17 replies to this topic

[Jimmy]

Hi everyone!
(Mods- sorry if this sort of request is in the wrong area, it seemed to be the most reasonable place when I looked! If it is, please do move it somewhere else! )
Our brains are fried trying to think of any possible web designs for a charitable, sort of fund raising program underway by a group of friends (mainly for helping out the homeless by providing paid jobs for them with running a buisness.) This is kinda a new idea, although we have been working hard to get something like this to help out the (trustworthy) homeless around the reading area. This has been a project as a group of friends over a rather long time, although we just lost one of our group to a different college (which turned out to be in our favour, he was a good friend though!). He was being rather unrealistic and just generally pulling things down. Because of his bad organisation a £1,700 fund raising climb (all money had been sponsored and totalled) had to be called off. Twice!. It never actually happened. Anyway... Moans over, now we can continue...
Basicly, we need a website up and running to get support, but none of us have any ideas that are any good for site layout or just the overall design. I don't mean to ask for any coding or website building to be done, maybe just knock up a template in photoshop or something that looks good. (I'll take it from there and put it into web format ). As of now the name of the charity is SecondLife (although we may change it due to legal reasons or in favour of a more catchy title!) We don't really have a logo, but room to put a logo in would be useful, maybe at the top or sides of a page.

What we would like is a navigation area of the page, maybe in a dedicated box along the left side, with another box somewhere, possibly just below that? for latest news bulletins. If you think it would be a good idea to get some sort of banner made up to fill a band across the top of the screen, or the part to the right of any nav boxes please say so and I'll get working on it. (I think this would be a good idea). The rest of the stuff - colours, (background texture?), boxes or borders need to be sorted and thats pretty much what we need help deciding on, along with the layout of these things, like where boxes should be to look good etc.. As I said, It'd be great if you could put together a visual layout or something in photoshop (or anything else for that matter) that we could use as our design!
(Credit would go to whomever helped us out majorly, with respect plastered on the site to them as well!!! ;D)

We already have most of the content and pages down on paper and we're just waiting for slow old me to get a site ready to lob it all into!

We all would appreciate it very, very much if someone would help us out by getting a nice look for our site, and maybe even help us out by sponsoring the reincarnation of the twice failed climb - Details will be found on the site when it goes! (I'll probably start another topic somewhere else to get interest! )
Thanks in advance; Ben, James and the team!

Edited by Jimmy, 19 September 2006 - 09:48 PM.

[tdktank59]

I might be able to whip up something for you

I dont know exactly waht you want but im guessing maybe do some stuff with lighter colors (looks more profesional) whites, greys/silvers and so on to have it be sort of a welcome to the site feel and that sort of stuff

but anyways ill see what i can do for you

[mtvoyagers]

Jimmy, on Sep 19 2006, 04:31 PM, said:

Hi everyone!
(Mods- sorry if this sort of request is in the wrong area, it seemed to be the most reasonable place when I looked! If it is, please do move it somewhere else! )
Our brains are fried trying to think of any possible web designs for a charitable, sort of fund raising program underway by a group of friends (mainly for helping out the homeless by providing paid jobs for them with running a buisness.) This is kinda a new idea, although we have been working hard to get something like this to help out the (trustworthy) homeless around the reading area. This has been a project as a group of friends over a rather long time, although we just lost one of our group to a different college (which turned out to be in our favour, he was a good friend though!). He was being rather unrealistic and just generally pulling things down. Because of his bad organisation a £1,700 fund raising climb (all money had been sponsored and totalled) had to be called off. Twice!. It never actually happened. Anyway... Moans over, now we can continue...
Basicly, we need a website up and running to get support, but none of us have any ideas that are any good for site layout or just the overall design. I don't mean to ask for any coding or website building to be done, maybe just knock up a template in photoshop or something that looks good. (I'll take it from there and put it into web format ). As of now the name of the charity is SecondLife (although we may change it due to legal reasons or in favour of a more catchy title!) We don't really have a logo, but room to put a logo in would be useful, maybe at the top or sides of a page.

What we would like is a navigation area of the page, maybe in a dedicated box along the left side, with another box somewhere, possibly just below that? for latest news bulletins. If you think it would be a good idea to get some sort of banner made up to fill a band across the top of the screen, or the part to the right of any nav boxes please say so and I'll get working on it. (I think this would be a good idea). The rest of the stuff - colours, (background texture?), boxes or borders need to be sorted and thats pretty much what we need help deciding on, along with the layout of these things, like where boxes should be to look good etc.. As I said, It'd be great if you could put together a visual layout or something in photoshop (or anything else for that matter) that we could use as our design!
(Credit would go to whomever helped us out majorly, with respect plastered on the site to them as well!!! ;D)

We already have most of the content and pages down on paper and we're just waiting for slow old me to get a site ready to lob it all into!

