Re: FN-FORUM: Site Check

date posted 24th August 2003 11:37

hi,
----- Original Message -----
From: "James Browne" [EMAIL REMOVED]
> smile nicely will you look at my new site?
> http://www.thelondonartist.com/

Code-wise the site is excellent. Good use of css, clean code, degrades well,
good for search-engines, and the font-size can be changed.
Although some improvement is possible there, it's a strong foundation.

The main weakness is that the colors don't look nice.
It looks like a brochure that's been in the sun too long.

This is especially obvious as the artist seems to be very color-aware. If
you look at:
http://www.thelondonartist.com/landscapesGallery.htm
it's funny how the site's blue doesn't match with a single painting. It's
always slightly off.
I think it would probably look a lot better if you used a color that
contrasted with the tones used in the paintings, instead of being close but
not quite right.
Something like 'gold' for instance (in css named colors, not shiny).
This might also be due to my tft screen displaying the colors differently
than you see them, but that's the web.

If the color stays very light, I'd put a very fine outline around
'thelondonartist' to increase the contrast.

I don't like the way the image sits behind the header text.
Either it should be aligned with the header text, or it should be
independent of it. Now it aligns at the top, but not left or right, making
it look like you couldn't get it quite right.

Personally I'd drop the dropshadow, but if you want to keep it, it might be
good to have it the same size each time you use it. If it's 3px on the image
containers, use the same for the title, etc.

There seems to be a typo here:
http://www.thelondonartist.com/purchase.htm
'(Outside the UK) Sales as a looses sheet in a tube only.'

I'd add some padding-left and padding-right to your 'bodyLink' css.

Overall a very nice site though.

Cheers,
Richard.