Critique for my updated website

The site looks OK but, tables? Really?? Also phrases like 'Freelance Graphic Designer' really should be in header (h1 - h6) tags. Your page semantics need a lot of work I'm afraid.
 
I think you need to keep your typefaces in the same family and choose 2 or 3 different sizes to work across everything. I"m not a web person, but visually there's too much going on.

I also agree that everything is generally a little on the large side. Take it all down by 12-15%

I think the logo/and pattern and navigation is just ok - it's everything underneath that needs some consideration.
Get rid of the bars under SERVICES AVAILABLE and RECENT UPLOADS.

Get your testimonials up onto the navigation section. They're a bit lost at the end of ABOUT.

PORTFOLIO has a 'T' in it.

:)
 
Sorry, just noticed as well you have gaps in your URLs. You need to break words up with hyphens or underscores or you get;

Code: 
http://gilmorevisuals.co.uk/logo%20designs.html

with 20% in the middle of it!
 
@Corrosive, Yeah, I have never studied web design etc so I ended up making it all in DW just to make it look as good as I could... the problem with this is not being able to align everything together perfectly and other small problems like that.

I just started graphic design last year at 16yrs old, so web design is still no where close to good - I followed a few tutorials off youtube and thats all the teaching I have received.

@PCBranding, I don't think it's too busy, in comparison with 95% of sites that have lots of text/images flashing around... even this site has more things going around.

@DaveL, I would agree with you - I think I should also make the font the same as all the rest of my text area.


Thanks for these tips so far guys, do appreciate them all.
 
GilmoreVisuals said:
@Corrosive, Yeah, I have never studied web design etc so I ended up making it all in DW just to make it look as good as I could... the problem with this is not being able to align everything together perfectly and other small problems like that.

I just started graphic design last year at 16yrs old, so web design is still no where close to good - I followed a few tutorials off youtube and thats all the teaching I have received.
Click to expand...

Problem with YT tutorials is there are a lot of bad practices on there. If you want to learn web then try W3Schools Online Web Tutorials for the basics and then Web development tutorials, from beginner to advanced | Nettuts+ for some layout tutorials. Try the 'From Scratch' tutorial set on nettuts.

Also DW has some built-in CSS layouts you can use as a starting point as well. You will find tables very hard to get right because they are the wrong tool for the job.

I started with tables some years ago and wish I hadn't. I wasted a lot of learning time. If I had the opportunity to start again then I'd go straight in and learn CSS based layouts.
 
Yeah - I get what you mean. Its just that im focusing on graphic design rather than web design... i nearly wish I had bought an online web domain that I can easily automatically create my site, rather than having to go into all codes etc. Well, if i ever re-design my site (which would be for a 3rd time :p) then ill definitely base it on a CSS layout. Cheers.
 
Wordpress is the other option, looks professional, can easily be skinned and is easy to manage...I don't know why more designers don't go down this route, the amount of times Graphic Designers come on here with a website they have knocked together as they have no coding skills and they just end up with something looking crap, why? (not saying your site is as I haven't even looked at it, talking in general)

Anyone serious to succeed in business...especially someone offering design as a service needs to have a website that is up to scratch as they stand no chance otherwise, hence wordpress is a fail proof solution really. In fact lets face it, to have a coder chop up a PSD file and code it allowing the display of a portfolio and contact information will literally only cost £200-£300, a small investment for any serious business.

As mentioned not even looked at your site and was going more on some of the members responses to your critique request, just wanted to give you some other options...
 
Good advice Boss Hogg.
Wordpress and it's like are fantastic as they are designed to handle content. Choose one of the thousands of themes either free of a few dollars and your site looks good from the start.

Then once it is up and running, spend time making it your own by tweaking the finer details that the original theme may not have had in order to get it just right.
 
Yep, this is good advice. A CMS like Wordpress is great for beginners. You must watch out for hidden nasties in some of the free templates but the wordpress.org ones are usually pretty good; WordPress › Free WordPress Themes One thing I would say about Wordpress though is that modifying themes can get a bit 'hacky' at times. If you are more confident with creating your own HTML/CSS layout from scratch then ModX is the way to go IMO.
 
+1 for Wordpress, check out some free themes, Orman Clark has an awesome themes that are very cheap, IMO I'd stay away from W3C it's in no way affiliated with the W3C check out this W3Fools – A W3Schools Intervention, If you want to learn HTML and CSS read books by Zeldman, Dan Cederholm etc. There's loads on Play.com

I'd also check out Chris Coyier's video tutorials, there's some on HTML and CSS from scratch which are very good, also just following the right people on Twitter.

Hope this helps!

Chris
 
Yeah. I have definitely considered WP, only that at this point I have a site that is running which I have invested lots of time- so at this point it would seem a bit annoying to 'delete' everything and start from scratch again.. still, thanks for the advice.
 
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