Help me make filament.ca

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Hello everyone,

I'm going to stick my neck out here and let you all in to my life for a bit.

I've started up a design company. I bring to the table a solid portfolio. However my Partner suddenly has issues with our site, words like Ugly and boring have come up. Not much followed other than thats what Five of the people he ask said..

anyway so thats that.. what I'm looking for is a critique. If you have negative comments please back them up with suggestions.

filament communications

Also, what section of a design site do you head for if you were to look at hiring a company to do some design/marketing?



thanks for all your help.

flick.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 14
    curiousuburbcuriousuburb Posts: 3,325member
    Reviewed in Safari 1.2.4 almost fullscreen on a 1024x768 iBook 12" lcd.



    First impressions:



    At almost fullscreen width, the content seems built for 800x600.



    Framing and white space can be nice (when white, like the branding examples), but your column width for primary content seems like it needs to autostretch to minimize vertical scroll.



    Maybe it's just fine for 800x600 and that's your primary audience.

    I'd rather see a bit more width than the third or less it seems to take up now.



    I find the text to be poorly written as it stands now. Both your self-promotional blurbs and project summaries need tightening. Trying too hard to sound 'designer' and failing to concentrate on selling your skills in terms clients might understand doesn't give confidence in your communication abilities.



    Combining some layout issues with some copy issues immediately puts you at a disadvantage. "Grand is Filament", eh? If anything, it actively undermines your attempts to showcase elegant design. Some might be solvable by changing wrap widths, others by rewrites or typographic tweaks... YMMV.



    Always think about your audience... who do you want reading this stuff?



    Do they want to be snowed with adspeak, jargon, or insider jokes? Usually not.

    They want to know if you're the right candidates or if they should look elsewhere.



    Eight seconds.

    Opening page content that doesn't pass the eight second test is bad.

    Think executive summary... simple, direct, digestible. Promises rewards.



    Client projects could be listed in point form as bullets:
    • Client/Project name= blah

    • Media/Market = 2C/4C/Lino/Whatever for Distribution/Circulation/Audited etc.

    • Time/Budget category = 2 Weeks/ Under $2k

    • Result = Client reports new business up x %

    (If I were a client examining portfolios, this is info that would help.)



    Personally, I'd pull the detailed contact info page... bots troll for that stuff and you don't need the spam.

    Mailto's and a general office number ought to suffice.



    To answer the general question of what I'd want if I were the client searching for you:
    • Portfolio samples - visual evidence you ought to be able to do this - (do you have the eye)

    • Testimonials - 3rd party evidence you ought to be able to do this - (are you dickheads)

    • Timeline - scheduling evidence you ought to be able to do this - (deadlines matter)

    • Rate Card - ballpark evidence I ought to be able to afford this - (a clue to what league you're in)

    • Contact - detailed quotes after Q/A if you are able to do this (only if you pass the above)

  • Reply 2 of 14
    Excellent review.. thanks.



    this is a great Idea:

    "Client projects could be listed in point form as bullets:

    Client/Project name= blah

    Media/Market = 2C/4C/Lino/Whatever for Distribution/Circulation/Audited etc.

    Time/Budget category = 2 Weeks/ Under $2k

    Result = Client reports new business up x %"



    keep them coming.

    flick.
  • Reply 3 of 14
    the cool gutthe cool gut Posts: 1,714member
    Hey, i agree with most of the points above. You *need an image on the homepage. As well, you have a multi-media section, but no multi-media on your site.



    I find the title bar at the top quite boring, logo isn't very prominent. The border suggestion cannot be suggested enough.



    Contact page needs to be laid out better - maybe use tables for better organization. Who are you supposed to contact first? Maybe throw an image in there.



    Instead of making people download a PDF to view work, you should launch a smaller window to view work. Can you get any client comments on the site?



    I think you have way too much type on the home page as well.



    You have some work to do,, but I think you have a pretty strong foundation to build on, and have lots of content to show off, I just think it needs to be more eye catching.
  • Reply 4 of 14
    When you read this, keep in mind that I'm not a designer, a marketer or an entrepreneur. I don't have a job either. If anything here is nonsensical or infeasible then just ignore it. That said, I went all out.



    The organisation of the site should be more directed to prospective clients. The goal is to sell your services, so make it absolutely clear what you do right from the start, and give people a reason why they'd choose you. To my knowledge, any design firm could spew an ad copy version of designers ought to be able to do. You need to make light of what it is that Filament does best.



    Take your basic contact info out of the page title and put it right on the front page. Make your name and logo prominent. Change the title to something simpler, more relevant and easier to navigate with, like "Filament Design". Rewrite your text to place emphasis on salient aspects of your business first. Leave out the "founded in 2004" bit; people will assume you are inexperienced. Take out statements like "Sometimes it?s all about making actual stuff." Be clear and concise.



