My first actual paying site

The first site I've done where the clients haven't absconded with the design, or dissapeared or had no money! The client had some weird ideas about the design though..

http://www.ac2hq.com

Basically it is a new/fansite for a mmorpg. And I have nothing to do with the ugly forums.

I like the lugian skin the best.


I've got some more work coming from this particular online community, so some comments on what worked and what didn't would be helpful.

I know how much you need your "crunch space" for resolution compatibility, but I think there needs to be a tad bit more eye candy up top. Very cool stuff though. The skinning is nice.

I think it looks pretty good....but id have to agree with noa....it definately needs something in the middle there...its just to open....other then that it looks good....

all these gaming sties look the same... we need some variation from the norm.

think outside of the box, thats where i got my idea for a horizontal layout.

Client wasn't looking for outside the box. He is hoping to be picked up by a large gaming site, so he has to have a standard layout.

I agree about the empty space, but I couldn't figure out a way to fill it and keep the crunch space.

Get use to it

Many clients are afraid to go out the norm....they dont want to take any risk... It append to me to, but it is possible to convice them to go a little outside norms if you can prove them than the risk worth it...

But remember this... The designer may be rigth...but the client is the one who pay...

By the way : Nice use of CSS for your menu...

Clients dont want to stray from the norm because they don't think like us designers do

we rule the world! go us go!

1- A horizontal site is no where near out of the box. It may be on the teetering edge, but it's surely inside the box. So what if companies don't want a horizontal site. Refer to point 3 for a great reason why horizontal sites are bad. As for a designer who is trying to be different, go for it, but you arent as different as you think.

2- Buzz words like "outside the box" are really annoying. In the feild where I have my expertise, people who use buzz words typically have a great list of certification and knowledge of real world issues, but they have no idea how to use those words to fix said issues. The merely know they exist.

3- Clan sites look like that for a reason. Clan sites are meant as a way of transmitting information to your clan members as well as visitors of the site. How many times have you closed a site because it scrolls to the side and you refuse to resize your window to make sure you aren't missing something. There is a reason why text is written left to right in vertical columns in general. It's because it is easy to read and much more organized.

4- You not liking it because it has a standard 3 column design is pretty much unsupported. If you see something really wrong with it, say so. Don't "I don't like it cause it's vertical".

Was gonna post a comment about the site, but Axiom already said it. Im reffering to point nr 3.

I like the site... well done!

It's pretty cool, but i think you should change the css style adn make the box have some transparecy