Hello, I would like some reviews related to the site in my signature. None of the content is linked from the visible site yet, because it's all in pre-launch and I don't want people seeing it yet. The table on the index page will be gone when the site launches. Basically my main question is - Which image should reside on the index page? The image of the guys sword/knife fighting, or the shield/crest logo thing? I kind of like the crest, but is it redunant since it's already in the header? What do you think?
Well, I would strongly encourage you to double check your rights to the cgi image as I'm quite confident that was snagged from a discovery channel production. That being said, I think the shield logo is about your only option here. Nevertheless, for that to be your front page logo, you may want to spruce up the image a bit. It looks pretty flat. That's just a design issue though.
Hmmm . . . Ok. I actually bought that graphic from someone. Can you point me in the direction of the discovery channel thing so I can get a refund if it's not original?
For your ad unit on the right, I think a border could work in this case. Use a light green border (very very light)
based on my exposure to martial arts, I think the logo works much better than the other graphic. The fighting graphic looks more like I've stumbled into an anatomy website, while the logo clearly tells me where I am. Could the header be tweaked to have just part of the logo - the banners or the empty shield - intertwined into it rather than just having the logo to the left of the header? That would tie the header with the logo rather than feeling like duplication.
@eslsociety, sure. A google search for "discovery channel martial arts" yielded the site: http://www.matthewmullins.net/xma.htm. Scroll about halfway down that page and you'll see the imagery that is eerily similar to the image you are trying to use. Additionally, discovery networks uses it on http://www.matthewmullins.net/xma.htm, where you can actually watch the videos that this image was captured from. I would certainly get a refund asap, and take down that image. Unless, of course, you have explicit permission from the copyright holder.
Ok, thanks for the info. I'll take the image down immediately. I paid some fool $15 on elance for it. Now that I think about it, it does look like something related to anatomy, and maybe more like a gaming site or something, so I think it's not really appropriate. I'll try and play around with the header and with the ad unit this weekend if possible. Appreciate the feedback. The resources available for community server are really limited at the moment, but it's a kind of nice cms. Really the main reason I chose it was because it's not being used by very man people, so I'm hoping to not get my forums and blogs spammed to death. I may end up switching, though.
Unfortunately, this kind of thing happens quite frequently. I was recently contracted to build a CMS for a client where I was to be supplied with a psd of the mockup to use. Problem with that is, even though I didnt go get the images, I had to make sure the person who got them had rights to them. In the end, you have to be very careful. I think it would be quite frustrating to brand a site and build up a following only to have to remove an image later because of copyright. Of course, you should try to get your money back, but you can also try to contact discovery channel and ask their permission. Chances are likely they will deny it; however, there's nothing wrong with asking, and they may say yes.
Appreciate the feedback. I've taken down the image, and I'll go with some graphic designers I work with on other projects to come up with something else, probably.