# Review my two designs?



## cnelson04 (Dec 29, 2003)

hey guys, i made a couple web templates that you can download i would liike to know what you think of them;

First One;http://www.visionstudios.be/Templates/Old V1/Demo/index.html <<DEMO
http://visionstudios.be/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=1 (must register to download, its free!)
Seacond One; http://www.visionstudios.be/Templates/Relax Purpule/Demo/index.html <<DEMO
http://visionstudios.be/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=3 (must register to download, its free!)

ADDED a third one; http://www.visionstudios.be/Templates/Simple Blue/Demo/index.html <<DEMO
http://visionstudios.be/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=1 (must register to download it, its free!)

Thanks for any reviews. -cnelson.


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## ferrija1 (Apr 11, 2006)

I would love to see your templates but I can't:



> *Vision Studios: Access Denied*
> 
> *You are trying to access a restricted area.*
> We are Sorry, but this section of our site is for Registered Users Only.
> ...


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## covert215 (Apr 22, 2006)

i'm getting the same thing

which cms did you use?


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## cnelson04 (Dec 29, 2003)

PHPnuke, sorry i forgot about that, here are the direct links for the preview;

http://www.visionstudios.be/Templates/Old V1/Demo/index.html
http://www.visionstudios.be/Templates/Relax Purpule/Demo/index.html


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## covert215 (Apr 22, 2006)

The first one is sweet...I don't like the narrowness and the header of the second one

Are you selling them?


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## covert215 (Apr 22, 2006)

switch them around...i mixed up the 1st and the 2nd


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## covert215 (Apr 22, 2006)

i checked the 1st one out in IE- the left and right borders of the main box do not appear

also, the stat box is slightly smaller than the others


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## cnelson04 (Dec 29, 2003)

There free=] and you don't have to register to download them anymore. so if you would to, feel free to. just use the link in my frist post.


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## ferrija1 (Apr 11, 2006)

I like the first, green, one.


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## Eriksrocks (Aug 7, 2005)

On the second one (pink/purple) I would recommend increasing the padding for the main content and main nav. divs because right now it just doesn't look right.


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## cnelson04 (Dec 29, 2003)

Yeah maybe i should, i mean anyone can do that with a tiny bit of code editing also.

I take that back, i can't set the padding down or it will be on top of the other image, is there anyway to just just the padding to go in, and not all around? do you understand what i mean?


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## cnelson04 (Dec 29, 2003)

Hey guys, i've changed it so you don't need to register to download the templates i think this was turing people away. also i added a new template see my post above. Thanks for any reviews. -cnelson.


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## Gibble (Oct 10, 2001)

I'd really suggest making them more fluid layouts...the last one only filled 1/3 of the width on my screen.


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## cnelson04 (Dec 29, 2003)

well that was my idea to make it a smaller layout, by fluid do you mean like wider so they take up more space, or just flow together better? thanks. -cnelson.


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## Gibble (Oct 10, 2001)

I mean, fluid so it stretches to the size of the window...a narrower view is fine...I just think 30% of the screen is a little extreme. A fluid layout means, if you want it to fill 70% of the width, it will always fill 70% of the width of the screen, no matter what size the browser window is.

So instead of using absolute widths like width="500" you use %'s like width="70%" or whatever.


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## ravinsm (Oct 18, 2004)

I'm not even close to being a pro at this but I don't like all the grey boxes. It makes me dizzy looking at it and they are distracting. Other then that, I like the green one the best.


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## cnelson04 (Dec 29, 2003)

I understand what you mean by the 70% only thing is with that layout the head as a image in it, and it i strach it to 70% it won't look right, but i do understand what you mean. It seems like the everyone thinks the green one is the best? its the one i spent the most time on, the other two i kind just though together.


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## covert215 (Apr 22, 2006)

Personally, I don't like fluid. It is more difficult and allow a lot of room for error. However, your designs ARE a little too narrow.


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## cnelson04 (Dec 29, 2003)

yes i think i've found a correction for it. and i'm working on it right now after i'm done with this layout i'll post it, should be done in a hour or so.


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## Gibble (Oct 10, 2001)

covert215 said:


> Personally, I don't like fluid. It is more difficult and allow a lot of room for error. However, your designs ARE a little too narrow.


[email protected], fluid isn't difficult if your graphic designer thinks about it while they create their graphics and site design.


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## covert215 (Apr 22, 2006)

[email protected]?

Personally, I just prefer looking at centered sites.


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## Gibble (Oct 10, 2001)

So...if you have your monitor set to 1280x1024, and load a site, that has a page width of 500 pixels (so it works on lower resolutions), thereby, meaning ALOT of scrolling, and alot of wasted space, you'd be happy? 

Personally, I'd be annoyed...

