Design reconsidered

[Ricklord]

Hi,

I know i been asking for alot of feedback recently but its has all been on different design revisions and this one i think is the best so far so deleted the old thread and started a fresh.

I have created a new design in photoshop and just wanted to know what people thought before i convert it to html.

I had quite a few bad comments about the old site and even the new one which is now up and i wasnt happy with it either. So this afternoon i sat down and have created a whole new design and feel to the Design part of my site.

You can view it by going directly here. [url=http://www.creativecogs.co.uk/web_design/new_design.html]http://www.creativecogs.co.uk/web_design/new_design.html[/url] still in photoshop format until final desision is made.

Cheers in advance

Rick

[koolaidman52]

seems a bit wide, especially if the user is going to be in an 800 by 600 res, nothing else right now

[AndyB]

Those greens and blues are not working for me.  Find a good natural image of a forest and some sky and pick greens and blue(s) from it.  The embossed, glowing, text is very 1990's.  I'd suggest something other than what looks like Arial Black for that as well.

[Ricklord]

Res is at 800 wide, its just the background which is bigger and wont be displayed on a computer running at 800 x 600.

Rick

[koolaidman52]

you actualy need it to be 780 wide or so, the scroll bar cuts about 20px off

[steviewdr]

Apart from it going to be a bit too wide for 800 x 600, there still is something at fault.
The blue corners are still a little jagged, especially top right and top left. Like if its a picture currently - and it is aliased - well Im just worried it will still be jagged.
Andy is right about the blue. The top of the Nav bar - Its too white. You need a different look I think.

Now it is nice - and it is a definate improvement - a marraige of what you had and nice.

Also - whats with the Bottom footer Nav? I think Having credits or a Disclaimer and Copyright would be FAR better.

Also - a different text font is called for. Try Tahoma or Verdana.

-steve

[cmgmyr]

I like it, graphics need a little work, but you are in the right direction

-Chris

[pixy]

It's too wide for my resoultion.

[perezf]

It looks awesome, love the design keep with it

[Ricklord]

site is actually live now it can be seen at [url=http://www.creativecogs.co.uk/web_design/index.html]www.creativecogs.co.uk/web_design/index.html[/url]

some minor changes were made before it went live.

Cheers for all the comments

Rick

[cmgmyr]

I like the site and design, but you still need to work on those rounded edges.

-Chris

[Ricklord]

anyone got any suggestions on getting the rounded edges neater?

The graphics have been created in photoshop and the images are the originals so i've not lost quality by copying them multiple times.

when ever i create a rectangle shape with rounded edges and add a boarder using the stroke feature they always appear jagged.

If anyone has any techniques how to stop this from happening i would be greatful. i have tried sharpening the images but this doesnt do anything for it.

Cheers

Rick

[koolaidman52]

this will sometimes work.

make a path along the rounded edge and coose the color of the edges. Stroke the path with low to medium opacity so it blends in with any other colors in the background.

[steviewdr]

je - photoshop is not that intuitive!
I normally use fireworks - which does all I ever needed.

Anyways - I took a look at photoshop and here is how to do a rounded corner/box properly

Choose black for the foreground and as the background colour.

Choose the Brush Tool and start drawing. In order to get a smooth line ->
Click the BRUSHES tab on the main horizontal toolbar. (Its beside the FILE BROWSER tab on the right)
Scroll down the list and choose a nice smooth line. You can make the radius smaller - so pick a smooth line.
Using the Brush Tool - draw a line and see if it is nice and smooth. When you are happy with the current brush ->

This is the tricky bit -> you need to choose the "Paths" icon on the above toolbar. Its on the left of this toolbar. Its like a fountain pen icon with a dotted box.

Click the Draw "Rounded Rectangle" tool.
Draw the rounded rectangle.

Right click and go "Stroke Path". Choose a "brush" and click ok. You should have a nice anti-aliased rounded border.

Hope that does it.
If you have a green background on your webpage - you will have to put green as the colour of the canvas before you begin the drawing. Then draw on the green canvas as described above.

-steve

[brown2005]

i like that site