Date: 05/28/05 (WebDesign)    Keywords: web

Hi Guys, I need a favor. My boyfriend Scott's been working with a designer on his new web site and I would like your honest feedback so we can incorporate it before he finalizes the design. Scott worked on this for hours and hours tonight and thought he was finally done. He was really hoping I would give it a big thumbs up, but I couldn't. I know how important this is to him, and I really want it to be representative of him; professional, attractive, and a good marketing tool that will help him sell his music and talent.

I have some complaints with the site, and I can't pretend that I don't -- not huge complaints -- I think it can be improved tremendously with a few changes. It kills me that in giving Scott my honest feedback I disappointed him and hurt his feelings. I love him so much, but I think he may have kind of cluttered it up and the designer, wanting to please his client, may have gone along with some ideas he might not have originally chosen. I had seen a simpler outline, a snapshot of what the site was going to look like, and I liked it. I mean I wouldn't choose these colors and style for myself, but for Scott it's cool. He needs to convey that a lot of the songs on the album are reggae so the colors make sense for this.

I respect your taste and opinions so much, and I just honestly want to know what you think. If you have the time, and feel like being generous and helpful to a fellow struggling artist, who really needs a good site to showcase his work, would you look over his site and give us some feedback? We won't hold it against you in any way, and would in fact be super appreciative. If you think it's fabulous as is, we want to know that. If you think it just needs a little work, then we want to know that. If you hate it, then hard as that might be for Scott to face, then we need to know that.

I'd like to know what you think of the bold strokes and the smaller ones. I'm particularly interested in what you think about the lion imagery and the photographs of Scott, are there some pictures that you do and some pictures that you do not like? If so what are they? Are there any graphic images on the site that appeal or do not appeal to you? What about the navigation? What about the text? I could just really use another eye here because without a second and a third opinion I can't convince Scott that there are some areas of this site that are kind of graphically unprofessional, if that makes any sense. I know I'm asking a lot, so I'll appreciate any feedback you'd be generous enough to give.

I wish I could just come out and say, "I don't like the image of the sad clowny face on page three, what do you think?" because that's what I'd do, but Scott thinks I am being hyper-critical and I don't want to direct your attention to the few things I don't like because maybe I am being too hard on this. I'd rather get your unbiased opinions.


Okay, now this isn't a great picture of Scott, but this is the idea, to remove an element of color leaving part of the image in black and white. I liked this effect.

One thing I'm realizing that we're missing here is what drew us to this designer in the first place; his use of color hilighted against parts of the image where he had removed the color, leaving these areas in black and white. I want to show you what I mean but I can't find the link, in the meantime here's a link to the web site Daniel, (the designer), designed for his sweet girlfriend, Jill Marie. I'm wondering why they chose not to do the cool black and white thing on Scott's site when this was the main thing we liked about his work to begin with... Oh and I'm also noticing that Scott's music isn't playing when you go to the site. I wonder why they chose not to do that. Hmm... Anyway, if you'd like to take a stab at this, we would be so grateful.

Big loving hugs,
Jacqui and Scott

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/webdesign/891943.html