If TSG was only half the width and everything was mashed together you'd think the site looked good?

Ah well...I like people like you being in my field...makes my work look that much better


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## cnelson04 (Dec 29, 2003)

Yeah i've come with a solotuion to the problum i'll post the link when i'm done with the design.


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## Eriksrocks (Aug 7, 2005)

cnelson04 said:


> Yeah maybe i should, i mean anyone can do that with a tiny bit of code editing also.
> 
> I take that back, i can't set the padding down or it will be on top of the other image, is there anyway to just just the padding to go in, and not all around? do you understand what i mean?


No, I don't know what you mean. But you've got this:


```
[TD][TABLE]
                  [TR]
                    [TD]

This is just a simple template i had made to use in my desktop publishing course. I Think it could be very usefuly for a personal site, or a blog site. Also all the box's will expand, this one and the nav box so you don't have to worry about them!

 

[B]WHAT YOU GET WITH THE DOWNLOAD:[/B]

    The full .PSD file.
    All the images blank in .gif format.
    Two sliced layouts, the one your looking at and the one with blank images. 
    A 'Read Me' file for help!

[B]WHAT WE ASK:[/B]
  You can edit any part of this template, the font, colors, etc.. But you MUST leave the link back to Vision Studios. We provide this template free of charge, this is why you must leave the link back to our site! If you would like to remove the copyright info there is a small fee of 5$ USD. If you would like this template to yourself (meaning after you buy it will no longer be avible for download only people that have already downloaded it will have it) for this there is a fee of 35$ USD. For either of this please send a email to [email protected] and i will reply with our paypal link.

 

[B]NEED HELP? 
                      [/B] If you need help editing the template please post [URL=http://visionstudios.be/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewforum&f=7]here[/URL].

[/TD]
                  [/TR]
```
So let's focus in. If you added the stuff in red it should work:
<td style="padding: 10px 10px 10px 10px;">

This is just a simple template i had made t...

It should add the padding you want to that cell and it shouldn't mess anything up.


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## covert215 (Apr 22, 2006)

Gibble said:


> So...if you have your monitor set to 1280x1024, and load a site, that has a page width of 500 pixels (so it works on lower resolutions), thereby, meaning ALOT of scrolling, and alot of wasted space, you'd be happy?
> 
> Personally, I'd be annoyed...
> 
> ...


I am at 1280x1024 resolution. I don't want a 500px site, but I prefer a 800px centered site that works well for everyone


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## cnelson04 (Dec 29, 2003)

yeah i just finshed designing a 700px width. i'll post it later.


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## Gibble (Oct 10, 2001)

what if I'm watching a movie while surfing and I have the window smaller...800px will mean I have to scroll horizontally...even worse!


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## covert215 (Apr 22, 2006)

Honestly, do you ever view a web page at a resolution below 800x600?

If so, you are one of less than 1%


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## cnelson04 (Dec 29, 2003)

yes anything below 800px is very rare. 800x600 seems to be a big one though.


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## Gibble (Oct 10, 2001)

Not normally, no, but I do when I have multiple windows open. My monitor may be set higher than 800x600, but that doesn't mean my browser is maximized. It also doesn't mean you have 800px to work with. You have to take into account toolbars, IM clients, or other objects using some of that real estate.

My point is, that you should make your pages look good, no matter what resolution the user has their browser set to.

Look, I'm not saying this all to argue, or be an jerk. This is what I do, this is how I make a living and pay the bills. I'm trying to give you guys some helpful advice.


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## cnelson04 (Dec 29, 2003)

No, thank you for you advice i really do. just by designing templates in photoshop, your limitied to how much you can make it screen compatible. i try to check my templates on my res. (1024) and on also on a 800 res. most of the time they look fine. although i can see my smaller templates being extremly tiny on a 800. I'd like to make 100% width layout, ors 75%, etc.. its just that they way i design/code my templates doesn't really allow for it, nor do they pass W3C standards. I understand i need to learn to to this and use CSS and DIV's to make my layouts insted of table, but i learned useing tables and it works for me? I'm still at a pretty young age so i have some time. But i completely understand what you mean, and once again thank you for the advice.


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## Gibble (Oct 10, 2001)

you'll learn.


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## cnelson04 (Dec 29, 2003)

yes all in time, for now i'll just get by with what i have.


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## cnelson04 (Dec 29, 2003)

NEW DESIGN.
please tell me what you think;
http://www.visionstudios.be/Templates/Hard Blue/Demo/ <<<DEMO

http://visionstudios.be/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=1 <<<DOWNLOAD

thanks. -cnelson.


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## Eriksrocks (Aug 7, 2005)

It seems a bit crowded, and with all your designs the text seems a bit small in my opinion. Otherwise good job.


