My first website, architecture design and photography

[bdamit]

I have finally got round to webbing myself up, seeing as I have begun to form some kind of career at last.

As a complete 'tard when it comes to web design (never tried it before), I would like you all to have a good look and tell me what you DON'T like: Basic answers, like 'Everything' probably won't help me though :P
Also how it looks, feels, could develop, etc...

I am selling my services as 3D and p'shop artist and photographer, to architects and developers mainly, so I am trying the eye candy approach. Please note that I made this in one day (today) using simple software, it is a one page site atm, a bit heavy on the load, the thumbs need to be made into real thumbs, and I will be adding more pages for the galleries etc. to simplify the homepage, la la la....

So blaze away, I want to feel the pain_____________________ouch.

Thanks, and here's the page: www.arquitectonico3d.com

yup its hard to pronounce, but translates as architectural 3d.

Ta again. It'll take less time to go over than it takes to read this message.

8?)

[JPnyc]

Well it's a good looking page but it takes a bit of time to load and i'm on a blazing fast connection, also at 1152x864 screen res. there's a horizontal scroll bar for some reason. My screen appears to be much wider than the site so I'll guess there's no reason to have it there. There's a good 3-4" of white space to either side of it.

[bdamit]

Oh ****, so there is. hehehe

"Strike one!!"

Thanks, that's a biggy.

[keith1]

It did take a little while to load and I'm on a dsl connection. It looks pretty good though, however I didn't see any information about your company besides the contact info. I probably couldn't read it anyway because it's in a different language. Also the thumbnails aren't lined up nicely, they are all different sizes with some ackward white space surrounding them. I do like the giant background picture.

[bdamit]

Thanks guys. In my haste to get online yeaterday, I didn't get to do any tidying, so today I have got the large file sizes down, the thumbs are real thumbs, rather than reduced large files, and hopefully it loads quicker and is nicer to look at.

And Keith, i have added a blurb to describe what it is we (I) do, though I still need my gf to do the translation for me. I'd have a go but I'm not that advanced in written spanish either.

You have also given me the idea to add other language options now, which should be straight forward enough...

Thanks so far, keep it coming.

[keith1]

It looks a lot better now!!!

[Ulysses]

Looks good, but I find the vast font-size range a bit too heavy to swallow. I think the new thumbnail stacking works much better now too ... much more in keeping with architecture, though I can't help but think that some kind of contrast to break them apart more would make the world of difference. Perhaps white-space the area behind them, instead of allowing the background to mix with them.

Also try optimising your thumbnails ... they don't seem to be res-sized properly - they're appearing rather aliased. A shame, because there is some really nice work in the site.

[idaho]

I like the overall look, colors and layout with the following exceptions. The thumbnails seem to blend into the background. They need to stand out a little more.

The only other thing that bothers me is the copy describing your business. It needs work. I would definately remove the part that reads "As a new company..." It labels you as inexperienced. Not good if you are trying to get someone as a client.

I just think that it could be worded better. Remember, you are trying to sell a product.

Just my $.02

[bdamit]

Thanks guys, great input.

My answers and questions......

The thumbnails over the background do need to be brough forward a bit, its true.
I originally planned to put maybe one large thumb of each type of work, one sketch, one 3D render and a photo, which would link you to the relevent gallery page, but as I am warming to the fact that there is little need to add more complex navigation, I will separate the thumbs from the background, and leave them where they are for the moment.

Ulysses, are you talking about the thumbs or the linked images which are aliased? I'm new to this and could do with some lingo lessons...The thumbs themselves are 72x72, I'll look to see if I mistakenly resized them all in the page builder.
The gallery images I really need to make larger, I was experimenting with GIFs and JPGs, so its all a jumble. The original jpg images are so much sharper and really clean. I can afford to go a bit bigger with most of them too.

I found myself with little room for the copy, and wrote more than I had planned! My sister is a master at business copy (does it for Amex), so she has offered to get it spot on, which is fine by me. yay. Then my girl needs to translate it into spanish.

I personally think the phone and address type is not in harmony with the rest, thanks for pointing that out. After two solid days starting from complete scratch yesterday morning, I need a few fresh sets of eyeballs...

Thanks again, more to come.

[Anush]

If you can improve little bit of logo design of your website.
It comes out superb. Anyway its a good work