moo.co.uk, but I can't seem to find out if they do rounded corners. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Nick Riviera Posted July 17, 2010 Report Share Posted July 17, 2010 Rounded corners are shit. I use goodprint, heard lots of positive stuff about moo, can't go wrong with either of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muel Posted July 17, 2010 Report Share Posted July 17, 2010 I love round corners, it might be a bit old hat in design terms, but I'm not printing them for other designers, they're for the general public to look at and think, "Ooh, rounded corners. Snazzy". Cheers for that, I'll probably be using one or the other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Harrison Posted July 17, 2010 Report Share Posted July 17, 2010 This popping to the top reminded me that I didn't show my potential business cards for the real designers to critique. These images are ripped off the site I sent them to for a free sample so they are shocking quality. I'd wait till I got home and put them up properly, but I can't be arsed. So, critique on the actual design rather than the quality would be great before I order a full batch: If you own a domain, why not set up some redirects to twitter, facebook, etc, e.g. www.fifty6marketing.co.uk/facebook www.fifty6marketing.co.uk/twitter www.fifty6marketing.co.uk/linkedin Telling people to search seems a bit much...Also, I'm no design or SEO expert, but I like to think I have a slight grasp... If you're advertising SEO services, wouldn't it be beneficial to have put some effort into your own site? Or isn't it finished yet? I notice for example no h1 tags, no meta data, no alt/title text on your logo... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronz Posted July 19, 2010 Report Share Posted July 19, 2010 …Also, I'm no design or SEO expert, but I like to think I have a slight grasp... If you're advertising SEO services, wouldn't it be beneficial to have put some effort into your own site? Or isn't it finished yet? I notice for example no h1 tags, no meta data, no alt/title text on your logo... Unfortunately the alt/title text is not for SEO, it's a common misconception that you're supposed to stuff these with keywords etc whereas they're solely for accessibility purposes. Also, meta data is no longer used by Google, and is alsmot wholly redundant in other main search engines. Good shout on the h1 though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Harrison Posted July 19, 2010 Report Share Posted July 19, 2010 Alt/title I thought as much, but it's still a detail that should be included for the reason you say. Google still looks at meta descriptions - indeed the webmaster tools console even provides feedback on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronz Posted July 19, 2010 Report Share Posted July 19, 2010 Alt/title I thought as much, but it's still a detail that should be included for the reason you say. Google still looks at meta descriptions - indeed the webmaster tools console even provides feedback on it. Yeah, alt text is pretty important. And yeah it uses the description but it doesn't base rankings on it. It's also getting a lot cleverer in that Google's SERPs actually display extracts of rich markup as the description if no description is specified. The more typical SEO keywords meta data is unused. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD™ Posted July 19, 2010 Report Share Posted July 19, 2010 I'll give you H1, and thanks for the input. Although you are totally correct about the fact I should have a totally optimised site, my situation and my business are geared towards people who actually don't search for these things. So far all of my business has come from face to face networking meetings to educate people who know nothing about the potential of social media marketing first and foremost, adwords campaigns secondly and the SEO that has to come from that. I am, however, not someone who will sort out a clients SEO for them. I can advise that they work closely with a web developer to optimise their site to particular keywords, and my forte is finding out what those keywords should be. But it's down to them. More often than not I'm sending traffic through to a website which is not optimised which is frustrating but I'm still getting them a great boost in traffic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD™ Posted July 27, 2010 Report Share Posted July 27, 2010 Did some slight changes to my business cards based on various bits of feedback - the shadows are definitely gone! I think these look smart and I've had some great feedback from them so far. Crap phone shot, followed by the PDFs they were done off: Business Card.pdf Business Card Back.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Posted July 28, 2010 Report Share Posted July 28, 2010 Also, meta data is no longer used by Google, and is alsmot wholly redundant in other main search engines. http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&newwindow=1&safe=off&rlz=1B3GGGL_enGB265GB266&q=precedent&aq=f&aqi=g9g-s1&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&tbo=1 Really? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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