We all would appreciate it very, very much if someone would help us out by getting a nice look for our site, and maybe even help us out by sponsoring the reincarnation of the twice failed climb - Details will be found on the site when it goes! (I'll probably start another topic somewhere else to get interest! )
Thanks in advance; Ben, James and the team!

Just an idea... but it is attached, if you want something changed tell me or if you hate it just say so...
email me at crh431[at]gmail.com.

[attachment=406:attachment]

[tdktank59]

just a note

imo thats very simple and by the looks of it he has multiple pages so meh..

ill post something a little later for you to check out

[tuddy]

Have you done some research and looked in other Charity Sites, and took notes there sites as to what catchs your eyes, ask other peoples opionions to a site. If you get the right combination of things for the website, it will look better then one your looking from your point of view!

[Johnny]

I'm bored, I might try this out. No guarantees though.

[tdktank59]

allright i was really bored so heres a full site/template

http://www.kensiski....tdk/secondlife/

and you can download the files at http://www.kensiski..../secondlife.zip

btw if you dont like it thats fine no hurt feelings i understand

Edited by tdktank59, 20 September 2006 - 04:52 AM.

[Jimmy]

Sorry for such a slow response back on my part when you all replied so quickly! Thanks tdktank, you were dead right with the background colours idea and making it more like a welcome to the site . As I said in the PM, the light, gray kinda silvery colours in your design seem to work well and are easy on the eyes, which is always a good thing! I'm not so sure about the logo space in the top left, and would rather it was in the form of a banner (not too fat of course), but nice ideas.
Monsieur Voyagers! - i like the graded shades merging and the lines that fade out, it makes the page look quite smooth. i won't lie, I think those background colours are pretty horribly putrid!, but those are the easiest things to change anyway and its only in the design stage. I'd quite like to use those sort of graded lines and the gradually changing background colours as they look pretty cool, just not those ones!

For any further developments or layout ideas from people, the site should have a quite sleek feel, and be easy on the eyes, clean, with fairly light background colours, just mostly it shouldn't really look bland (which is the hardest thing to get with a clean looking site )

It'd be great if you could try this out johnny! Go on... you know you want to! maybe following on from the idea of a design with sleek banner space along the top, with the sort of left navigation and the light-ish colours in tdk's design!
And TDk you know I love almost all of your design for this! don't be silly... It rocks, just needs to rock a little, little bit more!
Thanks once again guys (and gals) Its great to have such speedy replies.. I only posted this at 10:30 last night! All the help is greatly appreciated as time is of the essence!

Edited by Jimmy, 21 September 2006 - 11:04 AM.

[Jimmy]

Any more ideas from anyone to improve over the two designs we've got already...
Heres a kinda update incorporating Tdk's design I modded earlier. I've only really had time to do the banner and links setup, and its put together in paint cos I'm really poor with photoshop. (Tdk's photoshop files are above though if you feel like looking over them) As I say the only thing I've managed to do is the banner with links.
Appreciate it if people could say whether they like the main pages' horizontal links bar or not, in relation to the banner...
P.S. Pic of cat is just a temporary measure!!! it will probably morph into a suitable homeless person (willing of course!!)
i was also thinking it might look better if the whole window was made a screen size bigger, maybe to the most common 1024x768 res??? is this a reasonable idea?
Oh - any more ideas of how to spice up the rest of the page (and my poor effort of banner too!)???
My modded version is attached: if I can get this to work :E

Edited by Jimmy, 21 September 2006 - 09:24 PM.

[Johnny]

Well, for one, "Navigation" is spelled wrong on that one.

But as for the actual design, I think it's a bit too blocky. No offense to anyone, but it seems like a plain geocities-style template, which won't exactly appeal to potential "clients" or what have you.

The text is kind of plain, and it looks like it varies slightly between the three headers (SecondLife, Navigation, News) Also, the copyright at the bottom looks like a button, which doesn't exactly flow with the rest of the page, which is flat (not in a bad way, flat sites are great)

The edges of the "template area" should have a border or something if the background is going to be non-white, since currently it kind of cuts straight from greyish to white.

ANYWAY, I'll stop there since I feel like I might be cutting some people down, which I really don't mean to do.

If I have time I might make a [very] rough outline later on, but I'm kinda busy all day, so still no guarantees.

