Start-Up Company Website

[soulseek191]

Hi everyone,

 

I'm building an online start-up business specializing in freelance web design/branding/marketing/3d graphic design. I would like everyone's input into my website:

 

http://www.soulseek-production.com

 

The Front end of the site is currently html but the backend (once I get the login working and such) will be php/mysql based with a touch of ajax to accommodate.

 

All suggestions and feedbacks are welcome.

 

--Solida

 

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[AndyB]

I'm building an online start-up business specializing in freelance web design/branding/marketing/3d graphic design. I would like everyone's input into my website:

 

Based on the content of the first page, a visitor would have no idea that you had a business specializing in anything.  You should completely revamp the content so it clearly gives the messge you apparently want to provide about your intended specialization. I don't see a connection.

[soulseek191]

Thats what I've been trying to work out. I don't like the home page either...I'm going to figure out how to approach this matter in a way that is my style. Thanks for the feedback.

[AndyB]

Just so it's clear. My comment related to the content of the page, not the look of the page.  The look of the page is pretty blah, but then google, ebay, and amazon succeed with ugly pages.

[Fadion]

If the big sites succeeded with ugly designs, they did due to content. When saying "we are specialized in all forms of graphic design", u should have a great site by yourself. Im not going to pay u to do my site, if yours isnt the typical good site (at least). As the design is far from what i personally call good, im not going to talk anymore about it.

 

You have a portfolio of interfaces (a hub??) and i doubt anyone has any use of them. A portfolio should be a collection of good works of yours which should be well filtered before making it to that section. And the resume!! Are u really proficient in all of these: "PHP, mySQL, HTML, CSS, C++, T-SQL, Java, VB, Perl, Actionscript, JSP, Javascript, PalmOS, XML, ASP, Coldfusion"? Why do u need to know PHP, JSP and ASP at the same time?

 

I cant say a word on your knowledge as far as i dont know it (except design), but really, im in the design world myself and i know clients arent stupid. If ure willing to sell your services, uve got to stand out of the huge bunch of others who sell the same thing. Im not being harsh here, even for a split second, im just saying what i really think.

 

Good luck!

[soulseek191]

Thanks for people's feedback so far. Here are some responses back to what has been posted:

 

1) The meaning of the portfolio section is to display what has been accomplished. It doesn't always mean that what is being displayed will be things that a client will want. As well, in my opinion, all work that most people find that they filter out can end up being pieces of work that could be pretty relevant. I see no harm in at least posting progress up. (Another note, portfolio sections are sections where there WILL be incoming work coming along).

 

My main target at this moment is the multimedia/3d design sector. Of course we all know that people have different taste and style. Just because one person doesn't really find it appealing, doesn't mean the entire world will think so. I respect your opinion and I don't believe any of it is harsh which is why it gives me a great deal of information towards what I'm to accomplish on my side and what I can improve upon.

 

2) Brace with me, I'm a rookie [unofficially]. I do this stuff on the side. I am actually a developer in Java/JSP currently and I like to deal with many languages. I DON'T do just web development. I fiddle around with Photoshop (alone) a lot and do a lot of freehand product modelling (which is why there are hub(s) being displayed because I was browsing around looking for simple items to do first and found a hub laying around). This is what we call inspiration, people.

 

3) I had just revamped this site 3 weeks from today and it will improve within time and effort. Brace with me there. 

 

Again, thanks for giving me very relevant feedback and I will appreciate more of it.

 

[atravotum]

I'm not trying to top on the negative here however... The design def needs some work. My first thought was front page editor. While I am still new to web design (sorta) I work with web pages all day. Trouble shoot them really, I see a lot of template driven site, and that looks very template driven. There is not to much dynamic to it.

 

Also as a graphic designer your site is going to say worlds about you. Imagine when you go to buy a car lets say. If you walk up and the owner of the car is driving a beat up pinto whats the first thing thats going to run through your mind? Your website IS YOUR BUSINESS CARD point blank. From my point of view at work I get to take a unbiased look at a lot of sites. My job again is to analyze and troubleshoot. Statics show most common readers will not stay longer then 7 seconds on your page unless you can hook them before that. Your content HAS TO BE CLEAR AND APPARENT. The site has to be pleasing to the eyes, or no one will want to sift through it.

 

Also to a point I agree a portfolio should contain work others may find relevant however it should as stated above still only contain your best work. The portfolio is a section of your accomplishments, putting anything undone, or half done well says to customers "Hey I don't finish things, or I do not give it my all". I am not trying to be harsh (seems to be a theme on this topic). But you asked for honest opinions, I would say try to take this project from a more professional stand point. Be your worst critic you will come a lot further!

[soulseek191]

I'm sorry to say that this isn't template driven (And I detest Front Page Editor so lets not go there).

 

My entire motto for the site is really hard code and from scratch. I did in fact, used Dreamweaver to help me "environmentally" but overall, what you'll see is more of a natural WYSIWYG. I'm a hard coded HTML person.

 

Dynamically, yes, I'm CURRENTLY shooting blanks there. This is going to change later (this site is still in the works). I got lots of new graphics to make still and so the portfolio site will expand.

 

Thanks for the feedback

 

 

[Fadion]

Look, i work as web designer & junior developer, but my knowledge extends to vb and c++ programming, 3d and a lot more. Eventhough, my portfolio wont have 3d works or shitty experimental music done with fruity loops. I still say that a portfolio should be your collection of best works. A client can only trust u based on your own site and past works. If your site isnt good and u dont have any good works in the portfolio, i will close the page in seconds.

