Something troubles me about my website design

[wienerdog]

I took a look at my latest website layout for my online portfolio and something greatly troubled me. I realized the design just isn't working as well as it could. I have a header graphic, a navigation bar, and a content area, and all three are just stacked on top of each other without any sense of a cohesive design.

http://www.evanwiener.com/about.html

So here's my thoughts:

I think I should scrap the headers I have on each page (which is a shame, because I kinda like them on their own). They just don't seem to work well with the layout I have.

I like the shape of the border I created for the content area. I'm starting to think the entire site's content should be contained within that border to make it a better layout.

Maybe toss the logo below the top point of the border and get the nav bar to fit below that, inside the border as well?

I want to add some texture to it and give it a more distressed look, though.

[wienerdog]

I should note that I'm scrapping the front page nav completely. I was planning on animating it to show off my (upcoming) Flash skills, but think it's the wrong style for my ultimate goal with how I want the site look.

The layout definitely needs some streamlining to be a more cohesive design. Right now it feels like a stacked set of sections with no visual consistency.

It's a shame, because hours of work is getting scrapped by removing the headers, but I'll consider it a lesson learned. It's amazing how inefficient I am as a designer when working on my own promotional material and identity. I literally am my own worst client.

[Zendada]

I like the site. It reminds me of a stylized boardwalk food stand.

[Exodus]

Something troubles me about my website design

Me too. :rolleyes:

[jimking]

I like it too. It's your baby, you'll always see a need to modify.:)

[wienerdog]

Maybe I'm just over-analyzing it, but the layout just doesn't work for me, and I don't think I've quite captured the style I intended. I'd like for the site to look more vintage, and the way I've created the graphics make it look too clean and modern.

[Exodus]

To get more of a vintage look. Use the colors you have but not as saturated. A dullar form of the colors you have will give you an aged look. If that makes sense...

[PrintDriver]

Your site is a cartoon. You are never going to get a really true 'vintage' look using a computer. Especially trying to use comp generated fonts. Look at old Ringling Bros. posters. That work was all hand illustrated. And beautifully done too.

[wienerdog]

Your site is a cartoon. You are never going to get a really true 'vintage' look using a computer. Especially trying to use comp generated fonts. Look at old Ringling Bros. posters. That work was all hand illustrated. And beautifully done too.

This is true, but if I dulled the color scheme a bit, and add some distressed texture to the border, it may look better. It's funny, I have a calendar of old Ringling Bros posters in my office that I should used as reference. I'd have to illustrate some art to truly mimic that look, but if I could get some sort of mashed-up look between the vintage, traditional poster designs of those days and the modern digital age, that would be pretty unique.

[PrintDriver]

That might be a disaster rather than 'unique'. You may want to go one way or the other, not get stuck in the middle and look undecided. Distressing things is more of a modern look now. It may come off as half baked.

[wienerdog]

So I took many people's advice and significantly revised the design of my site tonight. I may need to put some flourishes here and there, but I like this new layout much better, and the graphics look a little less cartoony.

I'm still working on re-organizing content and figuring out where everything should go (should I put news on the home page? should I move testimonials to About Me page? etc.).

If you have any constructive criticism or even praise, feel free to post-away!

http://www.evanwiener.com

[wienerdog]

This is the style of inspiration for my website design. I think I'm on the right track, but need to revise the fonts in my header graphics and add some more flourishes and deco elements (using images for content headers, etc.).

http://www.wgpark.com

There was an outdoor amusement park at the turn of the 20th century in Willow Grove, PA that featured rides and a music pavilion. It really looks like it was the place to be back then. The branding for the mall that's there now was recently revised to give it the classic look of the original park (shown on the website above).

I'd love to have a time machine and check this place out in its hey day.

[lattequeen]

I like the style but the part that is bothering me is how everything is split in half. It works for the content part, but it feels like the left and the right side are competing in the headers.

[PrintDriver]

Your fonts are anything but vintage. The dichotomy between the vintage color scheme of the background and the POW ZAP comic book colors of the logo and headers is too wide. As I said in an earlier post, go one way or the other.

[wienerdog]

I like the style but the part that is bothering me is how everything is split in half. It works for the content part, but it feels like the left and the right side are competing in the headers.

Your fonts are anything but vintage. The dichotomy between the vintage color scheme of the background and the POW ZAP comic book colors of the logo and headers is too wide. As I said in an earlier post, go one way or the other.

