Um. The website is bad, but the forums look better than usual (assuming that's a premade).

I've given up, I really have. I've spent hours talking to you on MSN, giving you pointers. Hell, I even offered to screen-tutor you in Flash.

Wow. A design site where the guy who designed the skin isn't even a moderator for the design boards and the guy who couldn't design to save his life is both the main admin and the design board moderator.

Kinda seems that you're trying to learn how to run before you can walk.

no you're not. Sorry.

@ Fredy:
I don't know Fredy, he's defiantly got talent, he just doesn't execute it to its potential. I've seen some of his smaller things and they're quiet good. But the problem (I see) is he wants to work on a higher level.

@ Xuzi:
Look, you can't come into the design world and expect to be right up there straight away. It takes time, practice and commitment. You have to work your way up. Most of the guys here do this professionally, which is why you're here, I assume; to learn and develop. I mean look at Jesse, she's come a long way and she's turning out to be quite a good designer.

you need to start at the bottom, and move up. The design world is highly competitive, which is why I only do it for fun. Listen to suggestions, take all the help you can get and don't challenge these guys all the time. I mean iiPod for example, just look at his work. Who wouldn't take advice from that guy? You've butted heads with pretty much everyone here apart from me, and it's noticeable. I don't know why, so lets start afresh. - I know it sounds like I'm being an asshole, but it's unintentional.

If you really wanna do this, I'm willing to help. But don't go off on a tandem - you have to listen and you'll progress. Studio Zero loves nothing more (I know, I'm not staff - But I reckon nobody will mind me saying it) than to see a designer develop, advance and become a great designer. Hopefully you can be that guy.


Last Edit: Dec 21, 2009 18:58:59 GMT by newfieldgrafix

Uh, what? 'Doing your own style' has absolutely nothing to do with default Photoshop terms. If you've never heard of these terms, then I'm amazed that you got this far.

Lies. You specifically told me "I'LL NEVER TAKE ADVICE FROM YOU."

Because I gave you advice on 3 or 4 of your designs, and you simply ignored me, or shrugged off the advice. That was not the advice I gave you, and I'm sick and tired of seeing everyone spending their hard time trying to help you, then seeing you completely disregard everything they say. Frankly, I could care less whether or not you took my advice, because if you did, you'd manage to fuck that up as well. I hope for the sake of everyone here that you get better at designing. Maybe then you'll realize that we're not picking on you. Maybe then, you'll realize that the advice the members at SZ gave you, was to help you.

In the beginning, I honestly wanted you to succeed. I wanted to see you get as far as some of the greater designers here at SZ, and even on DeviantART. Then you went and started freaking out over karma. That there, made me lose a bit of respect for you. Nonetheless, I was still interested in seeing you become a great designer. When I gave you the advice to look at a tutorial, that wasn't a secret way for me to insult you; it was actually me telling you to check out a tutorial. Everyone started out there. Everyone. Even Ben, Stinky, Josh, and Fredy started out with tutorials. They're there to help. You honestly should check some out. After you posted a few concepts that looked nearly identical, and showed few signs of improvement, I gave up on you. I can't help someone who isn't interested in improving.

Anyways, all the times I flipped out at you, is because you either completely ignored advice my friends (or I) gave you, or because you were starting something with another member or staff member. I'm not trying to attack you, it's just that you really piss me off sometimes. I'm hoping we can start over, but if not, I'm not overly interested in trying.

Did I call that or what? I saw your designs and gave advice. Leave it to you to waste my time fucking apologizing to you. I'm not sorry for flipping out now. I'm sorry for ever wanting to help you.

I dont even know what to say TBH....

Making the whole site an image is very unprofessional... and i just dont like the design.

Well the website is obviously not finished yet but you should work more on getting your images more crisp and use the space more.

For some good tutorials on how to design websites, look here.
net.tutsplus.com/
creativenerds.co.uk/tutorials/70-tutorials-using-photoshop-to-design-a-website/
www.webdesigndev.com/

About the forum. Never ever use red text on a black background (never use red on black in general) Because color-blind people can't see it then.

The rest is pretty good I guess but you should improve the logo so that it is just not only text. Get some graphics in there as well. And preferably use a lighter color for the text so it is easier to see it on the dark background.

Good start though mate

xmsteel.deviantart.com/gallery/

Xuzi, considering you link to that and it's the same username, I assume it's your gallery (or that you're a ripper, in which case I have a screenshot. ) You have stuff there that is FAR more impressive than what you have here. But look closely at the stuff that is "impressive" (speaking by comparison.) It's all abstract. What does this mean? Your best style is abstract. That's how I was when I started. All I knew how to do was abstract... because it's the easiest.

Unfortunately, the rest of designing is not nearly as easy. There is much more thinking and patience involved than just doing clouds and a few more filters to create effects. That's what the members here are trying to get you to understand. You need to be more patient. I went through the first three pages and found 18 of the 59 threads by you. Just under 1/3 of the threads are by you. I think that means you might be posting a few too many. You need to put a bit more time into each piece of work to improve your ability on web design.

Let's start by touching this one up into a more "perfected" piece. Ignoring the fact it's a completely different scheme from your forum, we need to work on consistency. Here are a few things to do:

Buttons should be the same size in at least one direction, unless it's a stylistic disecretion. Buttons should have the same font size and styling.

i147.photobucket.com/albums/r301/adobe56/dabtn.png
i147.photobucket.com/albums/r301/adobe56/frmbtn.png

Ok, so those two have the same dimension physically... they're both 80x35. But if I open them in Photoshop and do Image -> Trim (see, this is how we'll try to help you learn functions. this one removes transparent pixels, among other things), I get 72x25 and 70x26. Obviously these buttons are NOT the same size. Which makes me believe you didn't use the copy layer ability. Do you know how to use this? I'm asking purely in the interest of helping. 'cause if you don't, asking us is the easiest way to learn, right?

Either way, you should use the copy ability so at least the heights are the same. Now is the trickier part... getting the fonts to match. We can do this one of two ways:

1) Stretch the deviantART button horizontally
2) Abbreviate "Deviant Art" as something like "dA" or "dA Gallery."
(P.S. Try to be professional... it's "deviantART" not "Deviant Art." Professionalism will help draw in people who notice flaws, like Zell. )

Either way, we want the buttons to be consistent. This will make the website have more of a "flow" and more welcoming to the member. I'd also try to recommend matching the button size with the "Continue to Website" button, but obviously the text matching doesn't need to be consistent there. Why not? Because it's not part of the same menu. Consistency does not need to be 100% fluent. You'll get a better idea of this through more and more critiques and experimentation.


Make some evenly spaced text padding.

Your text on this image needs some padding. It's currently ramming into the borders. That makes it difficult on your users to read. If you padded it inward some, it'd be easier to read and look prettier, frankly.



for now, that's all I feel like commenting on. Try touching that stuff up and let's see what you come up with. We can work with you from there.