Please review my new site

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DesignerBill

Member
I have developed a new website using WordPress, to soon replace my old website. In the past, my company business was mostly oriented to technical support, and I will still continue to provide that as needed, but want to now focus my energy more into website design and development, although I admit that I am a better programmer than a designer.

Why WordPress? To teach myself about developing with a CMS and to prove that I can build a useful, nice-looking site that way.

I am planning to show this website also to potential employers, as I would like to get some regular work if possible. This brings up my portfolio, which you will find on the new site. I'm not proud of these previous efforts, and sadly none of them are still active, but they are what I've done. A question: Is it important to include links to view these actual pages and the source? They exist in directories in my domain.

Note, the new site includes a jquery sunrise fade-in effect. It is on the home page only and is controlled by a cookie. It can be viewed again after 20 minutes has elapsed.

I would really appreciate some comments and advice, on the content as well as the appearance. Here's the new site: http://www.orchidtechservices.com/wp

Thank you,
DesignerBill
 
Phreaddee

Phreaddee

Super Moderator
Staff member
As far as your portfolio is concerned, if you arent 100% with your older stuff, id just make an image of the site with a little blurb, if you are more programmer than designer id include some that are "live" that show off those skills, and if the business or organisation is now defunct or not using them anymore then that only gives you free reign to redesign the bits you didnt like.

Re:site. definately line height issue,
and I like what you are trying to acheive withthe lines,
but it needs to be far more subtle to avoid "feeling boxed in"
As for the colours, the pastels just make me think of the 90's,
u need to use something more robust!
 
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d a v e

New Member
that colour scheme is just sooo wrong.

try somewhere like kuler for inspiration and google some typography resources too ;)
 
A

aDavina

New Member
I think it looks good, with just a couple things that could be improved.

First, you need to pay attention to the color scheme. Contrast will play an important role here.

For example: the blue text against the yellow background on your top header.
My eyes are immediately drawn to the business name "Orchid Technical Services", which is what we want! You just need to follow through with that concept in the body, which doesn't quite "pop" as much because the background is gray with a dark text.

Think contrast, but not too much as to where the end user will be squinting. There are some resources on the web about complementary color schemes.

The second thing would just be adding a little bit of padding to the top and bottom of the image, as well as your top header.

Other than that, nicely done!
 
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DesignerBill

Member
Re line height, are you saying I need a larger font size, or just more space between lines?

For color in the text areas, is black or dark gray font on a pure white background better, rather than what I tried to achieve with the dark blue on off-white? Or maybe the dark blue on pure white?

Also if I keep the image with yellow title and menu backgrounds, what is the best color for the page background? The gray or something more lively? Blue gradient maybe?

Thanks!
 
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d a v e

New Member
line height is the space in between the lines (in print terms - leading)

dark grey (e.g. #333) on white is best

a blue gradient might work but keep the saturation low (i.e. so it doesn't like it has too much 'pigment' - a fadedgrey-blue rather than a bright blue)
 
reverseengineer

reverseengineer

New Member
The beach scene is a cool picture, but its a little confusing. The colors and images don't speak to me as a modern, sleek, and classy technical company.
 
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