[tdktank59]

actually johnny thats fine if you want to cut me down lol...

i made that temp and jimmy made a few changes

but yeah jimmy i have a few questions

first: Your a charity site for what? i think you said helping homless so the banner shouldnt be a cat or a sorts... should be something do maybe do with life? ill see what i can find

second: yeah i spelt stuff wrong and things...

third: You should really do something diffrent with the layout have the news in the middle not on the side because you should have the news as big as possible

anyways ill see if i can make a new one thats a little better i rushed on that one last time...

[Jimmy]

Johnny, on Sep 21 2006, 10:39 PM, said:

Well, for one, "Navigation" is spelled wrong on that one.

But as for the actual design, I think it's a bit too blocky. No offense to anyone, but it seems like a plain geocities-style template, which won't exactly appeal to potential "clients" or what have you.

The text is kind of plain, and it looks like it varies slightly between the three headers (SecondLife, Navigation, News) Also, the copyright at the bottom looks like a button, which doesn't exactly flow with the rest of the page, which is flat (not in a bad way, flat sites are great)

The edges of the "template area" should have a border or something if the background is going to be non-white, since currently it kind of cuts straight from greyish to white.

ANYWAY, I'll stop there since I feel like I might be cutting some people down, which I really don't mean to do.

If I have time I might make a [very] rough outline later on, but I'm kinda busy all day, so still no guarantees.

No, Johnny, what you said was good. I already know it is way too blocky, but I'm not really sure what to change it to to make the page flow. About the white bg straight to grey, the point you made is important, maybe a gradiant or something there to make it less of an eyesore.



The copyright looking like a button, as you say, is also valid, i'll change it to something a little more slick.



How about some coloured text ??? nothing too disgusting of course, but maybe red links and light shade of green or blue for text?



Tdk again - news bulletins in the middle - I love that idea, I'd always been thinking of having it on the left, but it could work well being more in the view of things.

and the banner being something to do with life. Thats exactly what I've been trying to think of . as I said, the cat was just a temporary pic, but you get the idea

[tdktank59]

yeah lol

ill see about fixing this up in the next hour and a half or so... but ull have to wait till later today to get it lol cant ftp from school...

[Jimmy]

tdktank59, on Sep 22 2006, 07:07 PM, said:

yeah lol
ill see about fixing this up in the next hour and a half or so... but ull have to wait till later today to get it lol cant ftp from school...

Yeah! Thanks mate, thatd be good. Waiting a day or two isn't a problem.

Just one thing - is it going to be a bit less blocky than ur original?!!!!!!!



James

[tdktank59]

Jimmy, on Sep 23 2006, 02:11 AM, said:

Yeah! Thanks mate, thatd be good. Waiting a day or two isn't a problem.

Just one thing - is it going to be a bit less blocky than ur original?!!!!!!!



James

yes lol thats why its taking a bit longer

[biscuitrat]

Ewwwghhuahh. I'm sorry, but that's the first impression I got from both templates. Not only are they very restrictive, but in using the soft shading, it seems extremely harsh. In addition, it looks like you're planning to use tables for layouts. BAD! A professional design will utilize color, images, LAYOUT, and semantic structure (rather, it should) to achieve its goals...which I feel I can provide examples of.

I can probably substitute one of my designs. In addition, think of a color scheme, ideas for logos, and all other crucial elements of design. You can e-mail me at aurorae90@hotmail.com

[Johnny]

Biskie! <3

[Jimmy, if Biskie makes one, you're in good hands. She's pro as far as templating goes. ]

[Jimmy]

WOW! Thanks biscuit! I'd really appreciate that. I guess I'll have to get a slightly better idea of colours and logos for the site, i did find some cool looking navbars, but trouble was I made em with a free trial and only first three links work, but they look good I'll get back to you guys and gals with something a bit more specific. Catch me anytime with mcguirje{at}wellingtoncollege.org.uk!

*EDIT* - Unfortunately I'm gonna have to re-format first hard drive. got a nasty recurring dialer / trojan (and other viruses that I seem to have fixed completely) those just won't go away . So I'll be off for a day or two... I won't have left this thread, I'll be back!
I'm definitely gonna have some meat for the vent - I made the mistake of clicking ignore future ones, so now I have to manually delete those B-**** virus files every 5 minutes. gaarhrrrrrrrggghhhhh!!!!!.
Good news however is that because it cannot wait any longer, I'll be back on much sooner. YAY!
P.S. Biscuitrat, I like ur site, and those others you made, you must be pretty good at design in general... oh and hows the trombone going? I too play that cool, cool, lump of brass
C ya'll Later and thanks once again for the support

Edited by Jimmy, 24 September 2006 - 09:55 PM.