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Portfolio/services design - whatcha think?


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Hey guys,

Well after these 2 very random weeks where I've had 4 people (out of the blue) contact me to make them websites (payed) I decided it's time to make myself a portfolio/services website.

It's meant to be 'clean and professional', but what do you think about it?

Constructive criticism please :)

Nathan.

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It's a nice concept to start from but the whole grainy wood background phased out well over a year ago. It's not as unique as it once was and to me shows that the person is still a little behind with current trends.

Not sure how I feel about the navigation; Just seems to have too much white space. You don't have to have each perfectly spaced out; You can easily just left or right align the nav to have the icons closer together.

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I agree with Cupcakes on the background... it's a little ermm... out of fashion.

Also the icons in the navigation, they're a little to spaced out and i'm not a fan of the icons themselves.

Apart from that the rest is nicely clean.

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It's a nice concept to start from but the whole grainy wood background phased out well over a year ago. It's not as unique as it once was and to me shows that the person is still a little behind with current trends.

Not sure how I feel about the navigation; Just seems to have too much white space. You don't have to have each perfectly spaced out; You can easily just left or right align the nav to have the icons closer together.

Okay, any ideas on what else for the background? I thought it looked quite nice. And there will be more icons, just need to think what else I need in there.

I agree with Cupcakes on the background... it's a little ermm... out of fashion.

Also the icons in the navigation, they're a little to spaced out and i'm not a fan of the icons themselves.

Apart from that the rest is nicely clean.

Read above, and thanks

trend for 2010 is minimalism and ultra clean design.

its harder to do right than people think actually.

Yep, it is :p (Y), pay attention to detail, even though there isn't a great deal, but what there is has to be pixel perfect.

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What always helps is to truthfully look at other galleries to help inspire myself with various techniques, content positioning, typography usage and anything else. This will also sort of give you an idea of background ideas too. Sometimes you don't need to do anything extremely intricate but something subtle. Maybe try just adding about 1.5% noise filter to the background color versus the wood tile.

http://cssremix.com

http://wpinspiration.com

http://patterntap.com

http://cssbake.com

http://css-website.com

http://onepagelove.com

http://bestcssgallery.com

http://divinecss.com

http://bestwebgallery.com

http://css20.com

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What always helps is to truthfully look at other galleries to help inspire myself with various techniques, content positioning, typography usage and anything else. This will also sort of give you an idea of background ideas too. Sometimes you don't need to do anything extremely intricate but something subtle. Maybe try just adding about 1.5% noise filter to the background color versus the wood tile.

http://cssremix.com

http://wpinspiration.com

http://patterntap.com

http://cssbake.com

http://css-website.com

http://onepagelove.com

http://bestcssgallery.com

http://divinecss.com

http://bestwebgallery.com

http://css20.com

Thanks for the list, I didn't know a few like, patterntap - Awesome site.

And I tried the noise filter, it looks dreadful.

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Thanks for the list, I didn't know a few like, patterntap - Awesome site.

And I tried the noise filter, it looks dreadful.

You have to really tweak the settings to get it right but I'd rather see that then another wood background circa 2008 trends.

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You have to really tweak the settings to get it right but I'd rather see that then another wood background circa 2008 trends.

I had a go, nothing was noticeably different or nice. I don't like the noise effect, looks 1990's.

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Noise has been doing well of late... it's more about not having an identifiable 'item' as a background, such as wood, metal, stone etc, strangely for a while sky has managed to escape this rule.

I'd pay close attention to the links posted by Cupcakes, as a web developer myself, links like these have been invaluable.

Possibly try a subtle gradient with some noise or try blending in an image using layer effects in you image editor, as cheesy as it sounds a background should be it's own entity yet should not distract the eye from the content in any way.

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I much prefer that background... maybe even more subtle on the detail though.

I don't know what it is about the icons that is bugging me... may be the faux 3D making them look mis-aligned. It's bugging me though i'll let you know if i figure it out :p

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I removed the bars/railings, they looked out of place.

If you don't like the icon's could you do me a huge favour and see if you know of any better ones that suit (I don't mind modifying them slightly, like I have done with these ones). That would be awesome, because I'm not _too_ certain with my choice either :p

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Very nice, looks very Web 2.0ish and Appleish. I like the dock and your typography. Very professional indeed.

Thanks :)

I want to make people think I am older than 17, so they don't discriminate me.

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I'm not sure it what it is that makes those icons seem weird to me.

Don't worry about the age thing... what you don't say they won't be able to discriminate on, i have it the other way i'm 30 but look well young so most people treat me like a kid until they find out... hahaha (specially the cops)

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Problem is, if you search my name, you get listings of very old websites from when I frist started, ond a page on bebo which shows my age.

Maybe I should start an online alias, but surely my real name is better for later on in life?

Hmm.

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