I finally have a new design concept for my portfolio - how do I impliment it?

[wienerdog]

Ok, I had a spontaneous idea that helped me decide what to do with my portfolio site. I've learned a LOT in playing with web design over the past year and absolutely need a redesign. I think I want to stick with my idea of playing off my comical last name of Wiener and use hot dogs as a theme. I'm debating whether I should change my domain name, because I don't know if "Wiener Graphics" really works anymore, especially if I'm doing more design/web design work.

My current site was inspired by the idea of getting my site to look like a hot dog package and was met with a lot of mixed feelings. The biggest problem is the site is amateur design, using Photoshop to build the thing. The concept was ok, but was executed pretty poorly.

So here's my new concept: Designing the page to look like a hot dog vendor's cart, with little bins of stuff, and each bin could be a link to part of the site.

For instance, there'd be the hot dogs, relish, mustard, ketchup, sauerkraut, buns, etc. like the top of the cart, and each one is a link you can click on to go to a different part of the page (contact info, portfolio sections, etc.).

My biggest problem is deciding what tools to use to best achieve this design: Should be done in Flash or HTML/CSS?

Flash leaves me with a lot of freedom to create graphics for the site quickly, but leaves me without true content for search engines.

HTML/CSS is more accessible but more restrictive, and it's harder for me to imagine using it for the home page, which I envision as a large graphic with click-able interactive parts.

Since I'm not going to come up high in a search result for design/web design, etc. anyway due to so much competition, do I need to worry about my home page and navigation being mostly Flash?

[Mike Stone]

There's way's to allow search engines to see flash content, such as embedding the page in html and adding meta tags on that page. And I think changing the domain would be a good idea, I mean, have you seen how hot dogs are made on the discovery channel? It'll really ruin them for you. Long story short, hot dog = pink liquid meat concoction in a cellulose tube.

[wienerdog]

There's way's to allow search engines to see flash content, such as embedding the page in html and adding meta tags on that page. And I think changing the domain would be a good idea, I mean, have you seen how hot dogs are made on the discovery channel? It'll really ruin them for you. Long story short, hot dog = pink liquid meat concoction in a cellulose tube.

I usually eat just All Beef hot dogs, so I don't know how much of a meat concoction they are for me, personally. :)

I probably will change the domain name, or link it to a new domain I register. Does the design concept for the new site work for you?

[morea]

could you barter services with a web designer to ensure that you have it coded properly? You do their business cards or some marketing piece or something, and they do your web coding, that sort of thing?

[Jackimalyn]

hot dog = pink liquid meat concoction in a cellulose tube.

mmmmm... im totally getting a chili dog at lunch. (dont even START about the yumminess that goes into processed ground beef in the chili!!)

I dont care what they're made of, as long as its not toxic and it's delicious, ill eat it. If everyone knew how all processed foods were made, no one would eat anymore.

As for your site, I think Flash could make it more interesting, if you're not worried about SEO, because of course HTML would be the better answer, but lets be realistic- you're probably not going to come up #1 on Google anyway and I think you could get some nice animation with your idea using Flash. (Was that not the longest run-on sentence ever?) Good luck, counds like a good idea and fun navigation. (make a chili condiment compartment!! mmm 40 min to lunch)

[wienerdog]

mmmmm... im totally getting a chili dog at lunch. (dont even START about the yumminess that goes into processed ground beef in the chili!!)

I dont care what they're made of, as long as its not toxic and it's delicious, ill eat it. If everyone knew how all processed foods were made, no one would eat anymore.

As for your site, I think Flash could make it more interesting, if you're not worried about SEO, because of course HTML would be the better answer, but lets be realistic- you're probably not going to come up #1 on Google anyway and I think you could get some nice animation with your idea using Flash. (Was that not the longest run-on sentence ever?) Good luck, counds like a good idea and fun navigation. (make a chili condiment compartment!! mmm 40 min to lunch)

Thanks for the feedback. That was my thought-process as well. I'm definitely not thinking of SEO realistically since there are so many designers/firms. My goal with my website is to showcase my portfolio from people who already contacted me or I'm contacting them. No one will find me looking for "graphic designer" on Google, regardless of whether I use HTML/CSS. However, I should probably make the homepage be Flash, and content pages be HTML/CSS.