=>~ $300: WordPress Design for PaddyBloggit.com ($150 for .psd & $150 for coding) ~<=

darzuaga:

Ok .... deadline for initial submissions decided:

Wednesday 16th May 2007 - 11.00 p.m. (GMT)

After that I will only allow those who have posted submitted designs before the deadline make changes to their entries.

Final decision will be made by the weekend.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To all:

I have feedback but as I'm only just in the door here .... bear with me for an hour or two until I write it down!

I have comments on 4 designs.

 

designX:

Image 1



Image 2:



===>

Comments about Image 2:

* Image 2 colour is better but it's still not right. It's too dark.
* The quotation is good in the strip but I think the strip is too narrow for the quotation.
* The text of the quotation may need to be slightly bigger (I may not be getting a true view of the image)
* The banner image box touches the top of the screen. (It didn't in image 1).
* With the banner at the top over the header - the title 'Paddy Bloggit' may need to be bigger. I don't want the banner image to be the focus in the header area. The title 'Paddy Bloggit' should be the first thing a viewer should see when he glances at the site.
* The header itself is too dark.
* I don't like the shaded lines in the background of the header - the Irish flag I presume?
* The flag is turned the wrong way. All colours should be vertical - starting with orange, white in the centre and green on the right. (At the moment the colours are horizontal which is wrong!!)
* 'About US' - I'd like an area for an 'avatar' image (like andrej's entry)
* Could the search box be put somewhere else where it isn't as prominent? Would it be in the way on the same bar as the Home - About Us etc. links? Or would it be in the way if I needed to add more pages to site at a later stage?
* I like the use of the 'speech bubble' - good man!

===> Yes .... this is a contender! Read my design brief and further comments for more ideas!

 

andrej:



* 'About Us' - I like the use of an area for an avatar
* 'Paddy Bloggit' title text isn't great. I'm not too impressed with the use of the shadow here
* The W.B. Yeats quotation fits in well where it is put by you and the font (colour & style) works well!!
* Brown/grey colour of the overall design isn't great - I don't like it - It makes the site dull
* Footer very good and position of the banner is well placed.
* Your placement of Google AdSense is excellent - works in well with the colours of the site. If the site colours were changed the adsense would still be well placed!
* I don't like the use of the 'tabs' for the top links. Placing them under the header like designX and coolwanz and XXX might be better ???
* The boxes are too square .... may look better rounded?
* Header - flag is the right way round! But it may be too big there. The orangey sky looks ok. The building in the shade loses its identity ....
* Position of 'Search Box' isn't too bad
* I'd place 'Calendar' above 'Archive' etc. just to have some symmetry.

===> Colours need the biggest change .... but your design is still a contender!

 

[x[x]x]:



Your design impressed a few here and it is reflective of a Web 2.0 type design but I do like a design that has lots to say!

The one thing I really like is the shade of green you used in the header - It is vibrant without being over bearing! It is nice.
I didn't like the shade of green you used in the background behing 'Categories' or the vertical beige borders.

Thanks for the entry .... but too simple a layout for me. Paddy Bloggit is a guy with lots to say and he needs alot more than minimalisim around him!

 

coolwanz:



Design is nice - amazingly enough I think the shades you have used aren't too bad .... wonder what it would be like with a little more green?!? The colours you have chosen work well with your design

* The header is bright - which is good! (Much brighter than designX's headers!) .... but left side of header needs to change. I don't like the 'modern' flag look or the title with wings! The title, by the way, is 'Paddy Bloggit' ...... not 'Poddy Bloggit'.

* I don't like the swirls in the background of the design.
* The design itself is too narrow and needs to be widened.
* You used a 'speeh bubble' for comments - well done - you read the design brief!
* Quotation text is too small - the text is lost in the header.

===> Still a contender!

 

Still in the running:

(Listed alphabetically) -

andrej
coolwanz
designX


===> I hope you can tweak your designs more for me.

 

DaveyBoy and shzor have said they'll submit an entry ....

we shall see!

