first design.

tZ · 05-04-2009, 06:04 AM

How old are you? From your "portfolio" I wouldn't say your more then 14–17 yrs old fooling around with some software. Nothing in your "portfolio" demonstrates knowledge or experience in practical design methodology. Your portfolio is merely a combination of purposeless items such as banners and flashing gifs.

brodwilkinson · 05-04-2009, 07:53 AM

Originally posted by tZ View Post

How old are you? From your "portfolio" I wouldn't say your more then 14–17 yrs old fooling around with some software. Nothing in your "portfolio" demonstrates knowledge or experience in practical design methodology. Your portfolio is merely a combination of purposeless items such as banners and flashing gifs.

ohk, im 14 yes. but i have php, xhtml and css certificates to prove my knowledge in thoes areas. in vectoring im quite noob and in anything photoshop like rastering im the same.

although in the program msPaint myself and a friend are very experienced we are extreamly good msPaint artists. and after 3 years at creative sweat learning i do actually know about practical design methodology because i do graphics with all different mediums and well you need to know the basics at a centre such as creative sweat.

http://www.creativesweat.com.au/

now i feel like ive been whineing so im sorry, and i guess all the art work ive posted has been of stuff im not farmiliar with so i guess it doesnt look all that good.

thanks and sorry for whineing ;/.

tZ · 05-04-2009, 09:05 AM

HTML Code:

Name: <br />
<input type="text" name="visitor" size="35" />
<br />
Email:<br />
<input type="text" name="visitormail" size="35" />
<br />
Subject:<br />
<input type="text" name="sub" size="35" />
<br />
Message:
<br />

<textarea name="notes" rows="4" cols="40"></textarea>
<br />
<input type="submit" value="Send Mail" />

That doesn't look like the HTML of someone who knows what they are doing. You should be using the label tag and preferably a list element of some type. Furthermore, by using the size attribute your mixing presentation with structure which should be avoided. Instead you should control the size of the inputs using CSS unless you mean the number of characters. If you mean the number of characters then the correct attribute is maxlength not size.

HTML Code:

<ol>
	<li>
		<label for="visitor">Name:</label>
		<input type="text" name="visitor" id="visitor" maxlength="35" />
	</li>
	<li>
		<label for="visitormail">Email:</label>
		<input type="text" name="visitormail" id="visitormail" maxlength="35" />
	</li>
	<li>
		<label for="sub">Subject:</label>
		<input type="text" name="sub" id="sub" maxlength="35" />
	</li>
	<li>
		<label for="notes">Message:</label>
		<textarea name="notes" id="notes" rows="4" cols="40"></textarea>
	</li>
</ol>

Break is presentational. Therefore, you should never use it. Also, the for attribute references the id attribute of another element not the name attribute.

Also, having more then one h1 tag per page can hinder SEO. You should generally only ever use the h1 tag once per page. The h1 element should represent the one main dominate element on the page.

There is absolutely no reason why the below style is embedded rather then external unless its dynamic. I don't really see any reason why though it would be dynamic.

HTML Code:

	<style type="text/css">
		body{ color: #333; font: 13px 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, sans-serif;	}
	</style>

Cre8tivDirector · 05-04-2009, 03:45 PM

spell check spell check spell check!!!

bialtho · 05-07-2009, 02:56 PM

Ummmm... I loke the cartoon monkey, but not sure I quite get the rest of it. I am not sure you quite have the feeling for a CSS-style layout either; reminds me of the old tables days.

andysain · 05-11-2009, 04:04 PM

Layout is simple and crisp yet lacks that web 2.0 social networking/blog feel that i think you are going for...Text size too small, people will get frustrated.

You're using a 3rd party editor to code a site too which may cause you issues later on if you encounter problems and have to resort to looking at your code and 'hand finishing' it/troubleshooting.

Also backing up other comments...Duplicate H1 tags, excessive style tags and using PX size for text rather the EM which will increase the size of your text relatively and properly not forced which will disrupt your design.

