Help me, lol.

Check out my website: www.dartgraphics.com
Please be brutally honest and just type whatever you feel. This is basically my first 'good' website, so help me out.
By the way, check out my digital art too.
Christopher Perkins
AIM: archituthus
EMAIL: [email]service@dartgraphics.com[/email]

your site doesn't flow, nothing leads to something else.
poor navigation, i didn't even know that the text on the left 'menu' were the names of the art pieces until i clicked. and then you got all those other links in the different sections. you should probably reorganize your content, and optimize some images so it'll load faster.

I really dont like you site... for a busnies website this type of work will kill you... There is only one solution a complte redesign...

But you seem to be a good digital artist.. so try to work from there... There is way to use one of your image as a start for your site... Take a look at these tutorials

http://www.graphicwebdesign.net/eBook/easy-website-creation.html

http://www.photoshopcafe.com/tutorials/super%20tutorial%202/website.htm

These should help you.. a lot ;)

your genocide picture has way too many lens flares..
and your site
well try to stick just to one color theme

Ok these are the programs I know VERY well:
Corel Draw 10, Corel Photopaint, photoshop, autocad, bryce, poser, Rave, 3d studio max. Those are the main ones. I took 3 yrs of Graphic arts in HS that had merging programs, digital cameras, t-shirt printing, etc etc etc.... You name it, they had it. 2 yrs of drafting....got 3rd in county for an entire working house plan.
So basically, tell me what I did wrong, what I did right, tell me what to DO. Giving me tuturials on programs i know how to use, doesn't help me. Giving me basic principles of how to build a website that works very well helps me tremondously. I had an English teacher who did something no other English teacher did. She taught how to write. She just didn't give assignments and say 'write'. She went thru the specific styles of writing, how you write, the dynamics of writing, etc etc. I'm still not very good at writing, but it helped me get much better. My point is this: tell me how to build a website, the styles of websites, the dynamics of websites, how to organize them, etc etc. That would help me so much.
I really only know Frontpage at the moment, and nothing about frames. Remember that I can use every tool in the above programs. You want me to do it, I can do it. But I'm not very talented at doing webdesign, so kinda guide me thru it.
Thank-you so much for your time,
Christopher Perkins
AIM: archituthus
EMAIL: [email]service@dartgraphics.com[/email]

Alright! Somebody who really wants to learn! Okay, let me see if I can explain this for you. Like in writing, sites can use many different styles for different purposes; different styles for different audiences. If you are going to make a site for skateboard parts you would most likely make something that your visitors can relate to. Having your links be graffiti on a ramp, for example, lets your visitor know that they are in the right place because your site shows that you know what you're doing and you have what they're after. If you are making a site for a networking business, you want something simple and easy. You don’t want to make a potential client have to wait through a 200k flash intro to get to a site with a bunch of distracting bells and whistles and an unclearly labeled navigation. Chances are they aren’t there to gawk at your web designing skills, they want to know why you are good at what you do. Navigation should always be clear in definition. You don’t need to have links labeled “Origin, mindwork, transfers and uplink” when they could be labeled “Home, portfolio, links and contact.” You want something graphic that is easy to look at, fits the mood of your site and houses the navigation. There are basically two parts to a website: The Interface and The Content. They need to be two clearly separate things and yet still have a subconscious connection. Just because your visitor isn’t necessarily thinking about how your site design fits your mission, they see it. It clicks for them. There is no boundaries to the places you can go when designing a website, although you need to make something that takes you where you need to go. You should ultimately strive for a website that says “I know what I’m doing…and I can help you.” Take a look around the web. See what type of styles are used for different purposes. Then plot out where you want to go, what you want your visitors to think, then make something that makes you think that. Always ask your friends “What do you think when you see this page?” It will help you greatly, as I hope I have. Good luck and keep posting stuff you come up with.

much kudos to you.
Let me know if you want a print of any one of my artwork sometime. I'll give you a special price. Contact me. contact info in upper pages.
Thx again,
Christopher Perkins

Pick a color scheme and stick to it. The marble background was great in 1997, but not so hot today.

Don't showcase your work like that on the left. Showcase your *business* on the welcome page and showcase your work on the other pages you have created.

Kill the underlines on the links using CSS and make them change colors or add the underline on rollover. Or maybe make actual image buttons. And isolate them from the other content. It's fine that they are at the top if you want them there, but get them away from the other content. It looks like it's just all grouped together in a clump there.

Get rid of Frontpage and use Dreamweaver if you can.

Use more spacing near the borders of your tables. The text is too close to the edge there.

Can't think of anything else. Wait... look at other web pages and critique them to see what worked and what didn't. What looked good and what could have looked better.

Just keep at it.

Just a few q's for 'teh4man'
Color scheme, gotcha.
How do you showcase your 'business'. I'm not quite sure if I understand your terminology. Welcome page, gotcha.
"Kill the underlines on the links using CSS." CSS? Sorry, but I seriously don't know what CSS is. Ok, so use roll-overs for the links. Change colors, good idea.
How do I isolate buttons? I thought they were isolated. It's not as if I hid them, but I don't quite understand what you mean there.
Also, should I have the background cover the entire background of the webbrowser, or what? Should I have like a picture as the main webpage background? I'm not really sure what I should do to define the bounds of my webpage.
Again, thx for your time.
Christopher Perkins
again, special prices for my artwork, just contact me.

Your welcome page should be an advertisement for your business. An informative billboard. Explain who you are, what you do, why you are better than everyone else and why your visitors are going to benefit from choosing your services. Sell yourself on this first page. Marketing, my friend. And think quality, not quantity.

Learn CSS. Or cheat.

+CSS code edited out here+

When I say isolate the buttons, I mean get them further away from the content. Number one, they look too much like the text in your content and number two, they are too close to your content so from *afar* it just looks like one clump of stuff. Differentiate them with some distance since they look so similar.

Defining the bounds of your page means essentially designing for either 800x600 or 1024x768 and then using some tables and/or layers to control the placement of your elements.