 

Thanks for the feedback Tetragon. I will tweak the template accordingly.

 

Tetragon, which version of my last entry do you refer to:

with AdSense link unit or with AdSense ad unit ?

I think you mean the first one, but please confirm it. I just need to make sure.

I'll try to improve the design till the deadline.

 

andrej:

This one:

with AdSense ad unit

It doesn't matter whether the design has AdSense Link Unit or an AdSense Ad unit.
Does the choice of link or unit impact on the design?

I chose this one because the header was the brighter of the two. The final design would probably be best with AdSense Link Unit as it would be less intrusive.

 

Yes, the choice of Link Unit or Ad Unit impacts the design in these 2 ways:
- there is less space for texts if we choose the Ad Unit, as it is larger than the Link Unit
- there is a little problem with the Ad Unit, as there is a gradient in the background and the Ad Unit is not 100% integrated with the design (you can see it: with AdSense ad unit). Google ads can't be set to have transparent background, so it would be better to use the Link Unit, as it is vertically short and therefore integrates well with the gradient.

I think the footer of the one with Link Unit is better than the second one, but you're right that the header of the second one is better. So I'll try to combine them somehow (of course if you think the footer of the first one is better, too).

 

Tweaked Template as per request.
...................................................


Accomplished Tweaks:

- Added more green shades on the design as reference possibility -- we can revert it back to original if requested.

- utilized a real flag image in motion, edited title text to PADDY BLOGGIT, removed title wings, deleted the swirls at the background....cleaned it out a bit and made everything more balance.

- Quotation Text size has been incremented, added a darker shadow to make it more visible.

- General Design Size has been increased and widened as requested.

Let me know if there's anything more I can modify
Thanks
wanz

 

coolwanz:

That's much better .... off to work here so you'll have to leave it with me to analyse more. I'll give you more feedback later.

 

andrej:

Yes .... use the Link Unit.
And the footer - why do you think the Link Unit one is better than the second one? - If I was choosing a 'symmetrically' laid out footer I'd be choosing Ad Unit footer. I'm interested to know why you chose the link unit footer .....

 

I just personally like the footer of the template with AdSense Link Unit. I think that the W3C CSS and XHTML icons should be together, but this is just a little detail and everyone likes something different. So I'll use the one that you like.

 

See how it goes .................

 

I've placed the avatar into a more prominent position. I think it would be good to highlight the picture of Paddy, as it is "his" blog. However, I'm not sure if you like it. If no, I'll revise it. Just tell me.



Check out these:
template01
template02
template03
template04

 

coolwanz:

* The title 'Paddy Bloggit' - can you have the 'Paddy' and the 'Bloggit' the same size as I want it to portray a full name. And will you try the title with a capital 'P' an 'B' just to see how it looks?

* Can you introduce the tinge of green from the header into the rest of the template? The header looks well but the rest of the template needs to come up to its standards a little.

* Behind the header on both sides - can you get rid of the horizontal brown and beige lines?

* Just wondering if the speech bubble should face to the right .... towards the text '1 comment' '2 comments' etc.??

* Can you put in an 'About Us' with an area for an avatar?

* And 'Pages', 'Archives' etc. ?

==> Header is good! See how you can tone up the body of template. Footer might do with a bit of 'coloring' too. It could match the header ..... see what you come up with.

 

andrej:

Template 3 and 4 are out. The background colours of the boxes are way too 'in your face' for me. I am ruling out template 2 as well because it's still too dark/orangey for me.

That just leaves template number 1 ... avatar placement is unusual but a nice idea ... does it have coding implications? The beige/brown background is better than the colours used in templates 2, 3 and 4. I do feel, however, that the overall use of colour needs to be re-evaluated to make it look better.

 

Deadline is 11.00 p.m. (GMT) tonight.

After that I will choose a designer who has posted/submitted an entry on this thread. If tweaking needs to be done after that .... I'll do that directly with the winning designer ....

5 hours remaining ...............................

===> Good luck to all!! <===