Posted by John De Bord on February 11, 2007 at 5:54 AM
Greetings all!
Well I thought I would come here and for a lil bit of insight with some decision making. Basically here is the rundown--- I was doing some work yesterday on my deviantArt site when I happened to swing by the forums on there which I rarely ever do and came upon a post saying that someone was doing free flash websites for artist's as part of their portfolio. And he was only going to take a select few. So I replied, and got it! I like my site currently but honestly, it doesn't have the zip or the wow factor I see with so many people's sites. I really want something very professional, something that communicates feeling and mood. So I looked at the sites he has so far designed and came to the decision that I like this one http://www.ambientinvestment.com/photography/ the best so far. Now here is where I am asking for some help. Should I do an intro page for my site? What else should be added into the site's look & design? How do you all feel about guestbooks? Yay or nay? What do you all like or dislike in that sites current design? Let me know if ya all can. I have pretty much full creative say on this so anything and everything pretty much goes!
Thanks all, I look fwd to what ya all have to say & think!
--John
Posted by Stan Rose on February 11, 2007 at 8:06 AM
I like it--i think the one thing that is needed is something that truly singles out you as the photographer, there should be something that makes it immediately identifiable as YOU and not just a collection of photographs, even if it uses a collection of photographs to make that connection (Jesse S's site is a terrific examnple of what im talking about). As for guestbooks, they can help or hurt depending on what ends up on them! Id just as soon do w/o. Good luck!
Posted by Derek Sedillo on February 11, 2007 at 2:43 PM
I think you are going in the right direction with that general layout and design. Personally I have never been one to like a lot of flash on a site. But this one seems to be done very tastefully with the flash used for image display and transitions.
I like the emphasis on the images when compared to your current site. The current one appears very much to be a blog style (word press) with the content just happening to discuss your photography. I do think that an intro page would be good with *some* text to describe your site. But the details should go on other pages (eg - about, news, etc...). Check out Jesse and Jack's newer sites if you haven't already:
http://www.jessespeer.com/
http://www.widerange.org/
My 2c,
- Derek
Posted by John De Bord on February 11, 2007 at 3:59 PM
Thanks Derek, much appreciated! I hope no one thinks the shots on that site are mine cuz they aren't lol Just the layout is what we are thinkin of doing for me
Posted by Don Grall on February 12, 2007 at 11:20 PM
One problem I have with many Flash sites I've seen (your example is one of them) is that the thumbnail shows only a small % of the actual photo. As a result, I have probably missed some photos I might have liked simply because the thumbnail didn't show anything interesting. I prefer thumbnails that show 100% of the image because it decreases the time spent looking at images I have no interest in. Because tastes are so subjective it would be rare to find someone who looks at every image on every website they visit.
I have seen sites that show 100% of the image in the thumbnail and instead of having to click on the thumbnail, just rolling the mouse over the image changes the image in the large viewer next to the thumbnails. This would be far preferable in my opinion.
Don
Discussion
4 repliesWell I thought I would come here and for a lil bit of insight with some decision making. Basically here is the rundown--- I was doing some work yesterday on my deviantArt site when I happened to swing by the forums on there which I rarely ever do and came upon a post saying that someone was doing free flash websites for artist's as part of their portfolio. And he was only going to take a select few. So I replied, and got it! I like my site currently but honestly, it doesn't have the zip or the wow factor I see with so many people's sites. I really want something very professional, something that communicates feeling and mood. So I looked at the sites he has so far designed and came to the decision that I like this one http://www.ambientinvestment.com/photography/ the best so far. Now here is where I am asking for some help. Should I do an intro page for my site? What else should be added into the site's look & design? How do you all feel about guestbooks? Yay or nay? What do you all like or dislike in that sites current design? Let me know if ya all can. I have pretty much full creative say on this so anything and everything pretty much goes!
Thanks all, I look fwd to what ya all have to say & think!
--John
I like the emphasis on the images when compared to your current site. The current one appears very much to be a blog style (word press) with the content just happening to discuss your photography. I do think that an intro page would be good with *some* text to describe your site. But the details should go on other pages (eg - about, news, etc...). Check out Jesse and Jack's newer sites if you haven't already:
http://www.jessespeer.com/
http://www.widerange.org/
My 2c,
- Derek
I have seen sites that show 100% of the image in the thumbnail and instead of having to click on the thumbnail, just rolling the mouse over the image changes the image in the large viewer next to the thumbnails. This would be far preferable in my opinion.
Don