Partners In Design

7.28.2006

You said you'd keep me honest

OK so I am trying to get a layout going for my website. The one I never finish because I end up changing my mind. Yeah, that one. So here are some variations of what I am going for. I dunno... help?





So yes!... I want to use those colors as the palette, but I have NO IDEA what to put on the right side of the image. Thus the diagonal German stripes. I was looking at everyone's sites, trying to get ideas. But none pop into my head. So if you have any suggestions, please share!

4 comments:

Shalimar said...

The illustration looks great. I love the colors. But because I am a dork. I think you need to experiment a bit more with your type. Create a hierarchy with your words. Maybe see what it looks like along the top of the stripes. or below it. Play.

Paul said...

Really cool!

I agree with Shalimar. I love the vector, the colors...even the stripes are a nice touch. It's a personal site, so this is one of the few times you can do things for no reason (As long as they represent your aesthetic viewpoint ).

Unless you have a very specific reason for doing all lower-case, I would avoid it, it makes things hard to read...especially when it's all staggered around the illustration like that. I also think you need something more than a color separation between the title and the navigation....I kept reading it and it wasn't until the 3rd line of the red words that I realized I was reading links.

In general, when doing web design, I don't think it's a great idea to mess with people's expectations about the usability of the website- In this case, the navigation isn't where most visitors would expect it to be, and since (in my opinion) it's not doing a whole lot be being where it is, I would place it in a more traditional location, or in a more traditional layout.

Also, do 500 version of this...You'll never know if you're doing the "right" one, until you do almost all of them. Right now you have two (that you're showing us) and they're really both the same except for adding one element- Adding and subtracting items is one thing, moving things around is another...so don't forget to play!

Great start! Keep us posted!

Shalimar said...

Yay Paul. Who said your not Anal Retentive, wait, no one. I totally agree with him. Surprise your view with the links. Move everything around, maybe even use 2 different fonts, to seperate your links from your site title. If you want to do the Run On thing where everything looks like its one line of text, but its still different sections or links, you can play with the size of the type face, the color, the tint. How about putting them in the stripes, how about making the stripes swirley, so many options, your not racing against any clock i dont htink so go for it, dont be afraid to experiment. And dance, like youve never danced before.


I wanna see more soon, or you are not invited to my house warming party. :-)

Alexandra said...

Ahh thanks for the input guys! Yeah this is just the first shot. I was worried about what to fill up the right side of the image with. But your suggestions about the type are good ones. So I will work on some more variations of it (but sincere variations, moving everything around type-of-thing). I'll post it up as soon as I think it up. Thanks!