RedNerve Media - Updated!

[will7]

I'd appreciate some comments on the new design of RedNerve :)

www.rednerve.com

Feedback on the layout and content. Also, if we have any legal experts, could you read over my Design Contract and check that I haven't missed anything?

Thanks all,

Will.

[design@ews]

I like it, but maybe put the Javascript in an external file and link to it as you do for your CSS. Good use of colour and images.

I really like your graphic design work and it seems to be your strength.

There are some improvements to be made to the formatting I think, just to help your SEO side of things. This site should tell you what you need to improve: http://tools.summitmedia.co.uk/spider/
Apart from that, things are looking good so just keep learning and improving.

[will7]

Nice idea about the Javascript in an external file, I did that and also took out some unecessary CSS bits in the code.

I was thinking about converting the whole layout to a CSS <DIV> design, do you think this would be a good idea or will tables suffice?

Thanks again everyone :)

Will.

[Dread]

I'd always support tableless designs, tables are only meant for tabular data remember!

Site looks good! Keep it up.

[MorethanWords]

Don't know about any of the technical stuff but it looks really nice and clean in design terms. Love your branding and the fact that you can find everything really easily.

Love the whole look really! Well done you.


P.S. Oh, and if you get any copywriting requests then drop me a line!

[clairemackaness]

Site looks nice, but it's not obvious at first glance what you actually do. It needs to scream WEB DESIGN

[will7]

Really appreciate all the comments guys, keep 'em coming :)

[webdesignguy]

Have to agree with dread, go for full CSS if you can. Though I would say that if you feel that your tablebased design skills are better than your CSS skills then stick with tables till you get to the point where you can design as well if not better in CSS. There is no point in going backwards in your design just for the sake of using CSS.

[will7]

I know CSS quite well and have decided to recreate the site using it. It's going alright so far, should be finished soon :)

[lawspeed]

It might be worth changing all the references to you as an individual ('I', 'Me', and 'My') to suggest a genuine business ('We', 'Us', 'Our'). Customers may like the idea of dealing with you on a personal level but they also want the reassurance that there is a business structure in place behind the designer.

[will7]

I did that before, but then realised it's actually lieing ;) I'm not a "real business", I'm a freelancer and that's how I want to promote myself.

If I lie to my clients, it's not going to build a strong client-designer relationship.

[webdesignguy]

Yeah I agree, when I started out on my own I wanted to be seen as freelance but then when I wanted to move forward I changed to we. Just as a side note, this for me brought more clients.

[lawspeed]

It's not really lying, it's backing up the fact that you see yourself as a (one-person) enterprise. You have a business name 'Rednerve' and branding etc, so just in terms of semantics it make sense to state 'we'. You could still describe your own personal background under the 'About' section, stating 'Our lead designer is William ...etc'.

Client perception is key.

[lawspeed]

Also, if we have any legal experts, could you read over my Design Contract and check that I haven't missed anything?


I have taken the liberty of providing a free 'healthcheck' of the Design Contract, there are a few omissions and ambiguities that you should address, particularly for larger value works. I have emailed you with my detailed findings.

[will7]

It's not really lying, it's backing up the fact that you see yourself as a (one-person) enterprise. You have a business name 'Rednerve' and branding etc, so just in terms of semantics it make sense to state 'we'. You could still describe your own personal background under the 'About' section, stating 'Our lead designer is William ...etc'.

Client perception is key.

Indeed, but saying "We" would lead the client to perceieve that the "business" has more than one employee which isn't true. To me, this is lying and I feel the client would see it this way as well.

I have taken the liberty of providing a free 'healthcheck' of the Design Contract, there are a few omissions and ambiguities that you should address, particularly for larger value works. I have emailed you with my detailed findings.

Thanks a lot for doing that! I think I have made the chages you said I should now. I'd really appreciate if you could have a read through again and see if it's OK now.

Thanks a lot :)