 

As for the hard-coded html, not that i got anything to it, but surely it isnt a way of being smart. Dreamweaver gives some cool features for easy writting a markup language who is as basic as writting english, so i see no reason of not using it. Stating that u hard-code html, is like stating that i use manual shifts over automatic. Basically i have said nothing cool.

 

My advice, again, is to create something eye pleasing which attracts clients on looks and content. Dont do it in a rush, u'll need time to end up with it and most importantly, years to get a nice and compact portfolio.

 

Good luck again.

[TheFilmGod]

As for the hard-coded html, not that i got anything to it, but surely it isnt a way of being smart. Dreamweaver gives some cool features for easy writting a markup language who is as basic as writting english, so i see no reason of not using it.

 

I got to disagree with you on this one. Hard coding html is a lot better than any software, program, or system. I do everything 100% in notepad. It's actually a lot easier and a lot more efficient/faster. Dreamweaver isn't bad, but their mini "browser" rendering system is a piece of crap, and the little help they provide is not worth the effort. Learn to use copy and paste and you'll be perfectly fine.

[atravotum]

Im going to have to take guilty's side on this one film god. There is absolutely no reason not to use tools given to you. Making more work for yourself is hard enough. Copy and pasting is nowhere near as proficient as using say Visual web developer to literally create your pages for you every new file. That would be like me saying "No its much easier to type this to you in binary what use would i have for a keyboard."

 

Get to a level where you do this for a living and need to produce high quality work in a time crunch and you will find tools work a lot better. There is nothing wrong with hard coding when you have to (most server side languages you will, most scripts your write you will). But when your designing a site that has scripts you need to hard code why not punch the GUI out the way quick and easy?

 

Not to mention does your notepad do a browser or cross platform check? Theres time lost, does it have a built in color wheel when you need to hit the right shade? Theres time lost, does it auto tag things for you? Theres more time lost, does notepad publish your site for you? Nope more time lost....

[Fadion]

This is a matter of opinion, but hard-coding html is pointless and boring. Id go on hard-coding php (and normally thats what i do) for ages, cos thats a programming language which u enjoy writting (except when ure frustrated) and see it in action. Dreamweaver is a plain simple editor which offers some good features to easily add html code. It fails on providing good css code, so im not talking about that. What im talking is creating tables (not for site layout ), forms, assign css classes etc etc, which can be done with the click of a button. This is not being lazy, this is actually being smart (without offending anyone).

 

Anyway as i said, its a matter of opinion. What matters is what u know

[TheFilmGod]

This is a matter of opinion, but hard-coding html is pointless and boring. Id go on hard-coding php (and normally thats what i do) for ages, cos thats a programming language which u enjoy writting (except when ure frustrated) and see it in action. Dreamweaver is a plain simple editor which offers some good features to easily add html code. It fails on providing good css code, so im not talking about that. What im talking is creating tables (not for site layout ), forms, assign css classes etc etc, which can be done with the click of a button. This is not being lazy, this is actually being smart (without offending anyone).

 

Anyway as i said, its a matter of opinion. What matters is what u know

 

This is a matter of opinion and I agree. I also agree with the post previous to that one that, working with certain tools will be faster than "copying and testing."

 

But I disagree with you GuiltyGear, on you statement to have dream weaver create forms, assign classes... for you. I don't think its hard to type it in yourself. I know "dreamweaver" may safe time, but the time saved does not equal the time it takes to customize the text crap that came out of dreamweaver. I guess when you start to code with very specific details and pixel to pixel perfection it is different... I code for fum and enjoyment, you code for straight up $$$.

[soulseek191]

Dreamweaver is a very powerful tool. I must admit. I'm not saying that I completely hard coded HTML/CSS/Javascript - I did maybe 2-3 years ago when I did release the first soulseek-production site but I do believe in mixing Dreamweaver and Hard coding together. Of course, we can never just rely on using click/point and drag all the time - its obviously faster to just hit the split mode and edit your code.

 

I guess maybe the point Film God wants to make as well is that hard coding is where it all began...way before WYSIWYG editors were released. Of course, we can never forget where the origin of such things came from. Its usually at times best to keep the manual knowledge still fresh in our brains but of course, due to time and effort, WYSIWYG cut it for everyone out there nowadays.

[atravotum]

This topic is getting heated. Just a small note though,

But I disagree with you GuiltyGear, on you statement to have dream weaver create forms, assign classes... for you. I don't think its hard to type it in yourself. I know "dreamweaver" may safe time, but the time saved does not equal the time it takes to customize the text crap that came out of dreamweaver. I guess when you start to code with very specific details and pixel to pixel perfection it is different... I code for fum and enjoyment, you code for straight up $$$.

 

Almost 99% of the time designing a website to be pixel perfect is a very bad idea. There is not to many ways to guarantee your viewer is going to see it as perfectly aligned as you have it :/. The whole key to your site is to make sure everyone is able to view it accurately, rather it be odd ball screen resolutions, or outdated browsers you have never even heard of. If your a business and some 80yr old man goes to your site and cant find the checkout button cause you made it pixel perfect and he has a screen res not even existent today you just lost business.

[Fadion]

Adding to atravotum's post, pixel perfection is so relative that it basically disappears. Im a perfectionist myself and trust me, id do anything to create perfect websites, but its practically impossible. I do webs for profit, but if i wasnt doing it for fun too, id be doing another job.

 

@soulseek191. Eventually thats a cliche on about every industry. I started writting html with nothing other then notepad and a browser, but as the technology evolved i use much more better tools and i wont turn back. I keep my (x)html and css knowledge fresh as not everything can be automated and ull always have to go on code view.