New Design For 21Studios

What is "shave the quality" supposed to mean - it doesn't make sense to me really. I can't think of better working right now though.

The backgrounds you've used look pretty cool but they don't contrast enough with the text. I also don't like the background colour of the page - it doesn't look quite right. Black might work better.

Those icons along the bottom need some help. The house is too small - you can't tell what it is. Maybe a different dingbat would work better, or you might just have to enlarge them. You also need alt text for those so people know what they are Maybe you could just get rid of those altogether if they're going to be exactly the same as the text navigation.

The middle column with the text should be exactly the same height as the two columns beside it. It's about two pixels longer right now.

Megan, Thanks for the fast reply.
I've Finished up all the pages and most of them look, as they would if i were to upload it. The bottom of that middle box is bigger becasue theres more stuff to put in there, if you go to the portfolio page, its alot longer then the others. I basically wanted to make a new, unique design that no one has used. I think I did it pretty well. Maybe to make the contrast better, maybe have bolder text?

Those wingdings at the bottom, I will scrap, they do look out of place, now that i look a little closer.
Do you guys think that the design is good?
I know that the showcase image is now broken, but i added the img src tag so i wouldnt have to later, the showcase is going to show websites, and graphics that I've made latrly that i thought were good.
Maybe I could take the showcase Image part out and extend the middle box left all the way and have more space for there, but i think that would take the pages uniqueness out.
I'm up for changing the background color but to anything but black, Blacks to dark for a already dark page. And i find white to be too bright.
Anyone know what those backgrounds of the pictures are? C'mon take a guess the one ont he right should be easy.

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Ken Prescott http://www.21studios.com

[This message has been edited by Grandmaster (edited 21 February 2000).]

Interesting...

1) Align your menu cell with your logo. Right now it's not at the exact top.

2) Definantly get rid of those little icons on the bottom.

3) It's really hard to read the menu text. I would either change the font, make it bolder, or make it a different color.

4) The site is pretty empty. I would make the text a little longer, 'cause the site looks, er, empty.

5) The picture on the right is a windmill, and the picture on the left is either the instroment they use for sailing, or the math thing. I can't remember the name. Why did you choose those images?

Overall the site looks ok, but it could improve. It's better then your current design though...

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The fireburn.com Network:

Justin, Thanks for the reply.
Im making a new one, bigger, but it will have the same idea, so it doesn't look empty.
Yes, you are right about those images, the Math thing "Compass" symbolizes Careful Craftmanship, which I'd like to have in ym websites and the windmill symbolizes "a long time working" that means, i hope i work on websites for awhile. The one behind the "21Studios" Is a computer chip, i know its been faded alot, the one behing "Menu" is a keyboard, The on to the right of the date tab is a beach with palm trees, which is wer eide like to be right now, The one behind the showcase image was/is a castle.
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Ken Prescott http://www.21studios.com

Heres a improvement of what i amde earlier. http://www.21studios.com/test/index.htm
Its basically the same thing. and i know it loads slow. Tell me whatcha think
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Ken Prescott http://www.21studios.com

I definantly agree! Those Iframes don't look good at all, not to mention I get an error in IE and they don't work in NS. I do like your menu better though, you can actually read the text now.

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The fireburn.com Network:

Eew - what's with the scroll bars in the middle of the page? Lose those! Pronto! It's messing up in netscape too. I'm getting some javascript errors too. I liked the old one better.

Ok.
First there not Iframes, there my first attempt at dhtml ; ).
There must be soemthing im missing, Can you guys refer to me some sites that you find are interesting and that show thier purpouse good? Any site other then flash sites. I want to make soemthing new, and better, that everyone will/would like.

One link: www.coolhomepages.com

Why not make a flash website?

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The fireburn.com Network:

WHAT? There are lots of "cool" homepages listed there. If you can't find one, then I feel sorry for you

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The fireburn.com Network:

I've looked at coolhomepages.com, and I will look again. Is there anyother resources of this type? Thanks everyone for helping me threw the grueling process of a redesign ; )
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Ken Prescott http://www.21studios.com

How about this? http://www.21studios.com/Temp/
Its compleatly different from anything ive designed, for the idea from tin cans arranged in a fan position. P.S. none of the links work, I want to se ewhat you guys hting before I go all out.
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Ken Prescott http://www.21studios.com

Too big a graphic on the front page - it's taking forever for me (and I have a T1 line here). Doing the same thing in Flash would probably speed it up a lot. I think you could also get it to resize nicely for people with smaller resolutions

It's also not all fitting on the screen at 800 x 600 (I think - I just resized my browser window. It's hard with something like this because full chrome takes up a lot of space)

I still like the first one you posted in this thread the best. Since you're trying to attract customers, it's probably best not to use stuff that only works on the newest browsers.

