ps2gamer.org

Hey, i only have the basic header done, but let me know what you think

And this is My Second Layout so far

Any Ideas on what to do for content and menu boxes??

Well, improve on the header first before you start on the content area.

o.
I thought the header was good..

Hi Blip,

Thanks for posting. I must agree with Nightspy on this one. You have my respect for trying to venture and make it yourself. A few pieces of advice if I may :

- Try to avoid using filters to decorate the background of your header, it looks quite cheap, common and I'm sorry to say it...tacky.

- The text in the header is barely readable, make the font something more understandable and don't use so many effects. Also the dropshadow will look better being set to 90 degrees and faded to around 60% opacity. Set distance to 1 and size to around 3

Something that I find common in web layouts at the moment is the extensive use of gray for content areas and boxes. This is quite a boring way to design a website/ Try using either plain white or shades of other colours (making sure they are not too cataclysmic)

Any Ideas for the header, i wanted that basic style with the stripes behind it, but I dont know what to do, ill experiment.

Guys, remember that not everyone here comes from a strong designing background (or any designing background for that matter) so comments in the nature of "Well, improve on the header first before you start on the content area", are of no help whatsoever.

Anthony headed in a better direction by offering changes which could be made. Shame about the "gray" comments towards the end when you consider this very site (*wink*). However his comments still don't go far enough (IMHO) to help a new designer move along.

blip, I commend you for coming into the group wishing to improve on your design -- after all that is what we're here for! -- and I would like to offer a few of my own ideas. Try to make the main portion of the header stand a little more proudly from the stripey background. You already have tried dropshadows (or emboss, I can't quite tell) but try either making them more pronounced and/or moving their direction to over the background (with a lighter shade of shadow... ie, light gray/white). This should separate the background and header more strongly which adds depth to the image.

For the navigation, your first change should be the text colour. Dark blue on mid-dark gray really does not provide anywhere near enough contrast for easy reading. You could either lighten the gray bar and leave the text dark blue, or change the text colour to a lighter one with maybe a dark border (stroke) around the letters if you find that looks better. I would also suggest moving the "Home | News | Downloads..." underneath the "PS2Gamer.org" header so that they align nicely, rather than centering it on the page.

Finally, and back to the header. I would also suggest decreasing the opacity of the green stripes (ie, make them more transparent) as backgrounds are best done subtly in anything but fairly rare circumstances. I think this style of design needs a subtle background rather than a strong one.

Cheers,
Salathe

Good comments Peter, I'll talk to you later on about the grey on this site

Ok.
Before i continue on this design, im going to do lots of like tutorials, or just read about colors.
Jon-kyle / MeltedPixel, gave me some great sites to check out