http://comediadesign.com/birka-white/
hi,
I haven't been on these forums for a while, good to see that they're as useful as ever!
I've gone freelance and so have been rather busy setting up the company, and doing a lot of intranet work. The first public website is about to roll off the presses, I have a meeting with the client on friday to sign off on the site. I was hoping you could give it a once over and see if there is anything that stands out as needing work still. I've stared at it for so long I've lost perspective.
The index page is a bit spartan - I'm waiting on images from the client - that's why the slideshow doesn't work yet either. I know that there's a lot of polishing to do, and I have a ong to do list for this week, but I'm sure there are things that I have missed
The brief was to update their aging website (birka-white.com) and come up with something that wasn't a radical deprature, but that reflected the firms "boutique" naure (a small law firm specialising in class action lawsuits on the side of consumers). That they were a modern firm, but hold respect for the traditions of the legal profession. The firm also has an extensive art collection and they wanted this to integrated into the site as well
In short the brief was to make it both traditional and modern at the same time, and classy and sophisticated. Weird bloody brief if you ask me.
MerchAffil posted this at 16:23 — 9th December 2005.
They have: 17 posts
Joined: Oct 2005
Hi
The site would look much better if the HTML text was in Arial.
Murray
chris_bcn posted this at 17:07 — 9th December 2005.
They have: 56 posts
Joined: Jun 2005
Wash your mouth out with soap and water
intruth posted this at 02:09 — 10th December 2005.
They have: 61 posts
Joined: Dec 2005
I agree, I think this site would look much better if the HTML was in Arial.
Seamless Gutters St Louis
Gutter Cleaning St Louis | Truth
lex posted this at 16:32 — 9th December 2005.
They have: 96 posts
Joined: Jul 2005
NICE!
Clean, Set Width! NICE
I'm very impressed with the warm welcoming colors you used.
These are the only suggestions I could think of
1) Use a better font like Arial,Verdana
2) Keep the font and background color for all the pages like your opening page.
3) If you knew a bit of Flash, theres a great opportunity to live up the top menu bar.
One question for everyone. And this is just my curiousity
Is there a difference between
and what I use?
Megan posted this at 16:37 — 9th December 2005.
She has: 11,421 posts
Joined: Jun 1999
Honestly, I'm not sure that the new design is a big improvement over the old one. The old one packed more punch on the front page with the photo, more dramatic colour scheme, and choice of fonts in the header an navigation (body area definitely needs a change there). Well, on the front page anyway. The rest of the pages are not so good.
The first problem I have with the new design is that there is no logo to speak of. Company title in plain sans serif does not a logo make
It's also centered on the page which seems rather unsophisticated. Left or right alignments are usually best.
The other problem I have with this is that it is so monochromatic. I like the inclusion of the art there rest of the design seems very very bland. It reminded me of the ALA design at first but they've added more of the accent colour to keep things interesting, and included a wider variation of the base colour with the white background. The navigation is a bit of a problem because you can't tell at first glance that those are links - there's nothing really to distnguish them from plain text until you try to mouseover them. I also think that it's taking up a bit too much space at the top, pushing the content down further than it needs to.
One small thing - I think all of the boxes could use some more padding, especially along the top of the navbar.
The art slideshow link would be better with an actual clip of a piece of art to identify it.
I do think that you've done a good job with the look and feel. At first I didn't think it was appropriate for this type of site but once you explained the intent it made more sense. It would be nice if it wasn't so boxy, and I think the art could be integrated more.
Megan
Connect with us on Facebook!
lex posted this at 17:04 — 9th December 2005.
They have: 96 posts
Joined: Jul 2005
I based my comments on THIS LINK
birka-white.com
was this the wrong link. Because I like this one birka-white.com better then the bottom one
chris_bcn posted this at 17:13 — 9th December 2005.
They have: 56 posts
Joined: Jun 2005
I'm still waiting on getting images from the client - s it's mainly just text at the moment - the inclusion of images should bring more punch to the pages.
The logo is exactly where the client wants it - I quite agree about the positioning, but it's his dollar!
demonhale posted this at 17:45 — 9th December 2005.
He has: 3,278 posts
Joined: May 2005
What can you really do with the site that the client allows you to edit, then it can start from there, also wheres the link to the old, and to the new? the first posts links confuses others a bit...
chris_bcn posted this at 18:04 — 9th December 2005.
They have: 56 posts
Joined: Jun 2005
sorry demonhale - I didn't understand your post - but then I haven't ahd much coffee yet
demonhale posted this at 18:14 — 9th December 2005.
He has: 3,278 posts
Joined: May 2005
I mean, if the client orders you to do things this way and that way without you being able to do anything about it doesnt do much good if you cant edit the site design anyway, but never mind Ill comment on the new site.
-let the menu standout, making the bg like the way the header looks would be better
-I like the color, but you do need a logo
-use some variations of scheme to make it more interesting
-use the maroon color on the header for you h1 texts
-thats just about it at the moment
intruth posted this at 02:07 — 10th December 2005.
They have: 61 posts
Joined: Dec 2005
I liked the pale color for the background, all of the links worked well.
Sonja
demonhale posted this at 02:13 — 10th December 2005.
He has: 3,278 posts
Joined: May 2005
change the fonts on the html or the texts on the site?
The Html is The code, no one sees that unless you go to view>source
chris_bcn posted this at 03:21 — 10th December 2005.
They have: 56 posts
Joined: Jun 2005
arial should never be used as a typeface - god awful bastardisation of helvetica - veradna, maybe - at least it's a font designed for screen legibility
chris_bcn posted this at 03:52 — 10th December 2005.
They have: 56 posts
Joined: Jun 2005
sorry - that was a rather brusque post. It's been one of those days! Sorry about that
bja888 (not verified) posted this at 05:38 — 10th December 2005.
They have: 5,633 posts
Joined: Jan 1970
Wow, another css site. I am really getting tired of these. None really catch my eye. I was on your page for a total of about 2.5 seconds before I decided to find something else to look at.
Feel free to search for my css posts...
fiesty_01 posted this at 09:04 — 10th December 2005.
He has: 173 posts
Joined: Nov 2002
Actually, I think the site serves its purpose well, and is not really meant to be eye candy like maybe a game site or something similar.
The font seems fine by me, and is a nice switch from the norm (Arial, Verdana, etc.). I definitely would NOT suggest Arial for much of anything.
However, the red at the top of the site (where the logo would be) seems too strong for the nice, warm beige background color on the pages. Also, the bright orange artwork in some places is also too strong ("loud") IMO.
One plus on the new site vs. the old one: I didn't see any fuzzy images on the new one like the images in the menu of the old one. Many who make websites seem to forget to sharpen their images (enough) before putting them on a site, but I don't see this problem on the new version. The logo on the old version seemed to have way too much white in it as well.
Want to join the discussion? Create an account or log in if you already have one. Joining is fast, free and painless! We’ll even whisk you back here when you’ve finished.