Project 1 Roughs

[NevadaCowgirl]

Here are my 4 roughs for project 1.

The first roughs are with a barn wood image background for the whole website.

The second set of roughs are with a gradient for the whole website.

[dnorwood]

Hi Amy...I like both of your sets of designs. But, I am really liking the second set (the gradient background) best. I have a couple of ideas that might make them both a little better.

*1st set (barn wood background):
- It is a little hard to read. The grain of the barn wood blends with the type making it look as if someone had drawn lines through it. The solution for that is really simple, though. Reduce the opacity of the barn wood pic until you can still see the woodgrain faintly, but without effort. The barn wood is an integral part of your design, but it shouldn't be the major focus. The type is what you want people to focus on.
- The color of your type on the two pages isn't the same. The color of the type on your 'About' page should be the same as the color of the type on your 'Home' page.

*2nd set (gradient background): Like I said, I like this one best...it is more visually interesting, the pictures lead the eye right to the text. This design has some really good stuff going for it already so it is going to sound like I am being nit-picky, but it is the little things that make a design really good or just mediocre.
- Picture placement 'Home' page: Using the guides in Photoshop/Illustrator (I don't know which you used to layout these out.) works great for lining things up. Align the bottom edges of the top two pictures at the same level, and the same with the two bottom pictures. Then the single right hand side picture can be vertically centered between the top and bottom pictures. Don't change where you placed them just line them up all nice and neat. But, you might consider moving the middle column of pics and the single pic a liitle to the left so they aren't quite so close to the text.
- The background gradient is a little dark (the colors themselves are great), but here again that can be remedied by reducing the opacity (in the gradient pop-up window). Probably wouldn't need much reduction. Maybe try it at 75% and see how that looks.
- 'About' page: The idea of a text box with a gradient flipped just opposite the background was an inspired thought. But, it is too dark and the text is a little hard to read. If you lower the opacity on the text box, the background gradient will show through. Your best step here is to find (or make) a gradient with the same colors but in a lighter tint.

*Logo: You don't have a company logo for The Thrifty Equine. I don't think we need the TMCC logo on these. However whichever logo you use, it should be placed in the same spot on all of your pages.

If you need me to explain some of what I suggested, just ask! I know the picture alignment part sounds confusing. It is much easier to do than to try to explain.

Your design skills have greatly improved...Well Done!
Denise

[rmiyashiro]

G'day Amy! I prefer your first design. The wood-grain background has a nice texture to it, but it makes things a bit hard to read. The gradient background makes the information easier to read, but I find the images a bit scattered. I would try swapping the backgrounds or using a heavier font on the wood-grain design.

[awesomeMF]

Amy,

I like your website concept. I get a friendly, honest and "homey" feel to the business. Your website is geared toward people who love horses and just want the best equipment for riding them at an affordable price. The readability of your type on both websites are a little difficult to read. I suggest breaking up the type into smaller paragraphs, bump up the font size, and adjust the leading. The color scheme for both sites are great, but I'd like to see some contrast between elements. Either make the background dark and font light, or background light with dark font. As for images…you love horses, and I assume you love saddles of various types. Showcase that. Throw a picture of a horse on a beautiful saddle and make it big, so people can see it's beauty. Or just showcase a saddle, and make that big - let people see what their buying. I'd just like to see some emphasis on pictures focal point. The pictures on the gradient background give movement, but no real showcase of a particular brand of saddle. Someone mentioned you didn't have a logo…Maybe make a brand symbol off the store's initials and brand it into the wood background. When I read your site, I got the "home town, honest" feel to it. Maybe show happy cowboys/cowgirls riding horses and smiling to let people know see how friendly you are. I see a real need for your site. You did a good job!

[Instructor]

Personally I prefer the first one. The wood background gives it an inviting warmth that makes me want to stay and look around a bit. The second one leaves me a little cold.

I like the use of the western font for the logo. It's very in keeping with the rural, western style you want to project for this website. The wood background also reinforces that branding very strongly without dominating the page and the rest of your content. The text is surprisingly easy to read against the wood pattern background. The product imagery is appropriate and does a good job of illustrating the store's wares. Your navigation is easy to find and use.

The overall layout is a little jumbled though. All the pieces seem scattered around the page. You need to establish some unity, through both proximity and design. Maybe bring your images together as a photo bar across the top or as a grouping next to your text. It also needs work typographically. Right now there are too many fonts, pick two and use those. I'd recommend the western font from your logo be used in your navigation and headings and that you use a serif font (Garamond, Times, etc.) for your bodycopy. You can be free to use bold, italic, and other versions of those fonts to establish contrast as needed, without causing visual chaos. Also, make the list at the bottom a proper list, with bullets and all. Maybe two or three columns.

Nice effort!

[Joe_Morales]

Amy,

Very nice job in imagery and type selection they really capture the feel for this site. They elements of the design do seem oddly placed at times id recommend making them similar sizes and as others have mentioned id be careful with that textured background it makes the type difficult to read maybe bring down the opacity of the texture a bit. good job

Joe M.

[ravennvrmre]

I like the top one, the wood pattern gives it a really nice feel and goes well with the horse theme. I would put a slightly transparent box behind the text, it's a little hard to read in certain areas. Great start.

[stalksyouatnight]

I like your first design best, better background and layout. Both sites suffer from terrible contrast for the text, try putting boxes around text and pictures to group them better and to make them more legible.

[ravens.way]

I like the style of your rough 1. Lightening the wood back ground would make it easier to see. The navigation on rough 2 would work better on it. I like the font and images on both designs. Nice job.

[kaycee_weddell]

Your designs so far have turned out nicely. I think I prefer the bottom design because it is a little easier to read. The background image on the first design seems a little blurry an distracts me from the text. If you go with the first design I would find a high resolution image or change the font color of the body copy to make it pop off the background. Overall great start!