Thoughts about site concept

airbornflght

Well, I'm redesigning my chapter's site. It will be wider when coded, but it's just a concept to get an idea of things. I'm not totally sold on the menu bar either. Feedback is appreciated.

Thrax

Your background doesn't match the site particularly well. The web-2.0 mirror effect beneath your content doesn't jive with the rest of your design which is ultimately very flat and two-dimensional. Your option bar has the same problem as the mirror: It doesn't match the rest of the site. Either update the overall feel of the site to compare favorably to the 3D elements, or flatten it. Combining both gives it the appearance of being confused.

QCH

The Web 2.0 stuff is suppose to be 3D-Like but, as Thrax stated, the main area is not. Look into making the main area like a piece of parchment. curly ends that can make it "float" on the background.

Linc

Yeah, the gradient goes through too wide of a range of color. The bright purple is too much - it will overpower the content.

I like the title font a lot. You might consider mirroring it in the "Truth, Courage, etc" motto at the bottom. The nav bar looks a little oddly faded and has a sorta out-of-place font face with all that bold design around it.

Have you considered using the coat of arms for inspiration? It looks really classy and provides you with both a palette and some iconography. I'd be delighted to have such a logical starting place for a design.

From a functionality perspective, don't underestimate the amount of work adding a "search" will create and consider whether it will really be necessary for a Chapter's website.

Leonardo

The bright purple is too much - it will overpower the content.

Agreed. Tone down the color or try a soft blue or subdued rust or gold.

airbornflght

Yeh, the reason I went with purple is because our fraternity's colors are royal purple, white, and gold. And I thought that royal purple was to dim.

I am also not a huge fan of the sans-serif arial right next to the adobe Caslon which has pretty exaggerated serifs. Do you think I should go with a times font instead of the defacto arial that seems commonplace in web design? The search box can be removed relatively easily from the design. just one group of layers in photoshop. The top black bar is gonna be the cookie crumb holder. Menu bars always elude me. I've never been much good at designing them.

Leonardo

Alright, I can now understand the appropriateness of integrating that color. Think of another way of incorporating it, such as in a symbol that appears on every page, or a color swath. Quite often you will see Powerpoint presentations with a company logo or important symbol as part of every slide. That's not necessarily how you might want to implement the color symbol, but just an idea. Simply put - you don't have to wear a purple golf shirt, but perhaps just a purple embroidered symbol on the ball cap.

airbornflght

I understand, I think I'm gonna work in a different direction maybe. Right now I'm getting all the content in the files, and then I'll start with css. Is that ass backwards? I'm not really sure on best practices when it comes to web design. I want to do this tabless. I guess I'll see where I get. It's definitely going to start off with the essentials and then build on that.

Thrax

Don't use tables. Use percentage width DIVs that are centered with left-margin: auto; and right-margin: auto;.

Content in a table is the last content to be displayed when loading. Content loaded in a DIV is displayed as it is available. It's rather insignificant with today's broadband penetration rate, but it also has the added benefit of being very browser-friendly.

Tables are oogly.

Linc

Yeah, you create the (X)HTML first, then create the CSS. You have to have something to apply the CSS to

Nomad

From a design standpoint:

The background needs to change to something much more neutral, it detracts so intensely from the main page that I see nothing else.

The colors of the fraternity are not present in the coat of arms, which means you could opt for a more neutral color scheme all around.

You have competing gradients between the main table and the background, as well as the falloff below the main information table.

The menu bar seems rather haphazardly thrown into the table without much consideration, it doesn't relate to the color scheme and the soft edges are fairly obtrusive, the search bar operates in a similar manner.

Typographically, you do need more consistency. On one hand you're using Adobe Caslon, simply an updated version of a centuries old font, with arial, a modern invention. Caslon also has problems having its capitals displayed online, which is why you get the tops of the T cut off, and it looks very strange. You should consider Mrs. Eaves, Baskerville, Didot--if you want larger stroke contrast--and maybe Bodoni. Looking at old literature from the frat will help give you some historical context for their choices perhaps.

Also, on a minor not at the bottom you've simply leaned Caslon over, and that's not an intelligent decision typographically. Fonts have italics for a reason, they are entirely different typesets.

airbornflght

Thanks for the input nomad. I may abandon this design all together. At any rate I am getting all of my pages marked up in xHTML like I should have done in the first place. I'm almost ready to start with the design. The main thing is I never no where or how to start with a design.

At any rate, I guess we'll see what I come up with in a few days.

Nomad

Well, I think the placement of the 'coat of arms' with the title is good. I would honestly suggest you dig around for some pre-made templates and maybe just modify them a bit.