[Spitfire]

http://www.sedative.org

You know the drill...

[Chapel]

Do you not put any content on any of your sites or am I just not searching hard enough? Maybe its just me, but I think you should probably think of making one site and then doing a gallery of wallpapers or something. Sorry, if this seems a little harsh. I usually do not reply to your post, because I'm not exactly sure what your goal is as far as your artwork. But after seeing another post for your new site design I just had to say something. Your designs are interesting to me, but they are not appealing to me if that makes sense. Maybe it is just my loss because of my own ignorance. But in any case I'm not big on sites where I have to play "spot the hand icon" to browse.

[This message has been edited by Chapel (edited August 16, 2000).]

[SushiMaster]

Spitfire, I have to agree with Chapel on some things. On the splash page, the main graphic in the middle of the page should be clickable to get into the site. Otherwise you'll find that a surprising lot of people, upon seeing that they can't click on the great big graphic in the middle, will just press BACK.

I realise that you haven't set up the hyperlinks for the menu in the inside page yet, but unless you make some major changes, this critique is valid there also: There is no obvious "menu" bit which screams "click me now!". A lot of people will be confused by that. Good web design is not only esthetics, and it's not only file size. It's also useability. You have to make your interface as intuitive as you possibly can. A good interface is, in fact, one which you don't notice, because the content of a site is not its interface, but its content (!). A lot of sites seem to forget that...

Daniel

[shinkin]

I really like the design because its not ordinary. I think the textures are pretty well worked out and everything is fitting to everything else. I'm looking forward to the (soon?) added content.

shinkin

[Slicer]

hey.. I like the design very much.. especially the worn out look. Could you share the secret to making it look worn out?

[Chapel]

The reason I asked about the content is because I've never been able to find content on any of Spitfire's site design.

[Nex]

Cool work spitfire.. I liked all your interfaces so far.
I am just a too lazy bum to do something like that..

I found "content" in form of wallpapers and stuff .. don't know why the others didnt-

slicer: this is an acient secret brought to him by aztec priests. He won't reveal or he will have to suffer their curse

[Spitfire]

Chap, Sushi ; Your comments are all very valid in 99% of the cases, but this one is an itty bitty different. Namely what i set out to do with my 'website' is to stay away from website standards as much as possible.

When making websites, everyone (including me when working for customers) thinks in the same manner : header, logo, interface, content, etc. While effective, i find that extremely boring. Im trying to build websites that dont look and work like websites, but like paintings or print. This is also why i dont have that much content, im trying to make the images speak for themselves.

I am very much aware of the fact that 90% of the people on the web do not understand this and will probably leave before the splasher is even loaded, but then again, these are not the people i build stuff for. Like they say, you cant please everyone all the time.

If you take a look at some of the sites i've made for customers [ http://www.sunclub.nl | http://www.referentietoets.nl | http://www.bontwijzer.nl/fursale ] you will see that i am capable of making "naviagationally correct" websites, i just dont like to.

Thanks for the feedback though, you brought up valid points and its greatly appreciated.

P.s. more content is coming very quickly. Right now im cutting up a 2ndary menu for the 'misc.' section, which will point to older work.

[Chapel]

Did you just update the page again? The menu didn't work the first time I went there. Now that it works the site is pretty neat. I think the main thing on any site or anything that you create for someone to interact with is the interface. If the user doesn't know how to interact... then they won't. Now with your sites I understand that your thinking to contradict corporate design. That's cool, but I think on the splash pages you make (sense you redesign so often) you should keep a consistant statement. Like the member button you created. Post that statement on your splash page or "Expect the Unexpected". Just something to clue in the clueless (like me).

[This message has been edited by Chapel (edited August 16, 2000).]

[Spitfire]

Chap : yep, im building the site as we speak. Right now ive uploaded the Misc section which contains a link to a gallery of older work. It sports downright blasphemous typography

I'll think about putting a disclaimer on the splashpage. it's just that i hate putting text on a splashpage...

Slicer : congratulations! you are the 1000th person to ask me that You win a free cruise to the carri...eh. wait. Forget about that. I could tell you how i do it, but i'd have to kill you afterwards. Let me just say it involves a scanner, my little brother's properties and lots of photoshop (no filters though).

[Spitfire]

Hmmm it seems that some of the mouseovers dont work, dont even function like links, in netscape 4.X, while others happen to do. Whoever can tell me why wins a kiss...

[X-pLaGue]

How do you make the photocopied paper effect?? It looks pretty cool!

------------------
-worse than bubonic, filthier than AIDS-

[Spitfire]

Plague : you more-or-less answered your own question...

[hew]

On the first page the body tag contains:
onLoad="MM_preloadImages('over.jpg')"
What purpose does this serve, seeing as though over.jpg is used on the first page, and there is function named MM_preloadImages()



------------------
What doesn't kill me, only postpones the inevitable.

