I updated my site!

Hester · #1 11-09-2006, 07:28 AM

Hey friends,

I had some extra time this week and I decided to make a few changes on my website... ... ...and "a few" changes turned into just re-doing the whole thing. :) It all started when I was trying to create my own "logo" for my business... that didn't turn out so well, but I came up with a new design for my business card - which pretty much is what's on the new front page.

I know some of the fonts might be somewhat difficult to see/read at times... they're a little "sci-fi" in a way, but I just thought it was a really cool font! They look pretty okay on my end, but I know some others might see differently depending on their resolutions.

So far it has turned out better than I expected. I still have a few html pages to tweak, but this is basically what I got. My old black&white, lack-of-color scheme was pretty cool and definitely worked for me... but it was time for some actual color this time around. I just hope it looks okay.

My Website!

Vasili · #2 11-09-2006, 08:02 AM

Verrrry Slick, G-Man!

What did you use to do your new graphics? The dymo type is fitting, and I think your orb reflecting your new "sheet" background is an excellent touch.....that is definitely the "over the top" element that I have come to expect you to bring to VodaTalk.

(Could anyone do this with software/programs they might already have available in newer 'puters, or via some other utility?)

So far, this site scores 9.8, bringing your aggregate total to 18.9.....LOL

Hester · #3 11-09-2006, 08:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vasili

Verrrry Slick, G-Man!

What did you use to do your new graphics?

Thanks, man!! I use the same stuff I used on the old site... Photoshop 7. I don't have the $$ to get the new CS or whatever it's called. But I did find a few sites that helped me learn some new tricks and I went ahead and applied that to these designs. :)

Quote:

The dymo type is fitting, and I think your orb reflecting your new "sheet" background is an excellent touch.....that is definitely the "over the top" element that I have come to expect you to bring to VodaTalk.

Oh man... let me tell you that figuring out how to do that was a real pain... but now it's easy. It took a lot of messing with just to get that "little" detail done. (as was the first time I was trying to draw/shade the sphere).

Quote:

(Could anyone do this with software/programs they might already have available in newer 'puters, or via some other utility?)

Hmmm... not too sure. I do everything with photoshop... and I haven't tried to do anything with other software.

Quote:

So far, this site scores 9.8, bringing your aggregate total to 18.9.....LOL

HAHAHAHA!!! geez... crackin' me up. :) I really appreciate it. I'm just really thankful that I have TIME to do this stuff. (as well as having Photoshop). But I'm really glad you like it. My only goal is to keep keeping it simple... but make it as fun as I can. :)

Oh... and was gonna add this before... but here is my business card demo design I made before I even started re-doing my website.

new card design

Bethers · #4 11-09-2006, 08:39 AM

I like the fonts and think they're very fitting for your site. Just so long as you realize that lots of folks won't see them on their computers cuz they aren't web friendly.

The business card is great. I love it.

Hester · #5 11-09-2006, 09:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bethers

I like the fonts and think they're very fitting for your site. Just so long as you realize that lots of folks won't see them on their computers cuz they aren't web friendly.

The business card is great. I love it.

Thanks!

And I already thought of the whole "font" issue. That being somewhat touchy, depending on who sees it and all that, I went ahead and used images for the special fonts so that everyone can see them.

This does create an extra step... or three... but it gets the job done and I like the results. :)

In fact, most of the text on my page is all done with images rather than just the text typed over the background. (I tried just using the text before with my old site and it wasn't pretty). haha!

philipc9635 · #6 11-09-2006, 10:38 AM

Hey George

Your site always looked great, I couldn't possibly think how you can improve it.

Jennifer · #7 11-09-2006, 12:58 PM

It looks really great, George! Everything looks very professional - nicely done.

bill2006 · #8 11-09-2006, 02:41 PM

Great job !
Looks very nice. Cool.

MrCirrus · #9 11-09-2006, 03:20 PM

Awesome! did you build the site update youself? it looks very smart.

