Looking for ideas/help with a header design!

[Allied 77]

Hey,

First post here, so apologies for committing the sin of requesting some help. Not a webdesigner and not a graphic designer and thesedays, when every man and his dog who has a computer seems to be calling themselves that, I don't think I could ever bring myself to those lows. So I'm coming to the professionals for a bit of advice.

Making my first website for the place I work (yup, man many problems but you know), and I'm finally starting to get the thing working. Problem is, the top header I made just feels prety bare and uninteresting. I'm not afraid of white space at all, just feels like it lacks something.

So I was just wondering if anyone here had any ideas of what to do with it?

http://hem.bredband.net/neuntoter/allied/index2.htm

Please be gentle ;) it's my very first site.


Thanks in advance
Mark

[shalom_m]

Looks fine and interesting too.
In fact, I shall be in Vancouver late June and am sufficiently interested to visit the company.

Some minor suggestions.
The header looks fine. The reason why it seems bland is that the graphic of the poppies is a bit too strong. Consider changing or reducing contrast.

You have used rounded corners for most of the page. The two light grey boxes "Benitifs of recycled Printing Material" and "Computer to Plate" (hey should it not be Benefits?) look a little out of place without rounded corners.

Coding.
I do not consider myself one of those anti-table zealots, but your site would benefit from more CSS and less tables.

[simplicity]

Nice and clean design all around. As far as the header I don't really like the contrast of the blues. I think the header is interesting. Clean and simple how I like things to be. I do have a few suggestions though. The blue color used on print and the orange work well together. I also don't like reflections. Those are just my opinions.

[melbelle80]

my first thoughts were to make the header itself smaller so the logo doesn't look like it's just floating around.

[selenemoon1022]

I like the reflections, they give the illusion of depth, they're subtle enough to be unobtrusive. Since this area gives the appearance of depth I think the vector swoosh seems a bit out of place or lacking in said depth, it looks a bit like an after thought. Or as if it's to close in the foreground and not a part of the whole. IMHO

[stagnate]

Initally I liked it, so i looked at it while I was having lunch and now I have some suggestions.

I would consider aligning some of the elements for example, the AlliedPrintLtd is close to being half of that top space so why isnt it? Or maybe it would benefit from being in a space quarter of that top space. Also it is about the same width as the links below but is juuust off about 10 - 15 px which i find a little distracting. The final thing which isnt really working for me is the Ltd, maybe this could do with a little treatment, maybe on its side would look interesting becase at the moment I feel its only in the middle of the 't' because it seems to fit in there.

Those are just some of my thoughts, i love the poppies and the paint splash :). I think overall the site really lends itself to being bombarded with content and still looking good (which is great!).

[blacksmoke]

Its look empty somewhere! but its nice header! Good Work :)

[INDY GS]

Pretty nice, the one thing I don't like, which is a pet peeve of mine, are the ink splooges all over the site. This suggests to me sloppy work. I know printing can be messy, but lets not advertise it.

It's like a dentist logo being an extracted tooth, or a painter using a splash for a logo. both are things that happen, but I'd rather not have that be my impression.