    Useful information and good visual design come together on the front page. You need to get people's attention when they first go to your site. Think of someone flipping through the Yellow Pages... they go to the sites of the companies whose ads there have caught their eyes, just to narrow things down. You want to make a good impression there, but currently, it's the plainest page on the site and there's hardly any content there.



    More criticisms:



    - The grey space is overwhelming. There's too much of it and it's too strong an element.

    - The space the content occupies is too small.

    - The shades of orange you use for titles progressively blend into the grey. "Contact" is very hard to read.

    - The sidebars seem to distract from the content.

    - The placement and alignment of titles and sidebars looks odd.

    - The favicon is sort of a blur... any way you could pare down the logo? Use transparency too, if that's possible, so you just have the circle, not the white corners.

    - "PDF Portfolio: High | Low" or just "PDF Portfolio"? Make sure these are consistent too.



    As for how to fix some of this stuff, I don't know, because I have no training in any of the relevant fields. I've never needed a design firm either, so I don't really know what people who do, look for. AI is probably well-stocked with experienced designers though, so I'm sure you'll get some better criticism in the next little while.
  • Reply 5 of 14
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Mac The Fork

    When you read this, keep in mind that I'm not a designer, a marketer or an entrepreneur. I don't have a job either. If anything here is nonsensical or infeasible then just ignore it. That said, I went all out.





    Thanks, good critique.. the list of changes is getting bigger and I'm excited to see the end result..

    keep them coming!

    flick.
  • Reply 6 of 14
    asaphasaph Posts: 176member
    a design site, to me, should have a bit more... design. Sorry if it seems harsh, but I got a bit bored just by looking at it and din't feel the desire to read anything. Now if I were a prospective client, I'd be going somewhere else. my main gripe is the lack of cohesion. the vertical line background along with the stretched looking text make it look a bit too vertical as well. I would suggest creatively implementing a border or content-containing shape to bring it all together.



    just my opinions though. Like I said, I never read it.
  • Reply 7 of 14
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Asaph

    a design site, to me, should have a bit more... design. Sorry if it seems harsh, but I got a bit bored just by looking at it and din't feel the desire to read anything. Now if I were a prospective client, I'd be going somewhere else. my main gripe is the lack of cohesion. the vertical line background along with the stretched looking text make it look a bit too vertical as well. I would suggest creatively implementing a border or content-containing shape to bring it all together.



    just my opinions though. Like I said, I never read it.




    this has been my problem, though I love going to design site and wandering through them.. I don't feel I fit into that niche.. I'm not really about flash and eye candy, direct messages and clear communications is what I find works for me.



    I do agree with what you have suggested here. I'll be working on this for a long time constantly tweaking and the comments have been super helpful.



    thanks for all of the help.

    keep it coming.

    flick.
  • Reply 8 of 14
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    first impression: I didnt like the fact there are no borders and that the content is just "floating" with no edges. Im on a cinema display. The background is too dark imo. Or you should put black on left and right.
  • Reply 9 of 14
    Ok,

    So much has happened to filament in the last while..

    we've made a ski widget (dashboard one comign soon) and have lots of cool stuff ie a paper santa robot.. anyway..



    please feel free to critique the site as you opinions helped me get here.

    the site

    cheers,

    flick.
  • Reply 10 of 14
    great job, the site looks very professional. I can't wait for the dashboard ski widget it looks pretty neat 8)

    Will you be sure to repost on here when the dashboard widget is ready, I may forget to check your website and I'd really like to have it. thanks
  • Reply 11 of 14
    I'll keep you all posted on the widget. though we do have it for mac w/ konfabulator.



    thanks,

    flick.
  • Reply 12 of 14
    Worlds better than the previous incarnation.



    Looks highly professional. Great update.
  • Reply 13 of 14
    Quote:

    Originally posted by curiousuburb

    Worlds better than the previous incarnation.



    Looks highly professional. Great update.




    Its amazing what a change of location can do..

    thoughts on the ski widget are also welcome.



    flick.
  • Reply 14 of 14
    Hi Flick,



    Edit : Just realised when you created this thread, oops! , oh well, those improvements I said could still improve your current design anyway I suppose



    For some 'quick fixes' i'd recommend removing the gray gradient on the logo image and enhance the 'fillament communications' text, possibly even swap the spring image and text around maybe.



    Also half that bottom image as on the homepage it produces a scroll bar (on 1024*768, Windows XP) for no particular reason.



    The website look's really good though, you could always try adding in another colour into the design, in small areas ofcourse, to enhance the look and feel of it overall ... such as applying it to the menu on the right hand side.



    I dont mean to jump on the band wagon here, but those reviews are really good!



    I started comparing my (small, personal) website to yours, and think I could really benefit from any reviews that are made against it from you folk.



    My website is smclintock.co.uk, hopefully some people could post back with some reviews? ... It could possibly benefit Flick Justice aswell maybe.
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