The font for the logo might still work with a different color scheme. It actually is somewhat similar to this one:

http://wgpark.com/images/other%5C1900Program.jpg

I think the font I used on the home page looks too 1970s, which is way later than the era I'm referencing:

http://www.evanwiener.com/images/header-home.jpg

The font used for the section names is the same as my logo. I was concerned that using too many fonts would be a problem. Should I choose a different font for my section names that's a little more subtle and more in-line with the early 20th century?

http://www.evanwiener.com/images/header-about.jpg

[PrintDriver]

The letters in Willow Grove Park go with the flow. There are no repeat characters even when characters are repeated.

If you are going to go with a style, research the style and find out what makes it unique. Vintage posters tended to use a lot of different fonts but there is almost always a hierarchy to them. And unless the fonts were typeset, they were hand lettered so repeats did not always look the same, especially when following curves and contours.
You've got 3 Es and 3 Ns in your logo all the same, with an out of period illo of a hot dog....

Are you rebranding yourself? Are you really sure about this carnival idea? Having a classy background look doesn't make the whole classy.

[wienerdog]

The letters in Willow Grove Park go with the flow. There are no repeat characters even when characters are repeated.

If you are going to go with a style, research the style and find out what makes it unique. Vintage posters tended to use a lot of different fonts but there is almost always a hierarchy to them. And unless the fonts were typeset, they were hand lettered so repeats did not always look the same, especially when following curves and contours.
You've got 3 Es and 3 Ns in your logo all the same, with an out of period illo of a hot dog....

I think I see what you mean about the typography. The R's in Willow Grove Park don't quite match, and I guess the L's don't quite look perfectly identical either. Are you suggesting I alter the repeated characters in my logo to reflect that look?

Are you rebranding yourself? Are you really sure about this carnival idea? Having a classy background look doesn't make the whole classy.

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Are you saying the logo just doesn't work with the new toned down color scheme and more cohesive layout, or do you think the whole theme just doesn't work for you. While I respect your opinion, I still think a classic amusement park theme is still a viable one for a nice layout. Maybe there's some tweaks that need to be made to ensure that I'm being consistent in my theme and scrapping elements that aren't working that were hold-overs from a previous design. This isn't styled after the local carnies' traveling show anymore, and while it still needs some tweaks (some image content headers with some nice flourishes and better font choice for the section headers), I think it's a vast improvement over the three sections on black layout.

[PrintDriver]

Have you 'gone live' with your current logo and cartoon site?

This one is a little more mature looking but not quite there yet.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that if you are rebranding your logo to match your current website art be darn sure you are gonna stay with the theme for quite some time - bearing in mind that Victorian flourishes are a 'trend' and may not be in style forever. You don't want to be redesigning your logo on a monthly basis, as it seems you do with your website.

The carnival theme is just a theme. It either works or it doesn't. I'm just trying to point out that you have a split in styles going on. To me that's what isn't working. Maybe it doesn't matter in this day and age where everything is a mash of styles anyway. You just might want to consider using two that compliment each other better...

[wienerdog]

Have you 'gone live' with your current logo and cartoon site?

This one is a little more mature looking but not quite there yet.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that if you are rebranding your logo to match your current website art be darn sure you are gonna stay with the theme for quite some time - bearing in mind that Victorian flourishes are a 'trend' and may not be in style forever. You don't want to be redesigning your logo on a monthly basis, as it seems you do with your website.

The carnival theme is just a theme. It either works or it doesn't. I'm just trying to point out that you have a split in styles going on. To me that's what isn't working. Maybe it doesn't matter in this day and age where everything is a mash of styles anyway. You just might want to consider using two that compliment each other better...

You raise a good point, and a lot of nouveau style flourishes are big today, but may be dead tomorrow. I think it will hold up better than the Apple rip-offs of the gloss buttons (I'm looking at you Windows Vista!) and reflective floor look. If the early 20th century motifs run out of juice in the next couple of years, or if this just doesn't capture anyone's attention, I can always revise. It's funny, I received the opposite reaction to this new layout from women my wife works with, but they aren't my target audience.

Thankfully, I designed the site with CSS, so while the graphics work will take some time to revise, if need-be, the site is constructed to be a little more future-proof and easier to manage than the version from last year. I revised this latest layout (black background with 3 sections) in under 3 hours. The version I created 2 years ago was a mess, a hot dog package graphic assembled in a table of a Photoshop-sliced image.

[wienerdog]

So I've tweaked the header font. I think this works well with the old school carnival theme:

http://www.evanwiener.com/images/header-design.jpg

I think it works well in context with the rest of the site. I'm still deciding if the design and apparel portfolio pages are taking too long to load. If so, I'll just have to split those pages into two because there's so many images to load.