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Online Related > Website Design > General Web Design Lamentation

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Echoia	11th April 2006 - 07:59 am
	*sigh* I haven't made a design for a website in months- I've been slowly, slowly, slowly working on a design for Echoia and taking my time with it so that when it is done it will be something I am proud of... in the meantime, I've done nothing else. Now, I have on my hands a very important site to design ... and I got nothin. I can barely remember how to start- title text. Always start with the title text. *sigh*

Linda	11th April 2006 - 08:04 am
	Hmm so you don't have a title or you're just trying to figure out how to display it?

Echoia	11th April 2006 - 08:13 am
	I have the title and am figuring out how to display it- the problem is the person who has asked me to make it WILL NOT be helpful. I know them and they've been spying on my web work for years and upon requesting me for work I of course ask, 'What do you have in mind?' 'Mm... you can do whatever you want. I trust you, you're a good designer.' '*i stare in silence*'. I have discussed with this person OVER AND OVER how maddening that answer is and only a week or so ago went on a nice long rant about how much it sucks to hear that and how I quit the last design job I had because I was told, 'Do wahtever you want' and upon presentation was told, 'Could you change ____' then upon second presentation 'Could you maybe make ___ a little different...' so I just quit. I sent another frantic e-mail just tonight begging for some input because : / I know where this road leads. All the input I've gotten so far (and this has been being talked about casually over the course of a couple of months) is 'I like cool tones rather than warm tones.' *crying*

Echoia	11th April 2006 - 08:17 am
	I don't know if images from getty are linkable as such but in case... I should give them something featuring This image : )

Sarah	11th April 2006 - 08:19 am
	Perhaps just do something really really simple. No images, just literally, cool colours. Maybe a gradient or something? i mean, if they're not goiing to be helpful...

Linda	11th April 2006 - 08:21 am
	Arggh that is my biggest peeve. "I don't have any ideas, just do what you think looks good" ..... "It's not really what I had in mind.". That is why normally when I do a design for someone I make about 2 or 3 mockups for them to choose from.. usually at least one of them makes them happy. Anyway, there is not much else you can do if they refuse to give you any pointers You can't be expected to read their mind. If it's someone who visits your personal site I would probably stick with that kind of style? Maybe put the sidebar on the other side to make it a little different :D templatemonster.com is good for webdesign-block too.

Sarah	11th April 2006 - 08:23 am
	In all honesty, Echy, i'd refuse to do it unless she/he helps you out a bit

Carina	11th April 2006 - 08:23 am
	I had such a hard time making a layout for my site. Now, it's not that bad but is freakishly simple and quite boring. I know one of my online friends who calls my site 'classy' but I think she secretly thinks it's rather boring.

Echoia	11th April 2006 - 08:27 am
	Quote Sarah Perhaps just do something really really simple. No images, just literally, cool colours. Maybe a gradient or something? i mean, if they're not goiing to be helpful... I already did that. I made them an imageless WP theme and set it up. Quote Linda ... I make about 2 or 3 mockups for them to choose from.. usually at least one of them makes them happy. I already did that, too : ) *laughing* 'Yes, that's nice.' (the one I worked most on and sent is mostly white, just a 15 minute thing I threw together) 'I don't want big white spaces on my site.' AT LEAST the design that I came up with very quickly is pretty good and I think I can complete it in probably an hour and sell it elsewhere later (woo hoo!) Quote Linda If it's someone who visits your personal site I would probably stick with that kind of style? Maybe put the sidebar on the other side to make it a little different :D That's a really good idea, actually. No wonder they call you... Linda... : )

Eva~	11th April 2006 - 08:32 am
	maybe you can tell us what thema the site will have (sport, blog ect.) that's really not a good situation :( (I can't see the image ;) )

Echoia	11th April 2006 - 08:36 am
	Quote Carina I had such a hard time making a layout for my site. Now, it's not that bad but is freakishly simple and quite boring. I know one of my online friends who calls my site 'classy' but I think she secretly thinks it's rather boring. I used to have a friend who (actually, STAB THAT WORD THROUGH THE HEART he was not my friend) would constantly tell me that my site was boring and all the problems with it all the while asking me, 'Whennn are you going to design my siiii-iii-iiite?' (he had one he'd made and it was awful). Finaly he bought a domain name and asked me to seriously do it then for money and I told him o.k. first lets get you cheaper better hosting (he had some big name hosting plan that supported nothing and cost wayyy too much). He refused, told me I was a professional and to 'figure out' how to do it without being able to use PHP or Frames. I told him to figure it out himself ; ) He ended up getting someone else to do it- I dunno what he paid but basically it is as bad as it always has been except it finally does not have a not-made-for-repeating repeating tile background ; ) I smiled contentedly when I saw it *tee hee*