Hester · #10 11-09-2006, 09:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrCirrus

Awesome! did you build the site update youself? it looks very smart.

Hey thanks...

yeah, all of it I came up with on my own.. there might be something else the new design resembles... I was kinda thinking on a 'sci-fi' front, without getting too detailed. I look at it and I think of the movie "Tron"... kinda because of the shades of blue and the glowing words, etc. It's pretty much what I wanted my site to look like originally but hadn't quite figured it out until recently.

I'm glad everyone likes it... so many people complimented me on my other design (pretty much the same, just different colors) that I wasn't sure about going this route.

I am definitely happy it turned out as nice as it did, and thanks to everyone for your kind words.

Now it's time to see if I can wrap this thing up and fix some of the bugs and incomplete pages.

Karen Mac · #11 11-10-2006, 12:52 AM

Hester

Where you been friend? I got my new sporty store up, that might be more to your liking.. you need to go peek.

I have the new CS2 and I hate it. I also have ***7 *** 8 *** 9 and *** 10. LOL. You can do that stuff in all of them. But CS2 is a monster! For quick stuff I just load up *** 7, cuz i know where EVERY thing is in it.

Karen

Bethers · #12 11-10-2006, 01:30 AM

Hester - you do realize that the se's will not be able to read a single word on your site if you used all images? That's a big SEO nono - unless you don't care for them to send anyone to you???

Dream Lady · #13 11-10-2006, 02:53 AM

Very Nice! I really enjoyed watching the drill designs! Love this so much better than your other one! Congratulations on a job well done.

LadyEye · #14 11-10-2006, 03:45 AM

Really nice, I like this and I liked your other site too ... nice nice nice ....
I guess a change for you is important too ... nice work!!

Hester · #15 11-10-2006, 06:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bethers

Hester - you do realize that the se's will not be able to read a single word on your site if you used all images? That's a big SEO nono - unless you don't care for them to send anyone to you???

Hi Beth,

I'm confused... what is se's or SEO?? who's sending who to me? :) I'm sorry but I just don't know that terminology.

I didn't use ALL images, but I did on the ones that are interactive for use as "buttons". The only thing that really changes are that i took out the buttons that were in my old site and used a unique font (which I knew wouldn't work on many computers) and created buttons out of them.

All of my bio and work descriptions are in a normal font which everyone should be able to see just fine. I think it's Tahoma? or something. :)

Hester · #16 11-10-2006, 07:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dream Lady

Very Nice! I really enjoyed watching the drill designs! Love this so much better than your other one! Congratulations on a job well done.

:) Thanks so much. And yeah - I agree... I like it a lot better too. I just opened up a screenshot of my first version. Night and day difference. :)

I'm glad you enjoyed watching the drill samples. Those pages are actually next on my list to finish. And I need to add about a dozen more. I'll probabaly do a few of those tonight. :)

Hester · #17 11-10-2006, 07:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LadyEye

Really nice, I like this and I liked your other site too ... nice nice nice ....
I guess a change for you is important too ... nice work!!

Thanks!!

yeah - I think of all things, change was important mostly because I'm still trying to find an "identity". I was at a loss for a specific logo/trademark and since first publishing my site about 5 months ago, I've been able to attract a lot more potential clients my way and it has been a great success.

But one thing that I always wanted to do but just didn't understand HOW to do it was to make it colorful. (because I know how difficult it is to make it look good...) This color-scheme seems to suit me and my "style".

I'm really glad you liked both my designs... I'm gonna keep the old files stashed away in case I ever go back to that style again for another site. (if I ever decide to try and design more later).

Hester · #18 11-10-2006, 07:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Karen Mac

Hester

Where you been friend? I got my new sporty store up, that might be more to your liking.. you need to go peek.

I have the new CS2 and I hate it. I also have ***7 *** 8 *** 9 and *** 10. LOL. You can do that stuff in all of them. But CS2 is a monster! For quick stuff I just load up *** 7, cuz i know where EVERY thing is in it.

