Crespire - Please Review?

Hey guys, long time no browse.

Well, as I respect a lot of people's views and idea's here, I figured I'd ask you guys to review a new site of mine.

http://www.crespire.com

It's been open since May 22nd and we think it's doing quite well, but we wouldn't mind a few professional opinions on its progress.

odd choice of colours the banner looks a mess, and the content area looks alright.

Originally Posted by northpark odd choice of colours the banner looks a mess, and the content area looks alright.

We said we wanted a review. Not a critique on the design.

Care to expand rather than just insult?

Originally Posted by Dave Care to expand rather than just insult?

Wasn't an insult, i was telling you things that I thought were wrong with the template. Expansion is located below.

I feel like the template was created in pieces, the only coherence between the pieces is the same general colour scheme, the differences as i see them are as follows: The gradients are all of different methods; and they all conflict with eachother, While the lime green is in place in two of the major elements (content and header) it is AWOL in the side bars; that makes them stick out as being very differerent. I have also observed that the navigation bars cause a redundancy; only one is nessecary, and since you have enough problems with the side bars, and seeing as it has less, I would suggest its removal. The navigation unit at the top also is at fault of many things: the font/colour choice is horrendous - it doest stick out at all and I didn't even notice it the first time i visited the site. The side bars and footer are oddly out of place, I am not sure why you decided to colour border/footer a complete different colour, maybe to draw attention to a not-as important part of the template, or perhaps it was a mistake. May i also add the the 'Quick Links' option is not working for me.

For the content; there isn't much to judge, you have made three posts, none offering a smidge of 'Creative Content', one stating your mission statement (another flame war another time), another welcoming users to the forum and suggesting that they view the T&C, and the final announcing a contest. As this is a forum based community there isn't much to judge (as to what you have created, some of your user's work is quite good.) And since I do not feel like browsing through and viewing all your posts, I will leave it at that.

If you have any problems with what I said, then I suggest you stop asking for peoples opinions and reviews, because that is what I provided -- My view of your site.

We've seen too many generic peices of art and want to show our users that if they expand into created work they've never tried before, they'll improve dramatically.

Idk if your goal is to be helping designers be better and original.. the design is incredibly important. I think you should consider hiring a respectable designer from TF and get him to do it. It will cost you 200$ easy but It will look very nice and professional.

professional undertone is required

^ The design doesnt really get that point across.

Short And Sweet The design would be fine if it was a cooking site but since its about design I think you need to close down for "Updates" and re-skin this puppy.

Originally Posted by northpark Wasn't an insult, i was telling you things that I thought were wrong with the template. Expansion is located below. I feel like the template was created in pieces, the only coherence between the pieces is the same general colour scheme, the differences as i see them are as follows: The gradients are all of different methods; and they all conflict with eachother, While the lime green is in place in two of the major elements (content and header) it is AWOL in the side bars; that makes them stick out as being very differerent. I have also observed that the navigation bars cause a redundancy; only one is nessecary, and since you have enough problems with the side bars, and seeing as it has less, I would suggest its removal. The navigation unit at the top also is at fault of many things: the font/colour choice is horrendous - it doest stick out at all and I didn't even notice it the first time i visited the site. The side bars and footer are oddly out of place, I am not sure why you decided to colour border/footer a complete different colour, maybe to draw attention to a not-as important part of the template, or perhaps it was a mistake. May i also add the the 'Quick Links' option is not working for me. For the content; there isn't much to judge, you have made three posts, none offering a smidge of 'Creative Content', one stating your mission statement (another flame war another time), another welcoming users to the forum and suggesting that they view the T&C, and the final announcing a contest. As this is a forum based community there isn't much to judge (as to what you have created, some of your user's work is quite good.) And since I do not feel like browsing through and viewing all your posts, I will leave it at that. If you have any problems with what I said, then I suggest you stop asking for peoples opinions and reviews, because that is what I provided -- My view of your site.

That's exactly the kind of responce I was looking for - an expanded opinion for a review.

I just didn't appreciate one sentence with nothing more than what came accross as a pure, unjustified insult.

So what do you want us to review? The content?

Originally Posted by JamesH So what do you want us to review? The content?

Every aspect. Not just the design.

If we want to look to improve, then some guy just slating it in a few words isn't going to help.

Originally Posted by JamesYooKay Every aspect. Not just the design. If we want to look to improve, then some guy just slating it in a few words isn't going to help.

Alrighty. Its a forum skin. Therefore what northpark says does apply as a review. He just likes to make his critiques short and sweet most of the time . This is what i think:

I do not like the color scheme. Green and blue is sometimes a hard color combination. Either you pull it off, or you don't. Examples: pixel2life and talkfreelance, they use green and blue, and they look fabulous! However, i don't find your combination of green and blue to be as effective. The shade of green is probably what is messing it up. But thats just my opinion.

The banner doesn't look that good IMO as well. The logo text isn't that good. I'm not going to critique the logo (shapes), because i don't know squat about logos .

I like the shade of blue you used in the actual forum and the rest of the skin. IMO the gradient is pretty good.

All in all, the color scheme and the header needs work.

Hope that helps.