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## cnelson04 (Dec 29, 2003)

Well the text size can be changed thoughout the layout. even in the images since i include blank images in the download, and the size for page is just set at 9. maybe i'll change it. other then that, could you please explain what you mean by crowded, like the box's to close together? thanks for the help. -cnelson.


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## Eriksrocks (Aug 7, 2005)

It's probably the text size, but it just seems a bit overwhelming for me. 

I think it might be the dashes/bars in the border lines and the fact that the news box is completely full, which of course wouldn't be the case if the template was used.


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## Eriksrocks (Aug 7, 2005)

And just curious what are you running Visionstudios.be on? What CMS?


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## cnelson04 (Dec 29, 2003)

i'm running PHPNUKE. works great. i love it, much easier to keep thinks up to date. and also i understand what you mean by crowed now.

ALSO; if you view the templates on a small monitor, not res. just montior (IE, from my labtop which i'm on now) they don't look as nice really, the text looks extrmly small, i'll have to fix this.


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## cnelson04 (Dec 29, 2003)

NEW TEMPLATE. EXPANDS WITH THE SCREEN RES!

ok so i tried it, and heres what i came up with, the width is set to 75% please tell me what you think..
http://www.visionstudios.be/Templates/Simplicity/demo/index.html <<<DEMO
http://visionstudios.be/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=3 <<<DOWNLOAD

-cnelson.


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## Gibble (Oct 10, 2001)

It appears to have some glitches in IE...though it looked good in FF.


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## cnelson04 (Dec 29, 2003)

hmm is it the table backgrounds not showing up?


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## covert215 (Apr 22, 2006)

The newest one has a few errors at 1280x1024


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## cnelson04 (Dec 29, 2003)

really what happens to it?


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## covert215 (Apr 22, 2006)

It doesn't stretch out completely


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## Eriksrocks (Aug 7, 2005)

It's supposed to be 75%, not 100%, but the main content section in the middle would expand more you would think.  And there are also some errors at the lower resolution, at least in Firefox. If you go in and slowly make the width smaller, you'll see that eventually the main section thing starts to overlap the outer borders creating a really weird cutaway look. 

It doesn't happen to the header image or link bar though so it's something with that part. 
Again, IMO the text size is a bit small. 

But very, very, nice job.  :up:


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## cnelson04 (Dec 29, 2003)

its because the main box's are a width of 548px i frogot to make then expandible. this is probably i'll fix it later. thank you for the heads up. i'll also probably post a new design later tonight. -cnelson.


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## Big-K (Nov 22, 2003)

you really do need to make your stuff work in ie, it still commands the largest user base and shouldn't be that hard to get layouts working in.


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## cnelson04 (Dec 29, 2003)

your right, but it just shows that IE isn't as good as firefox. If it can't read my code but firefox can? Tells you that IE isn't that great. -cnelson.


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## Big-K (Nov 22, 2003)

While true, firefox is simply better at reading sloppy code(things like png transparency, which can be done anyway, don't apply here).


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## cnelson04 (Dec 29, 2003)

Ok, well i got a new template i made. Works both in FF, and IE as far as i can tell.. 
http://www.visionstudios.be/Templates/dark blue/dark blue/demo/index.html <<<DEMO
http://visionstudios.be/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=3<<<DOWNLOAD

please tell me what you think. thanks. -cnelson.


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## covert215 (Apr 22, 2006)

very nice...again its a little too small though


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## cnelson04 (Dec 29, 2003)

any more comments on the template i last posted? -cnelson.


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## Eriksrocks (Aug 7, 2005)

Nice. But like covert said, it's still too small. 

And I don't link the link hover style - it's too hard to see.


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## cnelson04 (Dec 29, 2003)

another template i just made;
http://www.visionstudios.be/Templates/darkyellows/demo/index.html

this one is suppose to be small its suppose to be small blog template. so yes its suppose to be somewhat small.


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## covert215 (Apr 22, 2006)

The size of the page doesn't matter so much, but the font is extraordinarily annoying.


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## cnelson04 (Dec 29, 2003)

Which font? The main font or just the fone on the images? Thanks.


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## covert215 (Apr 22, 2006)

The size of the font


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## ferrija1 (Apr 11, 2006)

And if you make the font any bigger, you should really make the design wider.


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## Eriksrocks (Aug 7, 2005)

Get some left-padding on the menu section.


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## covert215 (Apr 22, 2006)

*edit*

long story...


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## Eriksrocks (Aug 7, 2005)

Yeah I saw that and then you saw mine which is now deleted...


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## cnelson04 (Dec 29, 2003)

K, i'll keep what you guys said in mind. Thanks again for the input i'll post another one when i'm done with it, maybe by the weekend. -cnelson.


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