My First Custom Web Design.

[Shoryuken]

WARNING LARGE IMAGE

>! 

My first custom web graphics design. Feedback please!

(PS: Still a WIP)

[Diagothan]

That's brilliant, I think it looks very sleek and professional.
The font used on the content section could be changed to something plain. Because the font currently used on the main window of the site is going to be over-used otherwise (since it is in the menu, and the buttons to the right.)
Also the speech bubbles look out of place; I'm not sure if they're actually going to be put in or not, but they're pointless.

That's just my taste though. Otherwise, this is a brilliant design; especially seeing as it is your first, it looks very professional. I love the menu below the header, it's very neat.

[Shoryuken]

@Diagothan:

> That's brilliant, I think it looks very sleek and professional.
> The font used on the content section could be changed to something plain. Because the font currently used on the main window of the site is going to be over-used otherwise (since it is in the menu, and the buttons to the right.)
> Also the speech bubbles look out of place; I'm not sure if they're actually going to be put in or not, but they're pointless.
>
> That's just my taste though. Otherwise, this is a brilliant design; especially seeing as it is your first, it looks very professional. I love the menu below the header, it's very neat.

Thanks a lot! The speech bubbles are going to be links to the forum thread that certain announcement corresponds with.

[Drummerpete]

Very thin.

_Minimum_ width for a website should be about 800px.
The smallest I'd make it is about 950px.

Make the main content section about 700px wide and the sidebar about 200px wide.

I'm also not a fan of that over-used shine technique you have on the buttons & headers.

It's a good start though, keep trying (:

[shado360]

I like it, but I have a few suggestions:

1\. Screenshot of the week: Make as many words as you can go on the same line, don't do what you did just to take up space.

2\. Make the navigation bar at the top centered.

That's pretty much it! Good work!

[Diagothan]

Keeping in mind that it's a mock-up, I don't think everything is to-scale and I imagine the nav bar at the top would be centered.

[Robin]

Trying to emulate the website we did for Crystalshire isn't a good idea. Your graphics are simply too bad to get away with it.

Your drop shadows are overused and ugly, the strokes need to be toned down a _lot_. Your colour choices seem completely random and make no sense. Use a palette.

The font is overused. Find a small set of fonts which work well together but have different purposes. The same font you used in all the headers and buttons is used in the actual body and it looks piss poor.

Oh, and posting a photoshop image of your first website design really doesn't mean anything because you now need to script it all together. The overused of layer effects means half the design is overlapping with the other half. You'll have a very hard time cutting that up and creating the CSS to render a dynamic website.

I commend you for trying to make the navigation bar not a complete ripoff but you have just made it look like a double-ended dildo now.

[Diagothan]

I think it has quite little in common with CrystalShire's website (not as if CS' website was ground-breaking to begin with). Also it's funny you think his navigation bar looks like a dildo.. perhaps someone needs to grow up a little.
I agree the color scheme (mostly on the "Other" buttons) is maybe not very well thought-out, but there's no need to be a cunt about it, Robin.

[Robin]

@Diagothan:

> I think it has quite little in common with CrystalShire's website (not as if CS' website was ground-breaking to begin with).

I'm sorry, but what does whether a website being groundbreaking or not have to do with someone trying to emulate the design?

The actual layout is hugely similar. Go look at the websites as layouts rather than the actual graphical design. If you don't notice the things he's taken from CS then you don't have an eye for that kind of thing and you shouldn't be commenting on the situation.

I wasn't berating him about it. I was pointing out that the design relies heavily on the clear-cut CSS and imagery we created for the site. Bloating the thing up with drop shadows and outer glows will make it impossible to translate it to markup.

@Diagothan:

> Also it's funny you think his navigation bar looks like a dildo.. perhaps someone needs to grow up a little.

It's called a hyperbole. Basing an assumption of my maturity on posts made on an internet forum is just plain silly.