[Spitfire]

Leftovers from the previous splasher.

Kill me.

A brand spankin' slickysmooth splasher is on its way.

[Spitfire]

And there's the splasher, WITH a 100% legal proof disclaimer.

[ex]

Spitfire,
I think the site is defenitly one of the most origional sites i've seen. When i make a deisgn i go for this style if you want to call it that. But I can never achieve it. Probley because I lack so of experiance, but anyway. Your site is really great. And I like how it opens in the same browser window unlike most of your previous designs. It also reminds me of the inside of The Downward Spiral cd, by Nine Inch Nials. Are you farmiliar with them?

[Chapel]

Cool.

[shinkin]

Hey spitfire,
I really started laughing out loud while reading your disclaimer, it's that cool.
Other Q: are you German?(In the graphic section there is a German word on the topgraphic)

BTW: You get a buzz from me for not paying attention to us netscape users

cya, shinkin

[Nocturnal]

Looks cool Spit!
I'll see if i can guess the worn look..

Scanned paper with Crayon, or chalk?

Looks like ya rubbed a piece of paper with one and scanned it.. I think you can get a cool smudge effect if you use soap on the Scanner Glass.. (can't remember where i heard that from)

But i'm sure it would add a cool effect..

-Noc

[Spitfire]

Ex : Thanks! Thats a compliment - the downward spiral cover is really fucking awesome.

Slice : I doubt it'll get that far, but your interest is greatly appreciated. One day i'll write some tuts on trashed/dirty/spattery design.

Shinkin : If you pay attention to the beginning of the thread, you'll see where i got the disclaimer Im not german by the way, but close : Dutch. The "versicherung" comes from an advertisement on the back of a phone card i bought for vacation.

Nocturnal : scanned, yes. Did suff with paper? no. I think you got the soap on paper idea from Affected. He did a piece based on that if i recall correctly.

By tomorrow ill think up some other weird things to stuff this design with - since you all seem so eager for content

[SushiMaster]

Then it's fine :-) So long as you know the rules well enough, you're free to break them, since you know why you're breaking them and the effect it will have :-)

As I often say, you've got to learn the rules so you can break them better... it's true of web design too.

For the actual look of the site, I think it looks very good and definitely different, although it sort of (very, very vaguely) reminded me of rusted faith... perhaps the typography... Well done, anyway! :-)

Daniel

[Spitfire]

Daniel : thanks, that's my POV as well. All the great designers made sure to know what was cooking before they threw it out of the window, so what else can i do but follow?

[Slicer]

I�m sorry I didn't know that I was the thousand one to ask you that.

Perhaps I should ask once more under a different ID so I will be the 1001:th to ask too =)

I won�t mind if you kill me. =)

[This message has been edited by Slicer (edited August 16, 2000).]

[time_101]

I like the design, it's quite original, but the whole "hunt for the link" idea doesn't quite work -- plus the font for your links is about one size too small. If you but a space between the lines it would be more readable, but the cramped, chaotic feel would be lost, and that would be bad. The text in the upper right is counter-intuitive to what people are used to at first, but it doesn't take long to figure out what's where. Also on the splash page, the fading of the fonts makes the "Enter | Flee" parts of the image map rather difficult to read. Since it's not the standard "Enter Here", I think that making the "Flee" word a bit clearer would make it a bit easier. I like the "old" feel of it very much, whatever technique you use for the backgrounds and images works very well.

Pay attention to the ease of use. Just because you want a unique sight that screams orginality doesn't mean you should sacrifice ease of navigation.

Once again, original, more so than what I've been doing (but I've also been trying for a simple, "less is more" approach and change design constantly too and it's sites like yours that keep making me change it). Keep up the good work

[Tinusch]

My monitor is set at 1280x1024, and I can read it just fine without my glasses on.

[Brishen]

I LIKE IT! It's so textured I could reach out and touch it. Ooooooh. *touch touch* And the page size isn't a problem for me. (Hug, kiss, snuggum wuggum cable modem.)

I was a bit confused at first, to be honest, as I did expect the graphic on the splash page to be clickable, but I am a bear of admirable brain, and I figured it out.

Neat design. I look forward to seeing more of your artwork posted there.

Good thing I checked my conservative assholeism at the door.

Jess

[Spitfire]

T'is alive!!! Who reanimated this thread?

Time : thanks for the compliments. I have a very specific reason for making the navigation cramped and small, namely that something that is immediately recognized as "navigation" adds to the this-is-a-website feeling im trying to avoid.

Jess : All bow to the god of Broadband communication! Everyone should have a private T3 so i dont have to compress at all. Im glad you liked it.

Now i just have to find a way to convert the 2 remaining "black & blue" pages to this style-format..hmm..