BillysWebDesign.atspace.com

**William Martin** · 02-20-2005, 01:12 AM

Hi, I'm a web designer looking to do work for local small businesses and organizations. I have quite a few years of experience with web design, and graphic design. This is my first attempt at a professional website from scratch. It is for myself as a means of contact, and as a web designer, I want my clients I advertise to, to be able to come to my website to get an impression of what kind of designer I am, and view some examples of my work that I'll post on my website.

Since this is my first attempt to creating a professional site from scratch I would like feedback from you guys on it. What do I need to improve with it? I just recently added the orange highlights but something just isn't doing it for me. Please comment on the following, and anything else you can:

1) Layout (navigation mainly, but also the over all look)
2) Color theme: is blue and orange the way to go?
3) Professional: does my site look professional enough coming from a web designer?
4) Logo: something with the logo also isn't doing it for me!

Thankyou so much in advance, looking forward to hearing from you guys.
(the URL is temporary)

http://billyswebdesign.atspace.com/

**Padawan** · 02-20-2005, 10:27 AM

I think what you have there so far looks pretty good. If I was a web designer looking for business over the internet then I think the first thing I would add is a page showing some examples of the work I had done for other clients and if you can combine this with good testimonials from them then this would definately be to your advantage.

hope this helps

**williamkazak** · 02-20-2005, 10:43 AM

Wow, I am impressed. I like the nav buttons off to the right. Great design, overall.The colors work for me. The orange is a bit "bright", however. The computer in the mirror might be slightly brighter to better see it and get the idea. If that is a logo, it seems too complex. I like the fade effect on the banner at the very top. Nice work and good luck!
William Kazak
wkazak@ameritech.net

**William Martin** · 02-20-2005, 03:05 PM

thanks for the replies guys. I haven't decided on a logo yet, I wanted a glass spere though with my logo in it to sort of show that I know what I'm doing with graphics. The computer with the MSIE logo was a temporary thing at first, but I thought it kind of worked out.

I want the logo to be internet/website related, which is why I put an Internet Explorer logo on a computer's monitor. Eh, I'll work on it some, maybe go look at logo examples for ideas.

I too thought the orange was a bit brighter, I'll desaturate it some. Thanks guys!

Any more comments would be greatly appreciated!

**GrayKard** · 02-20-2005, 06:01 PM

I think the main text needs to be a few shades darker. You also might consider indenting and justifying the text.

**ParasHaria** · 02-20-2005, 06:17 PM

the general structure of the site is very clean but to me it doesnt stand out - i think you need to consider the introduction of some brigher colors.

the navigation looks fine.

what are your plans with the header section? will your logo go into that position or will it go in to the circle below the header?

as mentioned by others the second paragraph onwards is a bit too light to read. and you dont generally see people writing "hi"! also the content on the homepage is far too much for anyone to read - you need to get right to be point in as short a format as possible.

i hope that some of this helps you. Good Luck!

**William Martin** · 02-20-2005, 06:42 PM

ah man, I forgot to tell you guys that the text on the homepage was just something I copied and pasted. You gotta be crazy to have that as your home page text! lol

I still haven't decided what I wanted to do with the logo. I'm thinking I should put some catchy basic logo up in the banner next to those orange lines. Maybe I should just have the sphere there for looks?

As for the color, I think that's what's killing it. I think I'm just going to drop the light blue all together. Something just isn't right, and I think it's the color. You say introduce a new color, but what else can possibly go with the site? I think I'll just take your advise, and remove the blueness and just use a brighter color instead.

Thanks for your replies guys, it'll be updated in a few days, then I'll bump this thread for more comments.

**benf** · 02-22-2005, 06:21 AM

Good website but to much writing, need more pictures. I think people like to easily flick through pages to find the information they want quickly. Put some colour in it as well, it looks a bit boring with just grey, i recon highlight key points in the website with a subtle red or green!