opinions please design gurus

[barricades]

Hey there guys and girls, I've been tasked with re-jigging our website and I'm not much of a designer.

I've come up with a few logo ideas and a couple of mock ups for the home page.

If anyone who's interested wouldn't mind having a look and letting me know what they think about logo and design. All criticisms welcomed No offence will be taken.

http://traditionalirishgifts.com/design/design.html

Whats the best logo? Is the design any good?

I was tempted to just fill the front page with categories and products but having reviewed loads of design sites and other ecommerce sites, it seems big pictures are the way to go?

thanks in advance

 

[conor]

For someone who's "not much of a designer" your designs are very good!

I prefer the second layout. If you want to add to it a bit more, I would suggest making the banner a slideshow between the banner in layout 1, the banner in layout 2 and one or two extra images.

Oh I'm Irish btw.. wish it looked as good here as it does in those photographs

 

[barricades]

Hi conor, thanks for the kind words.

I had posted on another design forum earlier today and they all basically said it was keek.

I was advised no drop shadows, bad choices of colours, don't use patterns etc...

Really confused now.

by the way, I don't think the links in your sig are working.

 

[conor]

well i wouldn't really call myself a designer, more of a developer, but your designs look good to me. maybe wait until you get more feedback on the designs here before you make a decision.

also, about my signature - i know. Let my personal website expire by accident when I was out of the country and it was bought by some company. Have to wait another 5 months till it expires for them and i can get it back.. quite annoying. going to remove those links now actually

 

[mjrzasa]

Looks good to me, I prefer the yellow letter on the wood. And the second main picture, I think the brighter pictures look better, not that the other pictures with a clear sky aren't good, I just think the brighter colors look a bit better.

Also the best background is the second one as well.

 

[gratiela]

It's a good start, but you need to work on it more. For the logos, make the shadows more subtle (decrease the size and make it a lighter color, similar to the background). For the home page, I also prefer the second one. The other two have the backgrounds too bright and colorful. For the second mock up, I suggest you to make the background a little more faded (60, 70% opacity) or play with the blending modes (I presume you used Photoshop). The design needs a footer area, too. Now the design looks unfinished.
Hope you find this useful.