Hey ladies and dudes,

I'm never really seem to be happy with stuff I do for myself for more than about a week or so. It seems like any time I re-do my own website there's only about a month or two period of time before I start working on the next one. I usually work pretty slow on the next one, so they usually last a little while.

Anyway, as my interests have waned from the graphic and web design fields and more into the path I'm on now (3rd year Journalism student at the University of Cincinnati this year ) I've found myself shifting my personal site from being so "professional" to being more of just an online portfolio and "if you wanna pay me to do something, here's my contact info" kind of thing.

In the near future I see the site including more writing and photography oriented and less graphic. I've basically removed the web design aspect of the site, since I'd rather not bother with that stuff and all the "good" webwork I do is freelance stuff on sites other people originally designed.

So I've gotten moving on a new refresh for my site. It's been slow moving because I've been making an effort to make this one as "right" as possible, using all divs and css stuff. It's been interesting and I've learned a lot of stuff I think is pretty cool and interesting.

Anyway, here is where I am at the moment. Nothing exciting yet at all, just the general look and navigation. I showed a non-design minded friend and I realized that there's nothing exciting there visually yet, but I was excited to have no tables, absolute positioned div, different styles in different divs, and stuff.. he didn't get it, hahaha.

Links dont go anywhere yet, the index is all there is so far. The content will be inside divs with partially transparent, light colored backgrounds, layout in some fashion in the big area. Haven't decided how I'll have it yet.. so far I've just been working on the behind scenes stuff and the "look" of the site.
http://www.6644graphics.com/testing/newsite/

I just wanted to see what some people had to say, see if I'm doing anything particularly wrong, see if people can point me toward some tips to improve what I have so far, or some stuff I should look into for the rest of the re-design.

I also wanted to ask, I've been planning on using Lightbox in my image galleries this time. Is this a good idea? bad idea? should I use something else? I try to keep my sites very simple, I think this little trick would be a nice way to add a little spice to the mix.


here is what my current site looks like.
6644graphics.com

Nothing special, and nothing special on it but I do think the new site is an improvement... I'm not really happy with stuff in the portfolio, but I haven't done much stuff in a while so I don't a lot of stuff to put in there. Like I said, I've basically shifted my focus away from design and into writing. In time, I'll abandon the design stuff for the most part, get a new domain, and building a writing focused site but I'm waiting to have a decent portfolio first, unlike I did with this graphc stuff.. but hey, I started this site when I was like 16.

Whatever criticism you have, and info or help you can lend is much appreciated. You're not going to hurt my feelings. I know my portfolio can use some improvement. Part of the reason I've moved away from marketing myself professionally, and this new site is going to do so even more.

Thanks folks!