Review request: The Artwork of Eric Leidecker

Overall it looks very good. What I really don't like about this is the choice of background colour both on the front page and the interior (using the black and the peach). That's more of a personal preference though.

Something also needs to be done about the nav links on the front page - they get really hard to read where they overlap the motorcycle there, especially the vlink and hover colours.

I also think that most of the pages are scaled a little too big. Take, for example, the gallery pages. The images here are very large, which causes me to have to scroll to get to the next/back links. It might be a better idea to use smaller images and link them to a larger version of the same. That scrolling is really interrupting the flow.

Otherwise it looks quite good. It may be an idea to experiement with using a more interesting font in the logo.

(ooh, idea - seems that this artist specializes in work on black paper. Maybe try doing the layout in black & white with one accent colour. Use the drawing of the '56 T-Bird for the cover instead of the motorcycle. It will be much easier to colour links that will show up on top of a mainly black image rather than the colourful one you're using now. Do the front page with black background and interior pages with white background. Choose a retro-looking font to go along with the 50's car model. There is a font called "fifties" that could work...alright, I'm getting carried away here now. Just an idea... ).

Thanks so much for the reply!

The links on the front page are supposed to overlap the image quite a bit. (I'm going for a magazine cover look)

I'm not sure what would be a better color for the links though. I've experimented with a few but couldn't get something I really liked. If you have an idea for link colors please let me know.

The idea for using the black and white is a good one.
Actually that was the original design for the site.
Eric and I both agreed though that we wanted something with more color this time that was in-your-face and would get noticed.

The title font I agree with totally. I just need to find something that would look right.

Thanks again for the comments.
All are appreciated.

hi,

you've done a nice job on the site. It does look a lot like the cover of a magazine... the only thing I saw that you may want to look at is the title image "The Artwork of Eric Leidecker". Personally, I think that doesnt quite look like what the title of a magazine would look like, (not most popular ones at least lol). Mainly because of the placement off to the side and it looks like the name returned.

Nice bike.

Typo (bio page):

Quote:
As a self-taught artist always anxious to try new and ideas and applications, Eric feels that he will never stop learning and hopes one day to be a recognized name in the graphics Arts Trade.

I agree with what Megan said, it's a nice idea for the first page but again I think the navigation is too hard to read and I'm not a fan of peach, it kind of makes it look washed out. I do like the way inside you have the page titles on the right but again I'm not sure of the font used. Have you tried a white background?

I like it and your client really does great work. I am impressed. And it does look like a magazine cover...how neat!!

I agree with everyone else about the nav links on the front page. You cant really tell what they say (the ones on the tire)

Thank you so much for all the great replys!

I am experimenting with different fonts and text sizes on the front page. So far I haven't found anything that has made me go "Wow! That's it".
I think I'm too close to it and can't see. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks for catching the typo Abhishek Reddy. I have that one fixed now. I'm sure there are probably others lurking around.

I'm pretty much committed to the peach color. That is the background color Eric used on the bike drawing I have on the front page. In order to keep the shadow under the bike and to prevent myself from going insaine trying to erase the background between every single spoke and tiny spot, I decided to match the picture's background. (besides, I still get nervous erasing any part of an artwork that isn't my own)

I need help with the link colors... please!
I can't find the right combination that is viewable, but still blends with the colors in the bike.

I also need to replace the counter I have on the front page (under the bar code). The one I have now is a really awful strait hits counter. I need to find one that will actually count visitors and do basic tracking without requiring ads. I may have to end up writing a little cgi counter for Eric.

Thanks so much again everyone!
You guys are the reason each one of my sites gets a little bit better.

This is sort of out in left field,
but what about making the links in a defined div box that has a partially transparent background that lets you see the part of the bike that the links go over, but let the links themselves be dominate.
Sorry i can't explain better, but someone else may pick up on this.
Also, I like the 'peach' although to me it really isn't what i would call peach.
Nice site, good layout,
someones suggestion for making it smaller is a thing to consider as well. As even with 1024x786 on some of the larger galleries i do have to scroll down to get to the next and before buttons.
Good work.

dragonsjaw
hth

Thank you dragonsjaw for your suggestions!

I have the part of the motorcycle under the links as a background in that table cell.
(I've always tried to avoid layers whenever I could)

I'm not exactly sure what the semi-transparency would do. Would it make the front of the motorcycle a little lighter and slightly fuzzy (like there is a film over it).
That would make the links stand out more.

I'm not sure I want to lessen Eric's artwork just because I'm having trouble finding the right colors for the links.
People will be coming to the site for the art, not for my coding abilities (although I do want the coding to be right)

My goal is to have everyone who goes to the site to say, "That's a beautiful site. What fabulous artwork!"
I want the site to enhance his art, but I don't want the average viewer to actually think about the site itself. They should think the site is beautiful BECAUSE of the artwork, which in all honesty is the truth.
(Does that make sence?)

Thank you so much for your suggestion though, you may be right and I may be going about this the wrong way.

Also, what is the max height I should make my pages to avoid scrolling up and down. I know the width to go after but I'm clueless about how tall to make the pages. (I work on a very small screen and everything scrolls for me)

Thank you all once again!
This is so helpful!

PS: on a side note...
I am so glad this place is around. I visit places like CoolHomepages and FreeWebspace and never get this kind of help.
At CoolHomepages they like this site, but want to see the homepage filled with more graphics to give it the magazine look. (which could be interesting)
At FreeWebspace they can't seem to figure out why the bike is so large that it is going over and under the words. Of course they still love some of the pretty awful designs I did about 2 years ago... I'm not sure what that means.

About the link colours, try looking at conventional magazines and see what they do about that. You might have to do the links as graphics and use a slight drop-shadow to make things stand out in certain areas.

Looking at some magazine websites, the current issue of Glamour magazine is using a peachy-coloured background with yellow and white text with a little bit of black. I can only find a small picture of it so I can't tell if they're using any effects to make it stand out better.

Thanks Megan!

I have to get some udates ready to go for next month on one of my other sites, but I'm anxious to get back to my Photoshop version of this site and play with the fonts and colors.

Hello all!

I would appreciate your thougthts on this little change I've made.

I updated the look of the title and changed the hovers from black to white. The one thing I'm not sure of now is the way I have Eric's name stylized.

http://gallery.passion4art.com/members/leidecker/index2.html

Thanks for any and all advice!

I get a very small horizontal scrollbar at 800*600 now. The links are better but the purple visited colour doesn't look too good. The logo doesn't really work for me, not quite sure what to change possibly it's the outline/glow around his name but also where the name & 'of' are on the same level it doesn't appear to read/look right as the eye is drawn to the name rather than reading the header correctly.

OK... I'm trying something different.
This has to be my last change (for today at least)

http://gallery.passion4art.com/members/leidecker/index3.html

I've added section headers onto the background, so if the text doesn't line up please let me know.
I'm trying desperately to avoid having every single thing as an image.

Hopefully I've also fixed the problem with the scrollbar.

Let me know if this looks right.

Thanks so much!

Karen,

If I remember correctly, wasn't his name in white in the first one that you posted?

Not sure I like the yellow color for the link section headers.

I like the idea that dragonsjaw had about the transparent background for the links.