new website design, looking for input.

[David Schuurman]

Hey folks, as I really respect alot of you on here I'd really like to get your thoughts on the initial design of my new website. I just started working on it today and my goal was to keep it simple and clean. This image is supposed to be the home page.

my worry is that it's too simplistic as to seem unprofessional perhaps? What are your thoughts on the text design , overall layout, location of the social media icons, etc. Should I do anything to make it pop more in your opinions?

most important for me is your initial reaction to the site, what is the first thought that comes across your mind?

Thanks a billion you guys!

David.

www.dsweddingcinema.com/dswc_site.gif

[Chip Thome]

My first thought was "what the "he-double hockey sticks" is DSWC ??? I saw that first and had to look for the translation. I found it confusing.

I looks clean, but yes, IMO, a tad too simplistic. Possibly a border or different background, allowing the white page to pop a bit more ??? IMO, the white just goes on and on and on......

[Philip Howells]

David, unlike Chip I like white - lots of it. Apart from anything else almost everyone else is into black which is itself a good reason.

For me the visual has the merit of being eye-catching and different but is confusing. I'm less happy with the word cinema - unless you're doing things with a crew of ten and a scanner van is it a little pretentious? A question not even a view because we're struggling with a new description and it's easier finding words that are objectionable like video, videographer, videography etc than words that are right.

[Jeremy White]

Good work! I like the logo, colors, font. You kept it clean - which is good.

I teach media classes and when I'm going over design I tell people to remember CRAP.

Contrast
Repetition
Alignment
Proximity

Your page is somewhat lacking in contrast. Nothing really jumps out at you. I LOVE white for design, but you need to break it up some. Maybe make your photo larger and have the text underneath it (your photo could use some more "blacks". It'll make it pop a lot more) Maybe make our header text bold. That would really pop it out.

Great job on repetition. You maintained the same color scheme throughout.

Your alignment on the left side is kinda funky to me. I want to see a clean line under your header and text.

Proximity. I'd bring the subheadings a little closer together.

Again, everything looks fine. There's nothing glaring that jumps out at me as needing work, but I think a few tweaks and it could look really nice. Contrast is the area I'd most focus on.

[David Schuurman]

Fantastic input you Chip, Phillip, and Jeremy I really appreciate it. I have already changed a couple things but will adjust some more now based on some of the things you mention.

Jeremy, thanks for pointing out the alignment on the left. I just put that text chunk there without much thought and will definitely adjust it all to line up correctly. Regarding the spacing of the subcategories I added a BLOG category and spaced tehm out to be the length of the page, so they're the same distance apart but I did it that way to keep everything from looking left justified. thoguhts?

Phillip I chose cinema exactly for the reason you mention because video is something that has a negative connotation. Perhaps I just want my name to be immediately associated with my cinematic highlight films and cinematic is "of or pertaining to elements of cinema" so by using Cinema it's definitely more on the pretentious side but in the eyes of the layperson it is just one additional thing that sets my work apart from the nasty preconception of "video".

I'll post my next draft when its done. thanks guys!

[David Schuurman]

Hey guys heres my next draft...

http://www.dsweddingcinema.com/dswc_site2.jpg

I added an image in the background to break up the white a bit....thoughts? I left the subcategories spaced out because the site looks too left justified with them tighter. I boldened up the headers nd straightened out my lines.

[Jeremy White]

Much better!

I'm 50/50 on the picture in the background. It definitely makes it more interesting, but the header doesn't pop as much now.

Maybe make your subheadings in that light blue (it might not look good, I'd have to see it). Right now they kind of blend in with the header. I definitely would make them smaller and would NOT have them stretch across the page. Keep 'em left justified and maybe just a tab or two for spacing.

This is picky (but I figured you'd want to hear). There's a piece of tape stuck on the bottom of the brides shoe. Edit that out.

Just one other thought...Maybe make the text a dark grey rather than black. That will give more weight to the heading. Right now the top and bottom are both fighting for my attention.

It's looking really good though. Great job using our suggestions.

[Chris Davis]

It looks fine, but you need a more up-to-date Lorem Ipsum generator: Gangsta Lorem Ipsum dummy text generator

[Chip Thome]

First thing I saw was the new image, then the DSWC but now with the new image there, I next saw the full name. I no longer felt the confusion, as for whatever reason, my eyes went from image, to DSWC to name and in that order. Maybe the photo was in there too..... but not sure when.

Now, if you could fade that image out all the way around into the white..... way cool ! You'd probably have to make the page taller and wider so as to not make the fade abrupt.

[David Schuurman]

Jeremy, thanks again for the further suggestions. Especially regarding the shoes thing...it makes it so much better. I tried crunching the subheadings together and keeping them left justified and I hated it so I pushed em together and centred them, I like it alot better that way, I also flattened the font to differentiate it a bit. I also changed the text to a light grey and Arial but I accidentally left it black for this version. NBD Im putting that text in outside of photoshop anyhow so its easily editable.

Chris, great suggestion! I think thats what my site was missing, I complied! (but not before checking if there was anything rude in the paragraph lol)

Chip, I added a gradient to white on the two necessary edges. thanks for that suggestion.

http://dsweddingcinema.com/dswc_site3.jpg

[Chris Harding]

Hi David

I started with my site a dark charcoal grey background, essentially replicating other sites (but mainly cos my wife said so!!) Afetr a while I decided to secretly switch back to white and to me, a clean website is better (and loads faster too!!!)

I have brides who book me directly off my website so it's doing it's job. I don't believe in providing just minimum information so my site has basically everthing a bride needs to make a "then and there" decision to book....I must admit, if I was a bride trying to work to a budget, I would by-pass sites where they say ..."contact us for prices" ... Most brides like to know at least your price range and what they will get for their money. However you still have plenty of sites where there is minimal information but enough to entice the bride to make contact..I still prefer the direct route and most of my brides will either email or phone me and say "I want to book you" .. From a business point of view and my poor sales skills it made sense to me!!

We look forward to the end result!!

Chris