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The Design Thread


rathergoodpie

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just relaunched my site: http://samuel-turner.co.uk

Lots to do, first up is build a new social media/networking icon bar, the current one is pretty gash.

Also just made a facebook page so it'll get updates when I post shit: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Samuel-Turnercouk/169534333094212

Any feedback/chat much appreciated. :)

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  • 1 month later...

I know naff all of coding any more so I'm assuming that's all sweet but from a total outsider POV it looks pretty cheapy and amateur, like a freewebs template or whatever from BITD...

There's a dozen different fonts in all different sizes and colours. Running over your nav bar (Home, About etc) resizes the buttons and makes things jiggle about.

I'm sure the behind the scenes stuff is all wonderful and the site's nice and fast, but visually it's lacking which can't be a good first impression if this is what you're basing your online portfolio around.

Hope that doesn't come across as just being a dickhead, I tried to be constructive in there somewhere :P

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Cheers for looking Luke, and thanks for the feedback, I tend to value "real" people's feedback way above a designers, because they're the intended audience. :P

There are actually only 3 fonts, but I'm going to simplify it further, too many sizes and colours maybe?

I did fix the jiggling nav before, but it's no longer mended. Will sort that later.

Anyways cheers for that mate, will give it another read when I get in and decide on some changes to be made. Already come up with a few myself.

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I personally don't like the background at all. Although on closer inspection it is clearly relatively cool, on first look it just looks like the textured gifs of the 90's.

Not a fan of the lack of logo either, I quite liked your old one, and having it back would give some identity to an otherwise pretty sparse blog.

I think all 3 of the blocks on the right should have the same font as the middle one, it's definitely the most modern and having them the same would definitely tie them in together a lot more.

Again, just constructive criticism and not mindless digging!

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The main font is actually one of two, it's either Constantia if you have Office 2007/2010, or Georgia if not. :P

I'm thinking the same about the logo, I love mine, IMO it's the best piece of graphic design I've done, (what little of it was actually from my own head), but I can't see how to work it in. :/

Cheers guys, getting stuck into it now.

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Proper reply coming up...

There's a dozen different fonts in all different sizes and colours.

Changed so now there's a font for the tagline, (still unsure on that, it's kinda corny, but maybe tongue in cheek?), then a font for all the headings using one colour, only the sizes change, then one font for everything else, changing the size and colour to suit.

Running over your nav bar (Home, About etc) resizes the buttons and makes things jiggle about.

Sorted (well bodged, pretty horribly).

I personally don't like the background at all. Although on closer inspection it is clearly relatively cool, on first look it just looks like the textured gifs of the 90's.

Agreed, I am a big fan of textured/noise backgrounds but they are dated, and my girlfried just told me it gave her a headache, so I'm rocking the classic, un-criticisable white now. :P

Not a fan of the lack of logo either, I quite liked your old one, and having it back would give some identity to an otherwise pretty sparse blog.

I would love to have it in, but I can't figure out how to incorporate it. :( Tried a couple of times but just looked naff.

Still use that logo everywhere else, I think it's my best piece of graphic design, probably because 90% of it was other people's ideas, I just made it. :P

I think all 3 of the blocks on the right should have the same font as the middle one, it's definitely the most modern and having them the same would definitely tie them in together a lot more.

Tried it and prefer it, thanks. :)

I also spaced things out a little more, I felt it was a bit cramped.

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This code in your WP loop is broken here:

<div class="post"

<h1><a href="http://samuel-turner.co.uk/blog/5830-crossfire-benchmark/">5830 Crossfire Benchmark</a></h1>

<p class="date">15 February 2011</p>

The opening div tag is missing a closing chevron which is messing up the rendered source, which is why your headings don't appear as such.

Oh and that h1 should be a h2 :P

Edited by Bronz
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Cheers dude, must have bumped backspace when fiddling about, was validating earlier. :P

I decided to use multiple <h1> rather than no <h1> and multiple <h2>, poor choice? As I understood it, using more than one <h1> is perfectly valid but not ideal, but not having one at all is worse.

EDIT: Maybe include one in the markup but hide it? Added a "Latest Posts" heading for now, not a fan of it being there really though, it's kinda obvious what they are...

EDIT2: While I'm blagging free help, why the f**k won't IE render one of my .otf fonts? Does Telegrafico fine, but not CallunaSans. :angry:

Edited by Muel
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Because you know this

…As I understood it, using more than one <h1> is perfectly valid but not ideal…

then I'd do this

Maybe include one in the markup but hide it? Added a "Latest Posts" heading for now, not a fan of it being there really though, it's kinda obvious what they are...

I have a

.accessibility

class in my CSS, view source on my homepage to see how I tackle it :)

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I've got .accessibility in there too, always include it as a matter of course now, just haven't used it yet. :P

This bloody font thing is winding me up, can't get my head round it. I'm guessing there's something up with the font file, time to play.

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Glad this thread got bumped up :)

Don't know if any of you on here are mountain bikers (im on the wrong forum for sure xD), but some of you may have heard of the videos 'Live to Ride'.

Well I was watching their videos recently and found they didn't have a logo or identiti for the series/company so I thought why not get in contact and offer my services.

So I did so and they were happy to give me a try, I had a few goes but they were to youthful as they wanted something sophisticated and quirky. And I then came up with this. I reckon it works well and am fairly pleased with it.

What do you think?

5537536584_7baff873c5.jpg

5536958677_a55077e1f1.jpg

Yes, there is the thought of it being 'gay', 'queer' and 'homo' but I really think it isn't. When you live for something you have a passion for it. The thing that keeps you living as well as your brain, is your heart. There's my reasoning :)

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Do you know what would really make that design in my opinion....it's in the styling of the heart. I like the usage of the heart but not a 'love heart' as such.

I think you should illustrate a heart with a more realistic aestheitc, with ventricles etc. Still keep it minimal but maybe use the shape of a real heart and use negative space for a few choice lines here and there to give it some impact say on the edge of the aorta etc.

I think it'd be stronger, more masculine and have a greater impact. It's a bit less cliches also.

I personally am not a fan of the typeface - it just looks a little 'web agency' to me and is perhaps not indicative of the subject...

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  • 4 weeks later...

Bump for some visual goodness and an interview I did with Sean Freeman who's an illustrator/designer, a lot of his work is done by actually creating type in real life which is pretty cool. Click the picture below to check it.

SeanFreemanSuisse.jpg

Edited by Max Quinn
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Bump for some visual goodness and an interview I did with Sean Freeman who's an illustrator/designer, a lot of his work is done by actually creating type in real life which is pretty cool. Click the picture below to check it.

SeanFreemanSuisse.jpg

Really liking the blog Max!

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