looking for advice

[0xdefec8]

Hi, I'd like to preface this with that I'm _not_ a professional designer, just a guy trying to make a webpage for my mom :) So I have this webpage header so far, and I sort of like it, but I have a feeling there's some basic design rules I'm not aware of that might make it better.

1) suggestions for this image? (ignoring size issues)
2) suggestions for books/websites for more theoretical/web specific design tips?

Much appreciated,
-Steve

http://www.gouletisgood.com/closeup4.gif

[budafist]

Welcome 0xdefec8.

Get rid of the blue outline on the text. Outlines on script fonts make it difficult to read and distracting. Choose either blue or white. Or choose a different font if you must outline the text.

The head area of the butterfly illustration looks strange. What is going here? Is it it bad cutting out or is it a fluffy headed butterfly?

[matttyson]

Hi

It looks pretty good for a non designer. For me, I really don't like to see those script fonts generated with a computer.

I would look for some nice calligraphy and use the computer to render it finally.

This would give a more genuine personal touch. If you could maybe illustrate the butterfly in the same style as the lettering, I feel that it would work much better as a logo.

[Ovaltine]

I'd go with a different font, or do what Matttyson said. Right now, I'm reading "close-up" as "clone-up" at a glance.

[YNOT]

First off...welcome to gdf Steve! There are a lot of great designers here that will certainly be able to help you to make this project really great.

Secondly...nice work for someone who is 'not' a designer. I really like the blue and purple on the black...very nice. I agree though that the lettering should not be outlined in a different color as it does make it hard to read. Maybe just stick with white.

Also...you might try a more stylistic font for the text but as you said, you're not a designer so you may or may not have many font options on your computer. There are several places to go to for free fonts if you want to do some searching for them you may find something a little more unique.

All-in-all I'd say you're off to a great start. Keep us posted on the full site as you go.

[BJMRGTIVR6]

One thing I might try is to switch the buttons on the right to a sans serif font.

That is something like Arial/Helvetica/Gill Sans/Futura/and the like.
This will help distinguish the buttons from teh header.

[0xdefec8]

Thank you all for the suggestions; they're exactly what I couldn't put my finger on. So I changed the buttons to sans serif and I found a nifty font for the title as suggested and took away the outline. The white lettering by itself still seems like it needs ephasis, so I've been playing around with different ways to highlight it without compromising readability. Further suggestions welcome.

http://www.gouletisgood.com/closeup6.gif

http://www.gouletisgood.com/closeup5.gif

http://www.gouletisgood.com/closeup7.gif

http://www.gouletisgood.com/closeup9.gif

[morea]

hmm, that "r" in "personal" looks a lot like a "v" to me.

[teniworks]

I would still try a different font for the "close up and personal". When I look at it on my screen it makes my eyes hurt because the font used is so narrow. I also wouldn't use any highlights behind the text-it doesn't add anything. As a matter of fact the second example is even harder to read. Try working with the font choice a bit more and that should allow for you to have both readability and elegance. Nice job though for a "non-designer" :)

[Ned]

I think you still need to finda different font. You should have a much cleaner, well scripted font. This one looks like a 9 year old wrote it.

Both fonts you showed us suffered from terrible aliased edges. What program did you use to create this, and where did you get the fonts from (ie, were they free fonts)?

[0xdefec8]

The aliasing is a scaling issue on GDF; right click the image and click "view image" to get an undistorted view. But jaggies aside, I'll take the font suggestions into consideration.

I think you still need to finda different font. You should have a much cleaner, well scripted font. This one looks like a 9 year old wrote it.

Both fonts you showed us suffered from terrible aliased edges. What program did you use to create this, and where did you get the fonts from (ie, were they free fonts)?

[Ned]

Ah, I sort of suspected it might have been resized, but I wasn't sure. I didn't notice the big image pop up first, and I only saw the aliasing on the one line of text, so I assumed that was the problem. :)