My freelance site; opinions welcome.

jim

Member
Hello.

This is my first time posting work on a forum. I have no idea why I haven't got round to this before...It's ridiculous.

Ok, here's my nearly done site. The large images aren't there yet - it'll prob be a lightbox viewer.
Any feedback would be good. If you hate it, I can take it.

Oh and the copy is not done either - that bit about branding won't stay so don't worry about that. I'm interested in what people think of the layout/ styles etc.

http://www.jimwillis.co.uk/indextest.html

OH GOD!

Jim
 
Hey Jim, i'm at a similar stage to you, and will hopefully be putting my site live soon, I have just cropped 24 little thumbnails like yours today!

Ok, your site - overrall I like it... but there seems to be a lot of space on the right. Not sure about the big arrow at the bottom, although i don't know if this part of your branding. I'd be interested to see what all the images would look like not muted i think they would stand out more against your colour scheme.
 
Yeah.

It's supposed to be left aligned which I guess means there'll be space on the right if you've got a big screen, and it should fit on a more standard one. Maybe I could put it in the middle...

I do like the arrow, but I can see how it might look a bit odd. I've got a thing about arrows...

I'll try out the non-muted colour on the thumbs.

What do ou think of my logo?

Cheers loads for the input.
 
When i first saw it i liked your logo, now i'm trying to imagine it without the portfolio strapline, and what it would look like really small. I like the octopus at the bottom btw!
 
Haha

He's my mascot. I've been drawing him for years.

The logo works well on my stationer etc, without the strapline, I use orange for my bus. cards etc.
 
Colours - your business card use orange, why are you using blue, theres no consistent id where you associate a colour with your brand.

order of menu is wrong in my view, about should come before the 'portfolios'

personally I don't like the diagaonal stripe in the background or the arrow as it doesn't point to anything.

Using a mobile number doesn't really encourage people to ring you up in my opinion, I know I wouldn't bother ringing a company purely with a mobile and neither would my parents. At the very least get a voip account and redirect it to your mobile (you will incur some costs doing this however)
 
I use lots of colours!

Orange for the stationery, and green, brown and purple too. It may sound odd, but the shapes are simple, and varying the colours in a subtle way adds movement to the brand. it's only small amounts of colour; the firey meteor above the 'i' is the only thing with colour on the business card for instance.

I recently rebranded a design company and all their business cards were different colours.

Seems people aren't keen on the arrow. It's kinda my fetish so maybe I'm not being objective about it's usage.

Cheers for the feedback!
 
Cheers, Typo.

I guess I should crack on with uploading a portfolio.

Your drawings and site are real nice btw. I noticed you've got a mobile number on there. Have you had any issues with that?
 
I can't see a clear heirarchy to the page, too much drawing my eye and not enough drawing my eye of importance (such as the right hand splat)

Just to clarify the copy is being redone? If so I wont give my feedback on that.

I'm not a fan of the diagonal "stripe" that Levi mentioned and feel the arrow comes out of nowhere when you scroll lower (on my screen at least(?) it's all below the fold)

EDIT:

Oh and I think the issue with the mobile number is the way you've displayed it, rather than with other contact details, it just seems an instruction to call you for what would be no reason? Friendly chit chats I assume aren't what you are after :p
 
Jim said:
Cheers, Typo.

I guess I should crack on with uploading a portfolio.

Your drawings and site are real nice btw. I noticed you've got a mobile number on there. Have you had any issues with that?


Just the heavy breathing....;)
 
To me, it has that sort of grungy look. I really like it.
I like the logo, top left.
I really like the octopus :p.
And i like the splatter brush too,

Like said, the arrow doesn't point to anything though. So maybe if that pointed down to contact information or something. :D

Other than that, all round i quite like it, keep it up!.
 
Cheers for that, Ant.

I'm a big fan of hand-made graphics and processes, but I don't want a big mess of scanned paper edges and masking tape, so I'm trying to get a balance between texture and order. It's tricky because it's almost not one or the other at the moment, but I really love the feel of it. The diagonal stripe people have mentioned is a fold in the paper I scanned which I then enhanced. For me it breaks up the layout nicely.

I think the layout needs work though, and the arrow needs purpose. I might just come clean and make a little 'tattoo' to go in the arrow head saying 'I heart arrows'...

My developer will probably throw a wobbly if I give him any more changes/ updates, but hey, he'll get through it!
 
seems great congrats... i would suggest when you´re constructing your web site put some Rss subscription or email suscription or twitter or other social for ppl start adding you and you start linking your web site to the world.. :D keep going good work!
 
Cheers designium...

I know that's what most people are doing, and the traffic to the site would be welcome...but part of me feels that adding links to Facebook/Twitter is just a bit irrelevant. I want to keep the front page as free from clutter as possible. I don't think I've ever subscribed to a designer's RSS feed or clicked on a twitter/ facebook link from a designers site...but maybe i'm just being idiotic here. What do others think about the concept of NOT including social networking links? Since most of my work is based on referrals I'd like to dare to keep the site refreshingly free of these things, but at what cost?
 
Hey Jim,

I really like it, i like the colour scheme and layout is unique and interesting, catches the eye straight away so job done there. oh and the octopus is great :)

Aaron
 
Hi Jim, Colchester is just down the road from me!

As for your site, I thinks it's a strong start. I don't have a problem with a bit of flexible branding, or the mobile number really. In fact I would suggest you might not need to give out a phone number on a website? Surely an email contact would be enough for your target audience?

Do the nav buttons at the top actually do anything? They don't seem to be linking me anywhere else. I'm not all that crazy about them being on a diagonal, not sure what purpose it serves apart from being 'quirky'.
I feel the big arrow at the bottom needs to serve a purpose to justify it being there. If draws the eye to nothing, and it seems like a waste. I'd suggest using such a strong graphical element to draw the views eye to the portfolio samples.

Good start though, be interested to see how it progresses.

EDIT: Just another note to add. I like the textured background, you've kept it subtle and I like it.
 
The nav buttons will change the block of text beneath - the site's not finished yet, and i'll be putting the copy on there in the next few days. I'm going to keep the arrow, but in the blue arrow head i'm going to put a little 'I heart arrows' image (probably) to give it some reason to be...I can't help it! it's one of those things...I love it.

I, too am not entirely keen on the diagonalness of the nav, but it does mean they can fit across the top of the box, and since the text underneath changes it makes sense to position them there. So, I think that when people start clicking on them, the context of them will be understood and it'll be seen as a functional design and not just quirky. I'll be keeping an eye on that and I'll definitely address it if I need to.

Cheers for the feedback, this is all so helpful; I should have done this aaaages ago.
 
Back
Top