Karen

Karen,

I guarantee that with the holidays approaching, I'll be making a few stops by this site now! :) You've got a really nice assortment of sprotsy stuff. I like the mugs and the candles. What's with the **** bling things??? is this a new trend?! ;) haha. interesting.

I have *** 8, but I didn't start using it until AFTER i had photoshop for about a year... after many headaches with photoshop for so long, *** turned out to be somewhat easy to use but I was learning all over again and decided to just stick with photoshop. I've had it for... over 4 years now.

Karen Mac · #19 11-11-2006, 06:13 PM

Hester

**** Blings are just that.. LOLOL. Bling Bling for your ****s! They just lace up in your ***** and Have a logo on them.

Karen

Mook25 · #20 11-13-2006, 04:28 PM

Hey there,
Your site looks great, nice colours and well layed out and the fonts seem ok my end too.You appear to be using no keywords which can only go against you in getting high ranking scores. Only other thing i would suggest is making the top banner not as tall as it takes up half my screen and this can turn a lot of people away due to most surfers only scanning the top part of your site. Also what is it you do exactly?? There is nothing on your homepage to suggest what it is and this is where most of your visitors will be coming first. Other than that looks great so keep up the good work.

asirimarco · #21 11-13-2006, 06:27 PM

Wow - how impressive - I didn't think it could get better than you old site - shows what I know SE's are the search engines like google etc. guess they just like plain old words. The colors are fantastic and everything is laid out so artistic comes to mind but that is not the right word -
ann

Hester · #22 11-13-2006, 06:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mook25

Hey there,
Your site looks great, nice colours and well layed out and the fonts seem ok my end too.You appear to be using no keywords which can only go against you in getting high ranking scores. Only other thing i would suggest is making the top banner not as tall as it takes up half my screen and this can turn a lot of people away due to most surfers only scanning the top part of your site. Also what is it you do exactly?? There is nothing on your homepage to suggest what it is and this is where most of your visitors will be coming first. Other than that looks great so keep up the good work.

Mook,

Thanks the feedback...

However, I'm sorry for this but I don't understand anything you're saying in your comments to "help".

Not using Keywords?? What are you referring to and how would I do that?

Rankings score? Why should I be concerned with rankings? (just curious).

Top banner too tall? What am I missing with that? I feel as if my banner size works pretty well (in my opinion). I also think it's actually somewhat smaller than a lot of other websites out there. I'm not saying my site design is perfect, but I don't get what you are saying.

Lastly - to clarify what you are saying by "there's nothing on your homepage to suggest what it is..." that statement is incorrect, because my name is George Hester and this is my personal website. I know it's coming across somewhat as a "business" related site (...being titles George Hester "Designs"). But it's just my personal site that happens to just talk about George Hester. I don't see any other way to make it more simple. :)

If you want to go to my "business" website - www.visaudiodesigns.com

I appreciate your kind words about my site and I'm happy to take your suggestions to improve it, but I just need some clarification on exactly what you mean by all that and why it should help me improve my site.

* One quick note though - about the banner, I just looked at it again and I'm still confused. You say surfers usually just scan the top part of a website... first of all, why would they do that? And secondly, for anyone that does what I do or is looking for my design services, they will be completely drawn in just from the top banner picture. If you aren't involved in this stuff, you won't notice the significance. :)

Sorry to get a little defensive here. :) All is good. I just want to be sure that if I do take your suggestions to make adjustments, that it's not for reasons that won't make any difference in the end for me.

Thanks again.

Hester · #23 11-13-2006, 06:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by asirimarco

Wow - how impressive - I didn't think it could get better than you old site - shows what I know...

...The colors are fantastic and everything is laid out so artistic comes to mind but that is not the right word -

haha... thanks! I had fun putting ideas and new colors together. I'm glad you like it. Artistic is good. :)

Quote:

SE's are the search engines like google etc. guess they just like plain old words.
ann

You know... that's what I thought SE meant. But when I search "George Hester" on the net... Yahoo! Google etc. The first thing that pops up is my website. So... is that not a good thing?

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