mrjames
Suspended / Banned
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- Edit My Images
- Yes
Hi, i've just redesigned my website and I would like a really honest critique
the site is www.clarkjamesdigital.com
The design style is intentionally 'vintage', my 2 main sources of inspiration are art deco and the 1980's! I think my logo reflects this but I haven't found a way to incorporate it into the site yet!
It is styled to have 4 coloums, but on big screens it shows 5, I need to set a fixed width so it is always 4, or possibly 3
Some reservations I have already are that:
1) I do too much
(but i'm trying to market myself as a 'photographer'- not a wedding photographer, or a portrait photographer, rather just a plain old photographer- who is capable of anything, and I want to be seen as a jack of all trades, master of all. I look at a master like Dean Collins and I see fashion, automotive, portrait, still life- and he does killer work in all those fields, I wan't to be that person)
2) there's too much information
(I have a lot of services to offer, and a lot of people to market to- and some of the services I offer are not immediately obvious and therefore require explaining about why and how they would benefit the customer- my largest customer base (artists) didn't exist until I started doing a few reproduction prints and then all of a sudden everyone wanted a piece when I explained how it would benefit them)
3) it's not clear within 4 seconds who I am and what I do
(but I don't even know who I am and what I do, i'm throwing a lot of stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks, but maybe it isn't clear enough that i'm even a photographer- what do you think?)
The page is typeset in bodoni and futura, and I know a lot of windows computers dont have futura- so if it reverts to arial then clearly you don't have futura, my clients are 99% mac anyway but i'm looking to embed the font so it will always display on every device.
The funny thing is I'm fine at designing other people's sites I just cant do my own, and the sites I design for other clients are usually portfolio based, so they're just an expose of their work while they look for employment- with my site being both an expose and a commercial venture i'm finding it difficult to figure out how to design it, particularly when my client base is mostly graphic designers, artists, and people who care about visuals and typefaces, and wouldn't trust me unless my site was beautiful. I could make a commercial site pretty easy but my clients don't want to see commercial, they want to feel like i'm on their level, so maybe I should put this question on a graphic design forum too, hmm. But I would really like your opinion in terms of navigation etc.
I'm thinking of adding a landing page that just has something like 'Clark James Digital- photographer // designer // consultant' and then my logo, and you can click on the relevant section
Should I split my services into different websites?
I kinda want to keep it all under one roof, and for it to be interesting enough for people to want to read through things they might not have clicked on otherwise
I know there is a lot of text, but in my experience being able to write at length is the mark of an expert in that field, I know you might say that keywords and succint sentences are important but my client base (artists) love to read and love to research.
the site is www.clarkjamesdigital.com
The design style is intentionally 'vintage', my 2 main sources of inspiration are art deco and the 1980's! I think my logo reflects this but I haven't found a way to incorporate it into the site yet!
It is styled to have 4 coloums, but on big screens it shows 5, I need to set a fixed width so it is always 4, or possibly 3
Some reservations I have already are that:
1) I do too much
(but i'm trying to market myself as a 'photographer'- not a wedding photographer, or a portrait photographer, rather just a plain old photographer- who is capable of anything, and I want to be seen as a jack of all trades, master of all. I look at a master like Dean Collins and I see fashion, automotive, portrait, still life- and he does killer work in all those fields, I wan't to be that person)
2) there's too much information
(I have a lot of services to offer, and a lot of people to market to- and some of the services I offer are not immediately obvious and therefore require explaining about why and how they would benefit the customer- my largest customer base (artists) didn't exist until I started doing a few reproduction prints and then all of a sudden everyone wanted a piece when I explained how it would benefit them)
3) it's not clear within 4 seconds who I am and what I do
(but I don't even know who I am and what I do, i'm throwing a lot of stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks, but maybe it isn't clear enough that i'm even a photographer- what do you think?)
The page is typeset in bodoni and futura, and I know a lot of windows computers dont have futura- so if it reverts to arial then clearly you don't have futura, my clients are 99% mac anyway but i'm looking to embed the font so it will always display on every device.
The funny thing is I'm fine at designing other people's sites I just cant do my own, and the sites I design for other clients are usually portfolio based, so they're just an expose of their work while they look for employment- with my site being both an expose and a commercial venture i'm finding it difficult to figure out how to design it, particularly when my client base is mostly graphic designers, artists, and people who care about visuals and typefaces, and wouldn't trust me unless my site was beautiful. I could make a commercial site pretty easy but my clients don't want to see commercial, they want to feel like i'm on their level, so maybe I should put this question on a graphic design forum too, hmm. But I would really like your opinion in terms of navigation etc.
I'm thinking of adding a landing page that just has something like 'Clark James Digital- photographer // designer // consultant' and then my logo, and you can click on the relevant section
Should I split my services into different websites?
I kinda want to keep it all under one roof, and for it to be interesting enough for people to want to read through things they might not have clicked on otherwise
I know there is a lot of text, but in my experience being able to write at length is the mark of an expert in that field, I know you might say that keywords and succint sentences are important but my client base (artists) love to read and love to research.
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