Rough first draft, need comments

ummmmmmmm......a url?

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'Roo'

http://pages.cthome.net/hayescraze/index.htm

http://sapphiredesign.bizland.com

http://members.xoom.com/hayestina/index.html

thoughts:

Reverse the dark and light and have the background image for the surround only.

Make the background a lighter version, again only the surround.

Lighten the dark blue colour some and maybe move away from the default colours more?

The title is too strung out -- maybe on two lines?

Not sure what it is, but it seems off for the content. I would expect a dark surround, light inside, perhaps a different colour (not blue or grey) for the faded schematic?

hth,

Suzanne

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Zero Cattle
Suzanne
Tables DeMystified

Bimjo, maybe you like the background picture for the main content area. Try making the surrounding white area and darker color so that the attention will be at the main content area and not at the nav area.

Lighter color attracts attention!

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Hmm... this design doesn't really say "metal" to me at all. You should try to design something that suits the topic. Graphic metal textures tend to be kinda cheesy, but in this case it would be appropriate. More gray, black, and blue would be good too.

I definitely agree with Suzanne that the content area should be white, with the darker colour around the outside. THe right side bar should go all the way to the bottom of the page. The purple bar at the bottom of some of them is not looking good.

The contact information doesn't need to be so prominentely displayed at the top - it's just clutter. You should probably just put that in fine print under the text nav.

I agree with Megan, Metal does not seem to be the theme here. Also I am sorry but I thought the menu to the right was a bit pants! I thought to start off with that it was just a bit of unimportant text aligned to the right. fast loading page and has a nice layout but I would probably work a bit on the colours and the menu.

~Vy~

Okay, it seems to be fairly unanimous that the border/body colors need to be switched. Not a problem, the client hasn't seen it yet.

Title- will change on each page, it's filler now, will eflect something about the page you are on later (waiting for input from client).

Color- was supposed to be a blueprint, obviously failed (never actually seen one) in that endeavor, back to the drawing board.

Right border to the bottom- will fix that when I get all the content in.

Contact info- it is filler for right now, I'll move it when I get the title info.

Metal as a theme- actually, I had a brushed metal texture that I had done for this site and it got shot down. Now that I have a bit more ammo, I can go back to the client.

Vy- did you have something specific in mind for the menu?

Great comments all, thanks for the input. I'll let you know when the changes get incorporated.

Bimjo

Yeah, I didn't notice it was a blueprint, but if you can get something that looks like that then I think it would look great!

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Well, it was obvious as soon as I saw it that it was a blueprint - maybe my age is showing, but I actually remember when blue prints were all you could get ... and a computer, huh??

If you are thinking of using the same style image, why not a sepia print (visually less obtrusive than the blue) ... and yeah, I remember those too

-I like your logo.
-Can't tell what that is in the body area of the page. The blue. Heard it was a blue print?
-Nice mouseovers!

I think it looks pretty good.

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~Parker Trasborg~
Dumby of the 21st Century

Okay, didn't want you guys to think I was ignoring you.

Here's the revision based on the comments received - second draft, and for comparison- first draft.

Just the first page is in the new format, links take you to original pages.

Thanks for the comments the first go-around, and if anything jumps out at you, just holler.

Bimjo

Here are some things to think about:

The nav bar is sort of plain, add some bullets.

The Word "Menu" on the nav bar is very hard to read, make it white or tan. I would make the nav system graphical. Usually it is only textual on information sites with tons of links, but I dunno, it looks pretty good. Maybe a mettalic graphical nav system would go well with the site.

I think a rounded corners effect on the table would be cool.

HTH,

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-RJ D'Angelo (Formerly "dangelo")
D'Angelo Web Design
The Sopranos Fan Site
Declaration of the Internet

That right side navbar looks really awkward to me. I dunno... I see that you're trying to do something different from the standard left side navbar, but this just doesn't feel right to me.

I like the brushed metal look there, but I think there should be some sort of dark border between it and the white part. That background sort of looks like a blueprint, but not really. Maybe in the metal fabrication industry that's what blueprints look like, I dunno.

I think you've got too many colours on here - gray (metal), yellow, green, blue, red. Make those links on the navbar black. I would replace the green with Blue or maybe red. Actually, I would try getting rid of those yellow backgrounds and green headers, and using some more graphical metal effects (maybe an inset box for the menu?).

Much better than the first one.

1) That brushed metal background goes more with the theme of the site, but I don't like how you have the green and human skin color borders around both the logo and menu. Why not try and make an effect of the logo being pushed into the metal? Or cut out of it?

2) I agree, too many colors. Make all the links black, take away the borders around both the logo and navigation, and that will get rid of some unwanted colors.

3) That blue print is interesting, but it still looks like child scribbles. Just my thoughts...

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Thanks guys, sorry for the late reply, I haven't been able to access the board since Monday right after I posted last.

Comments on too many colors noted. I'll cut that back. A line of color between the white and brushed metal is a good idea, it's a little plain without it (hence the green & tan, as well as trying to tie to the shop colors).

Yes, the link colors need changing, forgot to upload the new CSS file (doh!).

I'm still waiting for a better blueprint to make into a graphic, hopefully I'll get it before Y3K.

Thanks for the comments, back to the drawing board.

Bimjo

Ok, last time, I swear!

test logos

Only thing cast in stone is the background, the fonts can change, the NW can be raised instead of inset, etc.

The last two are there strictly for contrast, they're already out of the running.

TIA for looking.

Bimjo

I like the first one.

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My name is Nitsuj. I bet you're thinking WTF...

I prefer the second one.

I completely agree with everything everyone has said.

Brooke

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I like the second one as well. The diagonal line of "metals" is interesting IMO - it will do a good job of breaking up the dominance vertical/horizontal lines in the rest of the design

i also think there are too many colors, i like the grey, and IMO the whit looks good, choose another one that goes with them and just limit your colors to those 3.

try makind the main menu longer it may work better

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My first impression was that you should go for a more metallic background where the "typical connection detail" one is. You can find some metal backgrounds at http://www.mediabuilder.com as well as various other graphic freebie sites.

Other than that, it seemed to be a good, solid site. Good load time and unique layout.

Sparkie

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