So I've been starting to feel like my website doesn't have enough of an initial wow factor, the layout is simple and neat, but probably not slick enough. So I've been messing around with flash and learning as I go along and creating a still simple but a lot more impacting website (I hope). One thing that bothers me about my current site is my javascript menu, it's a little underwhelming and plain, and the pages within the site use a generic tahoma font. With my new site, I'm integrating what I've adopted as my signature font from my logo into the links and into the site content. I'm also working to make the images as big as possible. Another subtle (and maybe unconvential) thing I'm doing is making my logo vertical, which is actually something I had already designed into my print materials, so I've got some consistency going.

Anyway, I just wanted to share my experience for the DIY'ers out there. Messing around with flash definitely makes me realize how flash template sites can go for what they do; web design, especially in flash, is tedious work. I've attached a mock-up of my new site, which I made in photoshop, and a screenshot of my current site (I captured it during a movie, hence the weird look). Hopefully the new site will go live in a couple of weeks. Enjoy!

Here's a quick update, I did some flash work this morning and got this skeleton site up

http://www.geocities.com/fpereira16/index2.html

The only links that work are the home and about me links. Here's the plan, for those who are into web design: I'm basically making the links go to individual swf files I've created for each page and I did a quick fade in, for a slight visual effect. The galleries link to simpleviewer galleries, but I still need to resize all my portfolio images for this new orientation. What I also will need to add is a black outline to the image frame, otherwise when I post vertical images, it'll be weird to see all that white space and everything will seem somewhat disconnected. That's all for now

Update #2:

Tweaked my galleries to fit the frame (image quality sucks because I just quickly blew up the photos I had) and added a black frame to the site.

Click me!

I'm going to be honest - I think it's admirable that you're going the DIY route. However, I truly believe that when you go down this road, you have to be ready to sacrifice the quality that you may have in using in a template, or have someone else doing it for you. Most people know I'm never one to hold back my opinion, and I feel like I'd be ripping you off if I wasn't honest. So here it is - the site, albeit cool for being created by you, looks amateur. I'm not quite sure exactly what it is - things are jerky - there's not really any color to it - the navigation at the bottom looks too big and pixelated, and I'm on a pretty high resolution monitor (1920 x 1200) which means it's going to look even BIGGER on the standard 1024 x 768, or 1280 x 1024. Lastly, your logo - has a lot to be desired - it's confusing, messy and hard to read with the signature thing in the background. I'm really not trying to be mean or a jerk, I want to be honest. I've said SO MANY times on this forum, leave the designing up to the designers. Let someone else do your design, or buy a template and stick to working on developing your photography skills - your time and money will be much better spent going down that road.

Honesty is the best policy.

That's my $.09 for the day.

I don't know what to say man. I think calling my effort amateurish is a bit harsh, something has to be pretty bad to be amateurish. Is it basic? Yes, but that's what I was after, something to showcase my photography effectively in a clean manner. I'm still working out the bugs, but I plan on making this my website once everything is worked out. It's definitely an improvement on my all html/javascript website I'm using right now. While I've seen better sites, I've seen many that are far worse.

Regarding the navigation - I'm sorry but I just don't see what you're talking about, the text reads fine on the monitors I've checked it on, not pixelated. But maybe my eyes need checking, which is always possible.

Anyway, thanks for your thoughts.

couple things that standout for me...

I don't like the homepage image, it's nice, but it screams noise ninja, or noiseware, and looks very plasticy and...yucky Perhaps it will be better once it's a running slideshow

I also don't like the menu text, because it's only 1px wide, can you bold it, or add a stroke? And while I think that font is okay for the menu, it is not a body font by any means.

I feel like you need something on top of the design...a logo perhaps?...if not, bring it down half an inch or so.

I tried bolding the menu text and it does look a bit better actually. The homepage image definitely needs work, I just did a rough crop to fit the dimensions, but I haven't decided if I'm going to use a movie like I have on my current site or what. I think I tried the reduce noise feature in PS, which explains the yucky look.