Irish Gift website redesign, reviews wanted

Hey guys.

Hey there guys and girls, I've been tasked with re-jigging our website and I'm not much of a designer.

I've come up with a few logo ideas and a couple of mock ups for the home page.

If anyone who's interested wouldn't mind having a look and letting me know what they think about logo and design. All criticisms welcomed No offence will be taken.

http://traditionalirishgifts.com/design/design.html

Whats the best logo? Is the design any good? So far I've been told everything from it's crap and you shouldn't use patterns/drop shadows/outer glows to it's nice. Honest opinions and useful suggestions humbly requested

thanks in advance

 

Hello Burningbarricade!
I love Irish Gifts and I've designed several nice, effective websites A N D I'm Irish! So, I like your festive flare! The most important thing in nailing down what of this you will keep and what to revise, will be honing in on the ideal (and the bread and butter) visitors you are wanting to connect with. Are they "old school Irish" are they the more authentic, geo-sensitive and sophisticated Irish OR mostly just friends of friends? It's fun, buy the little Irish hats patterns, etc. might be too over the top but maybe not...it really ALL depends on who you want to attract and keep....Write me if you want more and good luck! I love Irish shops!

 

Hey there, thanks, I appreciate your input.

The most of what we sell right now is Irish novelty stuff, like the stuff you get at the airport in dublin. That and Guinness Stuff. Lots of that. However we also do the upmarket stuff like aran knitwear and mohair blankets and we're looking to take on some more high value things like crystal and pottery etc... So the site needs to be attractive to the whole range of potential customers, from grannies in the USA looking for hand crafted Irish products to people wanting silly hats for St Paddies day.

What do you think, Do you have any examples of any Irishey stuff you've done?

 

Hi Burningbarricade,
My favorite ones are the clover on is own (NOT the clovers in the plant pot) or the map. Simple but very effective. Personnaly I like the glowing letters but I can see why some might not so I would probably play it safe and go for the green writting with the cream/yellow thin outline.
Hope this helps, regards, Polly.

 

Thanks for the response polly, all opinions help

Anyone else wana give their opinion? Please

 

Hey there!
I am gonna be a little bit tough on this one so bare with me!

I regret to say that none of these logos are good enough. Keep this in mind: "Good design means as little design as possible" - Dieter Ram.
So, what I suggest doing is that you start from scratch. And focus on designing a symbol that will stuck on someone´s mind the first time they see it. Something unique and something worth remembering you for.

When it comes to typography, timeless design is usually a Sans or Sans Serif font. Any other font (in most cases) will get old very soon. You don´t want to change your logo every 2 months now, do you?

I hope I helped!

 

Hey sorif.me, yeah you helped.

I understand what you are saying about the logo but the website has been running for years and that font kinda is it's logo so I was scared of changing it.

Do you reckon if I toned down all the effects then the logo could work?

 

I wish you could have seen my old website when I was a full blown agency. I went with my "Gilhooley" last name and all the icons were shamrocks and the colors were all green and black. On st. patricks day I put out a newsletter with some good Irish jokes and my photo with an irish has supered on! It was my brand. I will look for screen shot. I totally get what you are saying about your desired reach. I have represented many interior plant folks and I will add link below featuring much of my work and the "web" portion demo's sites that I designed AND wrote every word, selected every photo and developed the site architecture. They all want upscale while not eliminating their bread and butter clients: The first section of this You Tube Folio is a small sample of the sites I've done-
[video=youtube_share;Z5xGMzoFwmU]http://youtu.be/Z5xGMzoFwmU[/video]

 

I personally like the harp logo as it reminds me of Guiness and Guiness reminds me of Ireland. I would keep it. The headers could maybe be slimmed down a bit, especially for users with low res monitors. Other than that I like the overall look of the site!

 

Hi


I like the third logo, but no, these are not well designed. Still you did a good effort. The second website design is better. The last background is very childish, don't use it for absolutely any reason.


Good luck.

 

it's pretty good

 

wow nice looks, i like 1st logo