Hmmm- so far there are lots of post, and only two critiquers

I like it better because 1) it's not as dark looking, 2) it looks more professional, and 3) it's catchy.

It works fine here on 800x600 res. The one complaint I do have it that it would be nice if you could see the whole image without having to scroll down. My second complaint is that you have to put your mouse over the big bubbles to see where it will take you. For many newbies they won't figure this out.

Finally, your lighting on the bubbles is screwed up. You have two with the light shining on the right side, and two with the light shining on the left side.

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The fireburn.com Network:

"Justin and Megan Jack got my back : )"
Ok, I'll make it 50-100 pixels smaller, and ill take out the mouseovers. I hade to rotate the buttons around the image so they'd all be the same, thats why they are messed up, and I didnt even notice.

You guys are mentioning Flash alot, If one of you could get me started ide be glad to make one.
Thanks for the consistant help.
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Ken Prescott http://www.21studios.com

Take another look at http://www.21studios.com/Temp/ It should be good, to both of your expectations, (size/loading time, ect.)
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Ken Prescott http://www.21studios.com

Ok, I got the main idea behind the innerpages on this done. http://www.21studios.com/Temp/ipindex.html
Tell em basically what you think, I know the colors dont compleatly match up but tell em what you think, how it should be coordnated, you know right ; )
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Ken Prescott http://www.21studios.com

Ok Justing, Im gonna have to start E-mailin ya! ; )
Any ideas of how I could get this to go along?
Maybe dots like that at the top, with 21Studios glowing and outlined like it is, and then below or on that i could have the buttons that are on there now. What do you think?
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Ken Prescott http://www.21studios.com

I still think you need to make that graphic smaller so you don't have to scroll to see the whole page. Have you checked your loading speeds on modems? I still recommend that you use Flash for the intro page - you could probably do the same thing with much faster loading times.

I also think that mouseovers on the buttons would still be a good idea - just change the sphere part to a different colour - maybe a different colour for each section.

For the sub-pages, you could put your 21 Studies (glowing text like on the main page) across the top with a row of smaller circle buttons below it for navigation (like the cirlces on the main page, only smaller!). Then put the text navigation and "21 Studios A freelancing design company" at the bottom of the page below the content. I think that's basically what you're saying.

I really like how the main page is coming along. It's looking cool and professional. But what you now need to do is incorporate that type of look into your sub-pages. The sub page you wanted us to look at looks like a totally different site, which doesn't work to good.

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The fireburn.com Network:

Hello Megan,
I have someone helping me with flash, I'll make the innterpages and you guys can tell me what you think, when you and justin agree that its good, ill be done posting. ; ). But until then its guess and check.
This forum is very helpful. Other people leave cause they dont like the comments, I stay cause i know the comments, wether i like them or not are to help.
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Ken Prescott http://www.21studios.com

If you know Flash then I would probably make the main page that way. It would load faster (although it's not bad now), and you could probably do some cool tricks.

For the sub-pages, I think Megs idea is good. Have like a top menu bar with the logo, and then your little bubbles, only smaller next to it. That would look good!

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The fireburn.com Network:

http://www.21studios.com/Temp/ipindex.html
The inner page as requested, should look gppd, the flash is comming slowly, but shurely.
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Ken Prescott http://www.21studios.com

Wow- that looks cool. One last thing I would try is this: you know how on your main page you have the little "sub bubbles" that are a solid color? Why not incorporate those into the sub-pages? 'Cause right now with just the logo and the buttons it's empty...

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The fireburn.com Network:

I was thinking about it, but i couldnt figure out how to get it to look right, any ideas?
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Ken Prescott http://www.21studios.com

Looks good. I still recommend changing the colour of the sphere on mouseover (just use photoshop's variations - a wonderful thing - to add a little bit of another colour. Try using a different mouseover colour for each button). I liked the bottom text and text links from the main page better than what you've got on the bottom here. It's too bold now and stands out too much compared to the top navigation.

Grandmaster,

There are loads of dhtml resources here:http://reallybig.com/default.shtml

I think your new background looks good! Very good. I do think that as the others said make the menu text a bit Bolder somehow. I also agree that you should use a black background. I had a broken image link on the bottom left so I am not sure what that was.

Are you making this page for CE? It was so small I could probably view it in my mobile

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Hi,
Vy~~ you looked at the old one, thats been scrapped, i will probably make it into a small template.
Megan On the inner pages, I'll have it change on mouseover, to glowin text and change in the bubbles color. Ill use the bottom part form the front page on the inner pages too. I dont use photoshop, I use PSP 6. I'll have to use the colorize feature.
Thanks for the help, I'll post agian when I fix everything.
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Ken Prescott http://www.21studios.com