kranestyle v1.2 finally completed

well, it's about time i finished this site. started working on it back in august, went through 4 different layouts, and it finally is what it is. so check it out and hit me with any c&c.

+ experience the art of krane-fu +

I'm loving the overall layout... especially the mouse thing. Neato. I've got the same one... love it.

However, one annoying thing is the lack of the actual navigation. It's kind of annoying the way you have it setup, if there were just pre-labeled tabs that could be seen before hand and then had the effect on them... it would look better.

Like the other site you had, the mouse-overs sometimes act kind of wonky. This drives me nuts and for most sites, I will just leave. Your mouse has to be absolutely still for them to stay put.

You make nice graphics (Mouse, your profile), but it would have been nice to see you make some new elements rather then re-using old ones, but whatever works really. I do think you have nearly every trendy shape ever made in your layout, and I don't particularily like that, but this sort of style I don't like either. It is carried out well though, personal feelings aside. The colours also rock.

Now the bad news....All the content in your Iframes look, well, bad. It's big and intrusive. The rest of the site looks nice and is designed well, but it doesn't seem like the effort was put into the most important part of the site. The fonts are big and gross and the big headers and footers just don't look good. If you could get everything looking more like the Inspirations page, I think that would be a start, and even that still has the big weird plus signs up top and bottom. Get it looking a bit more streamline. This site isn't about white space, but it would be nice if the content had some space for my eyes to rest.

This is a nice personal site, but I don't think it would fly as a promotional site. It's really too one dimensional. All the focus is on the grungy, trendy style and not on your work. That's also the only impression I would get if I were an employer, that this is the only style of work I would expect to get. Now if you don't care about employers, thats fine, just my thoughts. All in all, it's pretty good, I just feel you can take it a bit further.

I really liked your splash page. Your website is a little too busy for me though. I think was bothers me about it is that your splash page is so clean and more simplistic where as your website is very busy with tons of shapes and stuff.

spectra, thanx for the extensive critique. yes, i must agree that my use of typography really sux about 85% of the time and it's something i'm going to work on improving next year.

I really like your style, but agree with Spectra that a prospective employer might be turned off by it.

Might want to check your code for the links on you Kreations page. I get a Visual Studio debug box when I roll over your links. The error pops up so quick, I can't click on the link.

when i look at your page i think graphically it is great. One thing, when trying to concentrate and actually try and read something... the falshing light from the bottom of the mouse is kinda distracting. A nice touch would be for the red light to come on when the mouse is moved, like my mouse does.

may just be me. Nice site though!!

*falls over* friggin AWESOME. Exactly my style, can't find one bad thing about it.

Time to nitpick.

I think the splash page is nice, but kinda boring. It's simple, yes, and i'ts kinda cool, doesn't really complement the style of the site though. The rollover gives some ridiculous yellow color though.

The site itself i don't like. I mean, being trendy is one thing, but this, as well as the old one, kind of takes it overboard. like, for example, almost the whole bottom half of the page is fluff. IT's just random effects, and it has no purpose for the site to ornament text or serve as surroundings to anything; i think that the site would be a lot nicer if you just cut that whole section out. AFter all it's a dissapointment to see a lot of scrollbar left to go and when you check it out there's nothing there.. :P

I agree the links are really annoying. in fact this might be a good time to bring up a good point about website design; when choosing links, it's not a good idea to hide words. All the words should be out in the open. Navigation shouldn't have to be a guessing game. This goes especially for sites that have buttons with no labels, and you only know what part of the site you're going to when you get there. Obviously there are exceptions to every rule but i think this one is a good rule of thumb to follow, and it definitely applies to this site.

Plus a bigger hit area for the buttons would definitely help, you wouldn't have to keep your mouse perfectly still on the button.

in the profile, all the "Kreatives" and "Kreations" kinda get played out... i mean it's a professional profile and you're trying to get hired for something, that might not be the most professional way to go.



However the site does prove that you're very adept at photoshop, and i especially love the vector work you've got going. as far as the flash goes, I don't think you need it, other than for the mouse and the swinging cord. There's no reason why you can't take the flash off the buttons, don't think you need it there.

Also it's obvious that a lot of time went into this.. that goes without saying lol

and i really like the plus thingy and the collage of pictures to the right. Whatever that is, it's coo hehe :D

ok, first of all, thanx to everyone for the comments and great big thanx to spectra and supahsekzy for taking the time to do the extra long ones.

just redesigned a few things based on the comments. i think the site work much better now. the navigation buttons r more flexible and work easier. the content areas of the different sections have more room now to empasize the actual content. (thanx spectra)

anyways, thanx again to everyone and keep those comments flowin.