@Diagothan:

> I agree the color scheme (mostly on the "Other" buttons) is maybe not very well thought-out, but there's no need to be a cunt about it, Robin.

Regardless of how you think I'm being about the situation my points are all still valid. If you're going to ignore the points about the actual design and just sit here complaining about the way my criticism was delivered then you can go do so in your own thread and in your own time.

[Shoryuken]

@Robin:

> I'm sorry, but what does whether a website being groundbreaking or not have to do with someone trying to emulate the design?
>
> The actual layout is hugely similar. Go look at the websites as layouts rather than the actual graphical design. If you don't notice the things he's taken from CS then you don't have an eye for that kind of thing and you shouldn't be commenting on the situation.
>
> I wasn't berating him about it. I was pointing out that the design relies heavily on the clear-cut CSS and imagery we created for the site. Bloating the thing up with drop shadows and outer glows will make it impossible to translate it to markup.
>
> It's called a hyperbole. Basing an assumption of my maturity on posts made on an internet forum is just plain silly.
>
> Regardless of how you think I'm being about the situation my points are all still valid. If you're going to ignore the points about the actual design and just sit here complaining about the way my criticism was delivered then you can go do so in your own thread and in your own time.

I didn't rip off Crystalshire. That layout is very common in web design. I can guarentee if you google web templates theres atleast 100 that are similar to Crystalshire that were made before it.

[Robin]

@Shoryuken:

> I didn't rip off Crystalshire. That layout is very common in web design. I can guarentee if you google web templates theres atleast 100 that are similar to Crystalshire that were made before it.

You seem to be completely missing the point here. You took the layout and simply moved the video below the banner and replaced the slot with a 'Screenshot of the Week'. You can go on and on about whatever you want but the simple fact is that you looked at Crystalshire's website _in detail_ and then one with the same layout.

Kicking up a fuss about it is just going to cause me to get annoyed with you. At the moment all I've said is that a clean-cut design like the one we have for Crystalshire is not going to work with the Photoshop layer effect spam you seem to love.

I don't care about people using my work as a precedent. I do care about people trying to lie about it when I notice.

[kyoghin]

Your logo is under your black gradient, margin and padding issues with your content column and your header bars, length of the columns are inconsistent. Lower the opacity on a lot of your drop shadow..or get rid of it completely, because it's very easy to improperly use it. There's more to say but that's just down to design tastes.

About the whole rip off of CS. I've seen 100s of unique ways the navigation can be done on a lot of websites and yours just happen to have the same style as CS? Big coincidence there. It's okay to say you got some inspiration from someone else's layout, thats how all websites are made. The fact you didn't mention any of it is why people are calling you out on it.

[Kinjiru]

I see the similarities with crystalshires layout too.
I think they layout seems to thin, widen it up a little.

[Socuine]

That is one ugly website. :C ..

I love how you used the font though, brillia-

e_e

[eltony]

ohh now i see what robin is talking about lols basically is the same CSS i mean u just replaced some things pretty much the same layout.  its still good

[Drummerpete]

@eltony:

> basically is the same CSS

You have no clue what you're talking about.

[Ruins of Hell]

@eltony:

> ohh now i see what robin is talking about lols basically is the same CSS i mean u just replaced some things pretty much the same layout.  its still good

I KNEW I WASN'T THE ONLY ONE USING LINKS2 WITH IMAGE-CSS SUPPORT!

@Peteyyy:

> You have no clue what you're talking about.

Maybe these pictures will explain:
[](http://www.freemmorpgmaker.com/files/imagehost/#94a8ee50471e711722337faec5d3f37b.png)
[](http://www.freemmorpgmaker.com/files/imagehost/#d3a3d92056a3c80403e4e7c029cbb1de.png)

[cheatking]

ROFL!

[Ruins of Hell]

@Seannn:

> ROFL!

Yeah, I was originally going to completely recompile links2 with that as a (obviously not real) menu option, but I got lazy and decided a cheap javascript/css lookalike was enough.