Graduate website

t.kennedy5665

t.kennedy5665

Junior Member
Hello everyone I'm a UK graduate, looking for design work so it goes without saying that my website should be of a very high standard so any advice would be useful I have only recently started it so bare in mind it's still under construction. As you'll see I've started on wordpress and I'm just getting to grips with that any tips on how to use wordpress or just a general website aesthetic would be greatly appreciated!

tomkennedydesign
 
It's a nice website, although personally I feel that it is a little basic/bland and lacking artistic flair. It's colour is quite under saturated, it gives it a very grey, corporate feeling - not something synonymous with strong, attractive design, in my opinion.

Firstly, and I'm sure you're aware of this, but your header... I'm not sure what you were aiming for there, but it looks like you've made it in MS Word! That first image with the speakers and the orange text.. I'm really struggling to read that orange text. I don't think that image needs to be so big, there's far too much empty image there. The same can be said for other images for the products on your site.

Your navigation violates the grid system you've got going there, it looks out of place being slightly wider than the rest of your site.

As for tips on Word Press, you'll have to get them somewhere else, I've never used it :)
 
I've just finished working on this site:

pdronline.info

As a product designer, you have probably heard of them. I had and I'm a graphics/web person.

Point being, the whole site is geared around images, mountains of images! Because they want to display their work. Your site lands on a blog, whilst its great to have an regularly updated section, the focus should be your work.

By having the Blog by Wordpress.... part at the bottom, it doesn't put the focus on your work. As you have started with wordpress, there are some incredible photography theme out there which are designed from the ground up to be image focussed. Easily installed on the existing frame work and editable.

This might sound a little harsh, but it is meant as constructive. Let your home page, let your work do the talking and let the viewer discover the talking.
 
I took the comments on board, so far i've edited the heading to something hopefully a little less MS Word looking. I've also changed to something a a bit lighter and brighter in colour, just as clean but with a bit more of a photography theme I hope.
My content is still a bit muddled up at the moment and I will be changing the pdfs so images are clearer and all text can be read. Many thanks for the feedback again very usefull, I'm definately a bit closer to how I want it looking.

tomkennedydesign | Just another WordPress.com site
 
I can't begin to tell you how much better that looks!

I love the navigation bar, it just works with this website so well. The Myself section is placed well and the formatting of the blog posts works really well - It's easy to read and looks great.

Unfortunately, your header/logo still isn't doing it for me. I think possibly because you have so little content in so much space.Have a look around on the internet for business websites that only use a typographic logo and see how they incorporate that into the website. Google and "top websites/amazing web designs/etc/etc" will help you with that.

Now, your colour scheme, it looks good but it clashes with your logo/branding which is black and orange, yet your website is black and blue. I don't know if you plan to keep the orange in your logo but if you do I would recommend changing all the blue mouse over effects and links to the same colour orange.

Something you might want to think about for longevity of design, are you likely to be creating any more products? As there will come a point, if that point isn't now, when your navigation won't support any more links without looking horribly crowded. You might want to revise the site architecture to account for future use.

All you've got to do now, after those changes, is buy your domain name and use a proper email address and you're good to go :)

Also, what's with the smiley face at the bottom of the page? Haha :D
 
Hiya,

That is the standard WordPress theme TwentyEleven, (it automatically puts that smiley there haha)

Try looking on the WordPress site for other themes to make the site more unique - for example a nice clean looking one with the orange accents you like can be found here: Wu Wei

Otherwise, take a look through here for all the others: Theme Showcase — WordPress.com
 
Personally I have no intention of ever using Word Press for myself, as a designer and web developer. I do find all these new do it yourself services a little annoying but I can see how effective they are for people who don't require every aspect of the design to be tied to their brand identity.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top