Echoia	11th April 2006 - 08:46 am
	Quote Eva~ maybe you can tell us what thema the site will have (sport, blog ect.) that's really not a good situation :( Well..., it's a site for my manfriend (boyfriend person). He is currently deployed with the US army and is blogging about his thoughts and things he sees while he's overseas. That's what the blog is about- however, I don't know how much he wants to play into that with the design, which is why this is sooo hard. I mean, in keeping with the title (which I haven't released yet because he's being a little weird about his blog) I think the design should be something very serene. I thought about going with a desert graphic, like an illustration, but he really gives me absolutely no feedback : / On top of that- I know NOTHING. Right now he has a blog- I nagged him for days to make pages, or to tell me if he was GOING to amke pages with wordpress and explain his blog on a static page and he did not answer me even one time. Yesterday ... no we didn't talk yesterday, so two days ago I guess we were talking and he asks, 'Hey- can I make pages like you have on your site? Like your photos page and stuff.' *I stare into the camera and do not speak* Really : ( he is sooooo cute and it is driving me crazy because he deals roughly with me when I let other people do this to me wheN I make a deal with them to design a site. He demands that I DO NOT let people behave this way and he is insisting we draw up a contract *rolls eyes* but even if I AGREED to do that what do I put on a contract? "Kevin has NO EARTHLY IDEA what he wants.' : / He's bad. The site is important to me because it is for him, otherwise I would say sorry find someone else (I've decided a while ago to no longer to take web design jobs, I'll sell templates that I've already made and that is it). I reeallly want him to write and blog, though, I love the way he writes and I want the design to be something that encourages him to write when he looks at it, you know? Even though he isn't looking at it while he blogs :/ I know, it makes no sense *shakes self*

Eva~	11th April 2006 - 08:59 am
	wuh... difficult .... the desert sounds good to me ;) I can't give you any advices... ( how useless >.> ) you're much better in webdisign than me... I know that you will make it ;) (would he like to have something from the army on his design? something like a parachutist?)

Echoia	11th April 2006 - 09:07 am
	I dunno : / I actually just realized I have thse pictures of him all decked out in his desert uniform and his rifle out I might just make a vexel out of one of those and make a layout around that and say, 'Kiss my foot, you're going to like it cus I made it!' : )

Linda	11th April 2006 - 09:42 am
	OOOOOOOOOooh a Kevin-Blog! I wonder if he will talk about his beautiful ravishing love back home. My first thought is to not make it a tacky with a army camoflauge patterns everywhere :P Not that I think you'd do that anyway. The desert thing sounds nice.. you could easily make that look calm and clean with nice neutral colours.

Sarah	11th April 2006 - 09:57 am
	Perhaps you could do your two-collumned thing with one of your beautiful illustrations? Perhaps a desert illustration? :D CACTUSSSSS

spazzysazzy	11th April 2006 - 11:41 am
	You could ask them if they have any exmples of websites they have seen where they like the layout, design ect and then you would atleast have something to work on...

Echoia	11th April 2006 - 12:05 pm
	I'm just going to give him something blue, grey, and black with white texts (though most of it WILL NOT be black because I do not like tons of black- it's funny he says, 'I trust you you're good' without ever noticing that I don't like black very much and that's what he's wanting? Pthhb). I sent him lots of questions, as I mentioned, and he answered ONE! One freakin' question. 'Can I use curvy lines in the design or do you prefer boxy shapes' 'Curves are nice.' He'll get what he's asked for, that's all I can say : )

Carina	11th April 2006 - 12:08 pm
	Once my friend told me to make a layout for her xanga (I found it really stupid because she has a xanga layout site herself).. I kept asking her what she wanted, and she kept on saying, 'I don't care. Just make it creative.' I asked her what color scheme she wanted and she said,'Blue, black and pink'. So I made a blue, black and pink layout for her. It took me 2 hours. When I showed her, she said, 'Oh, that's not what I really wanted. Can you make it like you did for Sam's site?' (I made my sister Sam a xanga layout with a film strip). I said okay, but never did. It really made me mad.. she said she didn't care what I did but when I finally did something, she said she wanted something else.

Raelynn	11th April 2006 - 12:25 pm
	Web design aggrevates me so much when Im doing it for other people that I just refuse to do it :( One guy offered me $600 to do a two page site and I still refused. Visit coolhomepages.com I always go there for inspiration.

Echoia	11th April 2006 - 12:53 pm
	I got one : ) It's 7:43 a.m. I've been at this for four hours and I finally hit something that I like and sent him a screencap of it hopefully he'll tell me he hates it at the least so I don't waste more time on another design he won't want. That's just the layout, though. I still dunno what he will accept for a main graphic : / /edit/ Wow it's been more than five hours actually : /

Carina	11th April 2006 - 01:39 pm
	Good luck Echo! Either I've changed dramatically as a person and have gotten over my issues or am having mood swings. I am unusually cheerful, happy and restless.

Echoia	11th April 2006 - 01:44 pm
	*rattling sounds come from behind echo's back, where her hands are conspicuously hiding* What's that Carina? Mood swings, eh? ; )

Echoia	11th April 2006 - 02:14 pm
	*tossing confetti* He likes it AND he's now being HELPFUL by telling me what he wants! ~happy dance

Carina	11th April 2006 - 02:25 pm
	Yay for Echo!!! Wow, that's really good. You must be so relieved!

b0o	09th May 2006 - 04:35 am
	Quote Raelynn Web design aggrevates me so much when Im doing it for other people that I just refuse to do it :( One guy offered me $600 to do a two page site and I still refused. Visit coolhomepages.com I always go there for inspiration. ok i understand the difficulties of a customer but 600 for a 2 page layout i would have done it

Sarah	09th May 2006 - 04:55 am
	:O Echo, whats the final result like?

Echoia	09th May 2006 - 04:56 am
	Like I'm on a third design now with the imageless blog still being all he has up. I just keep reminding myself how pretty he is. How damnably pretty... *sigh*

Online Related > Website Design > General Web Design Lamentation

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