action man's new design

[action]

Hey,
I decided to bring this topic back from the dead because I took a new turn in my exploration of graphic design.
If you've noticed my latest avatars, I've been going for an abstract, colourful look. For some advice on the design, I decided to put them all here and ask you guys (mostly tomas, but hey, anybody's input is awesome)
I have three works to show off. The first two being my last two avatars:

AVATARS

LARGER PIECES

OLD STUFF

Spoiler: OLD

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My work is for the full HTML5 site of my game development team and ect., Element 7 Studios:

I tried making something simple. It was originally going to have some nature stuff in it, but I tried it and it didn't look right.

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Something I made up, inspired by Kuler's website design:

I made the palette myself, using photos of flowers, clouds, and trees :D
I know the middle text isn't correctly positioned, for sure

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Made this in a night; an idea for a website
alot of the spacing and measuring is just my judgment/what I though looked right.
Anyways, here it is:

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I'll be uploading more soon (possibly)

Any critique/comments would be appreciated

-action

 

[Toams]

at first glance it's okay
if you want to have designerish nitpicking comments though, i can write a whole list of things you could improve ;D

spacing and composition are heavily lacking in this thing
also there are a couple of things (like the font color of 'element 7 studios', the fact that it's written with an outline, the gradient on the white border, and the secondary gray rectangle on the border) that you could have done differently to get something more attractive..
also the logo is a bit off in terms of spacing and line thickness etc.

all small things, that probably no-one will notice, but once you improve on those, people will experience the site as 'better', even though they cant really say why..

i could give you a full analysis providing solutions and options, but that'll take me time to make.. and i reckon you won't be integrating the feedback into the site, and make a better one.. so, well if you'd like me to just tell me

but what's most important though, the site is navigatable, and its clear what you have to do to go where, so that's all right ;]

ps there's a spelling mistake in your copyright information
artowrk (sounds almost japanese heh)

edit:
i took a quick shot at this
its probably not your style, since you have a more web 2.0 thing going on, but im all for simplicity

Spoiler: anyway

see how, when you compare it to your site
things feel more balanced

take a look at this to see why:
http://bb.ohsk.net/uploads/guides.png

 

[Venetia]

ok you're trying to be hip to the trends and that's cool but remember that many browsers don't support html5 yet--including Internet Explorer (i think IE9 offers support and IE8 offers tentative partial support but most people dont have it). You have to be aware that there is a javascript fix for html5 workarounds .........
here we go http://oli.jp/2009/html5-structure4/#browser-support

(i'm a flash-haunt and suck at programming so i'm naturally biased against html5 though :P)

anyway tomas's advice is all solid for the design--just remember that while it's cool to be "cutting-edge" with your shit, your ultimate goal should be in making something that's totally accessible

 

[action]

@ Tomas: Thanks alot! I'll probably redo the logo, and use your guides as an example. I'm not much for colour theory, but I actually thought the green fit...
Oh, and what's the font(s) you used?

@Ven: I was going to use HTML5 because it would be easier to edit the content of the site, embed my blog, and change the news without having to open Flash catalyst up and change the text, upload it again, and change the links. I don't know much about CSS, or HTML5, but I was hoping, once I figured it out, it would be much more efficient than Flash.

 

[Toams]

euhh for the logo 'e' i used aller, the 7 and the title are helvetica, rest is arial
i can upload the .psd file if you like?

 

[action]

that'd be great, thanks!

 

[action]

Ok. I redid the site, and used Tomas' version as a heavy influence ( I hope this isn't like copying)


And then I did a few (horrible) concepts for logos

 

[Pokémaniac]

Tbh, my favourite thing about Tomas' version was the light-coloured frame around the whole thing. It looked really nice!

 

[action]

What light coloured frame? Tomas took out the frame in his version.

 

[Venetia]

What light coloured frame? Tomas took out the frame in his version.

i like that logo a lot
something looks kind of jaggy/unaliased about it though

 

[action]

yeah, I'm rather new to vectors, so when I make curves they don't always come out, and never are they perfect.
I had to use half a circle to make that one :P

edit: I found out part of the edge was cut off, so I fixed it, and made it bigger:

 

[Venetia]

there you go, much better. there are some little points that you need to smooth out and clean up some.
uh in the southwest quadrant and up near the "tip" of the "leaf" the curves are visibly imperfect.

 

[action]

alright, done
but... I'm not sure the logo fits on the site:

 

[Pokémaniac]

Well I mean the light background. In yours it really looks more like a frame.

I like the logo, though!

 

[Toams]

oh shit dude i totally forgot about uploading the psd :x
also dont worry about copying, you can use that shit anyway you want
i wont press charges ;D

http://bb.ohsk.net/uploads/site.rar

 

[action]

Thanks, but now I think I've got everything straightened out already. Too slow :P
I'll download it anyways, for the guides.

 

[action]

project sillyradicalgroup
something I made up, inspired by Kuler's website design:



I made the palette myself, using photos of flowers, clouds, and trees :D

I know the middle text isn't correctly positioned, for sure

-action

 

[action]

Made this night; an idea for a website
alot of the spacing and measuring is just my judgment/what I though looked right.
Anyways, here it is:

 

[action]

SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP

I added 3 new images. Really looking forward to any advice anybody has.
Check them out in the main post.

Thanks,
action man

 

[Toams]

yooo, i like this text thing you got going here,
been working on a little typography myself:

Spoiler

http://tomasknipscheer.nl/stuff/type/ for more

aanyway, this one is pretty cool:

its really something that could be seen as 'artsy', these days, and wouldnt be misplaced on a site as http://ffffound.com/, i especially like the use of color over the composition, but that's because i can never get the right colors to use in my work.

the green one is okay too, but lacking in composition. it doesnt focus on anything, but is a rectangle filled with random. the faded circle things are nice, but the rest is a bit meh. the text is unreadable too, try making it plain white, and sticking it on top, etc. don't let the 'gimmicks' take the 'message' out of your work.

as for the bigger work; if it took you five minutes to make, you could at least have spent another five minutes thinking about how you can make it better. i mean, the idea is cool, with the abstract shape and your forum name thing alias. i mean, so much more could be done with it.. suggestions:
- find a nice font, or make one yourself, try to make the text the main thing in the piece
- expand on the abstract thing, make it realistic 3d, and let it wrap around the text
- either that ^ or make the diagonal lines in the abstract shape be parralel to the diagonals in the text
- etc.

Spoiler: more typography and stuff

http://www.behance.net/gallery/the-person-you-love-is-72_8-water/375846
http://www.behance.net/gallery/Fabric-Type-/281947
http://www.behance.net/gallery/An-Incom ... wth/203572