Keep on coding...(Gotta love the web!)

aegraphic · 05-11-2009, 07:09 PM

Originally posted by tZ View Post

How old are you? From your "portfolio" I wouldn't say your more then 14–17 yrs old fooling around with some software. Nothing in your "portfolio" demonstrates knowledge or experience in practical design methodology. Your portfolio is merely a combination of purposeless items such as banners and flashing gifs.

tZ,
Don't you think that's a little harsh, not to mention unproductive? The kid asked for a critique on his website. What's he going to learn/improve from this?

and to the poster:
For a first attempt, I don't think you did too bad.
I would have liked to see some kind of navigation going on- at least in the form of anchors, so that I (as a user) can be aware of and quickly get to the stuff in the bottom of the page.

Also Andysain is right about the font size. I don't care about the em/px debate, just make it bigger.

and definitely work on those vector skills...!

jimking · 05-11-2009, 07:22 PM

You are tough tZ. Poor kid. He was so proud of his accomplishment and you let the air out of his balloon. Well, like my old man used to say to my brother and I when things didn't work out like we thought: Sons, as the ole Russian proverb goes "tough sheetzski"

arpowers · 05-13-2009, 11:20 PM

God damn this is a critical forum...

this is fine for a first attempt.. good work keep at it.

Andrew

NTLemon · 05-14-2009, 02:13 AM

I'm backing up tZ because even though getting an asspat for a job well done feels good it doesn't help you improve.

He was asking for critique, and saying its nice, good work, keep it up - while nice, doesn't help any does it?

Hopefully Brod realizes this and instead of getting defensive over his skills - works to improve his design and in the end he will get a greater benefit from that than by getting a mediocre compliment.

brodwilkinson · 05-14-2009, 06:11 AM

thanks for all your replies, and to NTLemon, i understand what he meant i guess. But being the first response i guess i was abit broken up over it.

NTLemon · 05-14-2009, 06:46 AM

Yeah I understand that too, its natural to defend your work that's as much a part of being a designer as anything - but with defending your work you need to be able to back it up with quality and I can see how the comments can come across as strong but with such a large diversity of age and talent that comes through its hard to say without evidence where someone is coming from and because most of the regular posters here are professionals the advice - while strong - is generally solid.

Even then however, no one ever stops improving, its a continuous process and you have the benefit of youth. Maybe you don't stack up to most professionals but I know I didn't have what it takes to build a web site at 14 either. (Shit I was still using dial-up) But take the comments, use them to improve, seek out what you don't know and learn it, and you will definitely be better off for it.

brodwilkinson · 05-14-2009, 10:27 AM

Originally posted by NTLemon View Post

Yeah I understand that too, its natural to defend your work that's as much a part of being a designer as anything - but with defending your work you need to be able to back it up with quality and I can see how the comments can come across as strong but with such a large diversity of age and talent that comes through its hard to say without evidence where someone is coming from and because most of the regular posters here are professionals the advice - while strong - is generally solid.

Even then however, no one ever stops improving, its a continuous process and you have the benefit of youth. Maybe you don't stack up to most professionals but I know I didn't have what it takes to build a web site at 14 either. (Shit I was still using dial-up) But take the comments, use them to improve, seek out what you don't know and learn it, and you will definitely be better off for it.

Currently im using dial-up, and i cant complain one bit. Like seriously, you get a awesome dial tone (unlike broadband) and you get way more errors to try and fix. And my computer is not from the 20th century either, im just saying this so i dont give the impression that i have what i want, when i want.

and i completely agree on what your saying, and i want to take a new approach to my work. upload sometime next week.

**garricks** · 05-14-2009, 12:00 PM

ROFL

You're all kids. When I was 14 there were no intertoobs. WE had to walk to school five miles in the pouring rain, uphill both ways. With a book bag.

Brood, good on you for taking the crit FWIW. I look forward to your next upload. I'm just starting down the HTML/CSS road myself.

first design.

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