I submit my initial design for my frihost site
http://df.spawn.ws
It's not cut up yet, and it only goes to my forum for now. Effect will be added when design is finalized. It will probably change though, the middle image is somewhat so-so for me. the top left will probably become flash and change randomly.
Last edited by dragonflame on Wed Oct 05, 2005 8:15 am; edited 1 time in total If you can do layout like your image, then you might be very good 
Problem would be bad css support with some browser ... I was going to use tables and includes within the html itself. I usually use css for styling only.
i know some people prefer to do css layout, but I havent been too clear about its advantages? I can make my html work with all browsers usually.
I think you should incorporate a PHP-Design. What i like to do is take a PHP-Nuke design and turn it into a HTML design. Considering PHP-Nuke takes a little bit for knowldge. I think you do alot of flash. Maybe a flash gallary. It would make your site stand out alot more then just a basic html site.
Very nice, like it. The image on the top left could be airbrushed on the side to give it a fading in affect... otherwise it just like it was slapped on there, and it clashes with the black background. Other than that, I like the layout very much, keep up the good work.
Although the layout itself is not bad, it has some problems floating around;
the first one and the most easily solvable is the small dragon; it looks way too square-cutted. That wouldn't be a problem if it was set to float:left; that way it would be even natural.
Second one is slightly more complicated to address: The clown on the main screen just doesn't have anything to do with the rest of the layout, it's pretty disconnected. I suggest you pick another image that looks more connected to everything else.
Third, the layout is centered, but there's too much black space without any content; it (IMO) would look way better if there was any sort of difference between the column with the layout and the rest of the space; in this case, for instance, a slightly brighter grey like #222222 would do the trick.
And last, and again IMO, because it's just too subjective; I don't like the "made by flipfire" disclaimer being put on such high level; I personally would like it smaller and put on, for instance, the lower right of the whole composition.
very good inputs! This makes me glad I posted the sample for comments. thanks everyone!
nice ....you should also post it at advertise your site... 
That's a pretty nice design. It's not too hard to navigate etc.
ok, kicked out the mime, new center image in, which is one of my featured artists works. I'll probably cut this up soon, the left top image is easy to change on after.
Sweet, and much more graphically coherent. Although, I still don't like the dragon, but I must admit that when you go 800x600 it looks in place. Believe me, if you left it complete it would not change when in 800x600 but would look more... complete? in other resolutions
| polarBear wrote: |
| Sweet, and much more graphically coherent. Although, I still don't like the dragon, but I must admit that when you go 800x600 it looks in place. Believe me, if you left it complete it would not change when in 800x600 but would look more... complete? in other resolutions |
I think I see what youre saying, yeah, it'll have to be a completely different graphic, because thats the edges of that particular image. Will see if I find a more compatible image. | ignition wrote: |
| "Made by Flipfire"? |
flipfire is my website making/design site. Im not too happy with it anymore but if you want to see it, you can go to flipfire.com. I havent finalized the verbage on this site (dragonflame). Having a separate personal site solves my problem of trying to get a hybrid personal/professional feel to flipfire.com. Now I can go for a professional look all the way. | dragonflame wrote: |
| i know some people prefer to do css layout, but I havent been too clear about its advantages? |
Believe me, once you get into it, using CSS for laying out is really good. It makes your code neat, you can do heaps of things that you cant do with HTML easily. You can redesign a site pretty much transparently (assuming you've set up your html page/content nicely). You also tend to end up with a much faster loading, and professional looking site (because you're using borders and things on your elements instead of images. And of course there is layering... 
The biggest reason why I migrated to doing everything with css though. is the mozilla/firefox plugin "Edit CSS". My design process starts with me drawing a basic idea of the layout (in photoshop or by hand) and making an XHTML file containing a bunch of div elements that descibe that image. Then with edit css I can open the site and start moving the elements around with code until the site is how I like it (every time up update a line it'll update the page).
CSS is incredibly powerful and userfriendly (as you probably know), not the least of which is in its formatting. Give it a go if you've never done it before... its very cool .
Cheers.
Ash. | Ashims wrote: |
CSS is incredibly powerful and userfriendly (as you probably know), not the least of which is in its formatting. Give it a go if you've never done it before... its very cool .
Cheers.
Ash. |
thank you, I will definitely give it out sometime. I guess Im a bit to dependent on tables right now I was able to edit the template in blogspot.com, which was full css, and that didnt seem too hard...
Ive updated http://df.spawn.ws (cut up and htmlized) if anyone cares to look. Still some bugs with IE spacing, but firefox and safari works ok.
thanks all!
Last edited by dragonflame on Wed Oct 05, 2005 8:14 am; edited 1 time in totalSo damn sleek. Congratulations!
| polarBear wrote: |
| So damn sleek. Congratulations! |
thanks! and thank you for the creative suggestions.I really liked it. Perfect job! Congratulations.
