Templates I Never Finsihed

[flaming-ace]

Ok here are some templates and stuff i never finished or gave up on
This is my most recent, but i have decided not to make the website, i may do somthing else with it not sure...
[img:8e99e8b664]http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t149/flaming-ace/ace-1.png[/img:8e99e8b664]

Flaming Ace Network (couldn't be bothered to slice it)

School Project Portfolio (Made A Better One )

Really Old Template, High Voltage Videos

Oh and heres an animated banner i made for a band site i made(Black Magic), but i never used it:
[img:8e99e8b664]http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t149/flaming-ace/banner.gif[/img:8e99e8b664]
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[img:0692e75ce3]http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/7623/flamingacesiguy7.jpg[/img:0692e75ce3]
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[Scott]

They look really dull, and remind of me of the internet years ago... they wouldn't really be any good and/or popular with the Web 2.0 hype.
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[flaming-ace]

ye i know what you mean, i have just started trying to make everything shinny and just generally the web 2.0 style
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[img:0692e75ce3]http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/7623/flamingacesiguy7.jpg[/img:0692e75ce3]
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[Lyth]

[drath]

I tend to agree with the statements expressed above. This reminds me of the web years ago when everybody had a geocities page with some modified HTML for their personal web site. It's bland, dated and clunky (too sharp/blocky). Now, don't take this the wrong way because all the elements you are using have their place, but you need to create some harmony. If you want it big and bosturous, you really have to emphasize it, and it really has to all look polished. For example:

1) Flaming Ace Media: Even though this style is sort of dated, that's not what is hurting it. What is hurting it right now is the red text. You have these industrialized elements and then some default type layed over top. Why not use a type that speaks more with the other elements? And possibly another color choice, red on grey is not really working for me. I think it could look pretty cool, but then again also dated; but maybe don't focus so much on making it look new/shiny anyways.

I'll skip the other templates you posted for now, but as far as what I said, they are all in the same boat: oversized, clunky and not speaking well together.

2) The Black Magic site is decent enough. I mean, there is some HTML errors and some bad positioning, but with some tweaking it could work. But I can't help saying the same thing: EVERYTHING IS HUGE! People don't need huge navigational image links for each section. They also don't need the size of type you are working with in the rest of the layout. It seems way too big.

Then there's the banner: It has nothing to do with anything. You made a logo/typemark for their website (with the grungy type for their name), why not use it in the animated banner? Why not use elements from the website in the banner? The purpose of a banner is to create awareness, and a lot of that is about creating a brand. Everything you design for Black Magic should speak together so people automatically know, they automaticall pick up on these aesthetics and tie them into the band's look. Basically you want the viewer to recognize what they are looking at automatically.
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[flaming-ace]

as always drath you made an amazing post thanks

ye i see what you mean about the colour scheme, with the red and gre on the flaming ace media.

oh and about the banner, i am not going to use that in the black magic site, i made that first before the site, the band told me that they wanted a more grungy style, and told me to use that font.

Also yes everything is big and i can see why that can be annoying
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[img:0692e75ce3]http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/7623/flamingacesiguy7.jpg[/img:0692e75ce3]
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[drath]

I'll do a little bit of a more in-depth on your other peices that I didn't mention before

The Flaming Ace Network:
I think something like this could work a lot better if this image was the whole page. Or you could make a starry image background that would tile nicely, and then lay this image in the center of the browser's window, and make sure it fits nicely. I don't know how to explain it, but it looks good in my mind . Also, instead of this big clunky text, why not create planets around the earth, they could even be fictional. When you hover your mouse over these planets, up pops information and the title, and then if you click on it, they will go to the other pages of the site. Or just skip the hover thing, keep the planet idea, and just make a small title over the planets. I think the idea could be really sweet with some more relevence in the elements of the page.

Eportfolio:
The main problem here is everything looks like a button. Everything, as in text, background are all beveled, shadowed and given the apperance of depth. The problem with that is people will automatically expect every peice to be interactive, every button they feel will have its own movement, when in reality, they problably won't. This also looks more like a application interface rather than a web interface which actually might be even more confusing.

High Voltage:
This is probably the best out of the three that I am critiqing here. I'd love to see some more harmy again in this one though. I think the main font used in the banner should speak with all the text on the site. The more typefaces you use for one single project, the more chance there is to confuse people, and in terms of aesthetics: they will clash more with eachother, the more fonts you use. Keep it simple, use one font for all the graphic elements, then use a web font for the content. You will see all the most effective sites use this basic ideology.

Okay, that's it for now .
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