Hey,
I decided to bring this topic back from the dead because I took a new turn in my exploration of graphic design.
If you've noticed my latest avatars, I've been going for an abstract, colourful look. For some advice on the design, I decided to put them all here and ask you guys (mostly tomas, but hey, anybody's input is awesome)
I have three works to show off. The first two being my last two avatars:

AVATARS


LARGER PIECES



















OLD STUFF

I'll be uploading more soon (possibly)

Any critique/comments would be appreciated ;)

-action

at first glance it's okay
if you want to have designerish nitpicking comments though, i can write a whole list of things you could improve ;D

spacing and composition are heavily lacking in this thing
also there are a couple of things (like the font color of 'element 7 studios', the fact that it's written with an outline, the gradient on the white border, and the secondary gray rectangle on the border) that you could have done differently to get something more attractive..
also the logo is a bit off in terms of spacing and line thickness etc.

all small things, that probably no-one will notice, but once you improve on those, people will experience the site as 'better', even though they cant really say why..

i could give you a full analysis providing solutions and options, but that'll take me time to make.. and i reckon you won't be integrating the feedback into the site, and make a better one.. so, well if you'd like me to just tell me

but what's most important though, the site is navigatable, and its clear what you have to do to go where, so that's all right ;]

ps there's a spelling mistake in your copyright information
artowrk (sounds almost japanese heh)

edit:
i took a quick shot at this
its probably not your style, since you have a more web 2.0 thing going on, but im all for simplicity

see how, when you compare it to your site
things feel more balanced

take a look at this to see why:
http://bb.ohsk.net/uploads/guides.png

ok you're trying to be hip to the trends and that's cool but remember that many browsers don't support html5 yet--including Internet Explorer (i think IE9 offers support and IE8 offers tentative partial support but most people dont have it). You have to be aware that there is a javascript fix for html5 workarounds .........
here we go http://oli.jp/2009/html5-structure4/#browser-support

(i'm a flash-haunt and suck at programming so i'm naturally biased against html5 though :P)

anyway tomas's advice is all solid for the design--just remember that while it's cool to be "cutting-edge" with your shit, your ultimate goal should be in making something that's totally accessible ;)

@ Tomas: Thanks alot! I'll probably redo the logo, and use your guides as an example. I'm not much for colour theory, but I actually thought the green fit...
Oh, and what's the font(s) you used?

@Ven: I was going to use HTML5 because it would be easier to edit the content of the site, embed my blog, and change the news without having to open Flash catalyst up and change the text, upload it again, and change the links. I don't know much about CSS, or HTML5, but I was hoping, once I figured it out, it would be much more efficient than Flash.

euhh for the logo 'e' i used aller, the 7 and the title are helvetica, rest is arial
i can upload the .psd file if you like?

that'd be great, thanks!

Ok. I redid the site, and used Tomas' version as a heavy influence ( I hope this isn't like copying)


And then I did a few (horrible) concepts for logos

Tbh, my favourite thing about Tomas' version was the light-coloured frame around the whole thing. It looked really nice!

What light coloured frame? Tomas took out the frame in his version.

i like that logo a lot
something looks kind of jaggy/unaliased about it though

yeah, I'm rather new to vectors, so when I make curves they don't always come out, and never are they perfect.
I had to use half a circle to make that one :P

edit: I found out part of the edge was cut off, so I fixed it, and made it bigger:

there you go, much better. there are some little points that you need to smooth out and clean up some.
uh in the southwest quadrant and up near the "tip" of the "leaf" the curves are visibly imperfect.

alright, done
but... I'm not sure the logo fits on the site:

Well I mean the light background. In yours it really looks more like a frame.

I like the logo, though!

oh shit dude i totally forgot about uploading the psd :x
also dont worry about copying, you can use that shit anyway you want
i wont press charges ;D

http://bb.ohsk.net/uploads/site.rar

Thanks, but now I think I've got everything straightened out already. Too slow :P
I'll download it anyways, for the guides.

project sillyradicalgroup
something I made up, inspired by Kuler's website design:



I made the palette myself, using photos of flowers, clouds, and trees :D

I know the middle text isn't correctly positioned, for sure

-action

Made this night; an idea for a website
alot of the spacing and measuring is just my judgment/what I though looked right.
Anyways, here it is:

SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP SUPER BUMP

I added 3 new images. Really looking forward to any advice anybody has.
Check them out in the main post.

Thanks,
action man

yooo, i like this text thing you got going here,
been working on a little typography myself:



aanyway, this one is pretty cool:


its really something that could be seen as 'artsy', these days, and wouldnt be misplaced on a site as http://ffffound.com/, i especially like the use of color over the composition, but that's because i can never get the right colors to use in my work.

the green one is okay too, but lacking in composition. it doesnt focus on anything, but is a rectangle filled with random. the faded circle things are nice, but the rest is a bit meh. the text is unreadable too, try making it plain white, and sticking it on top, etc. don't let the 'gimmicks' take the 'message' out of your work.

as for the bigger work; if it took you five minutes to make, you could at least have spent another five minutes thinking about how you can make it better. i mean, the idea is cool, with the abstract shape and your forum name thing alias. i mean, so much more could be done with it.. suggestions:
- find a nice font, or make one yourself, try to make the text the main thing in the piece
- expand on the abstract thing, make it realistic 3d, and let it wrap around the text
- either that ^ or make the diagonal lines in the abstract shape be parralel to the diagonals in the text
- etc.

Ahh, just the man I was hoping to hear from. Thanks for the input.
It may be off topic, but I absolutely love your work. Those typography pieces you put in the spoiler were awesome. It's dissapointing I don't get to see your work more though... Your site is limited to what you put on a few months ago or so. You should get a sketch folder to put some misc stuff like that so I can drool at it.

But back on topic. I actually wasnt' sure about the first avatar. After looking at it for a while, I thought it was too boring. But I guess not :) you should check out the guys at Aisleone.net. That's where I got the inspiration for that avatar.

The christmas avatar I suppose was kind of scrambled. Just some random stuff put into it. The stuff in the background is actually called Bokeh - I'm sure you've heard it. It's the effect you get from unfocusing the lens on a camera ALOT and then looking at a string of lights or something. It's mildly over used ^^;

As for the larger piece, I actually did mess around with it for a bit after. Couldn't do anything with it I liked. I think I'm going to try something with the text, find a better font. I have four good fonts - Frutiger, Helvetica, Futura, and Avenir. :\ Not sure if you noticed, but I stole your pallette (almost) from the multividual grid. Love those colours. Also the 3d wraparound thing is a cool idea, but my skills are limited to the stock images on deviantart, the fonts I have, and the layer styles in photoshop. I've never actually done any hard stuff like that (the stuff with real things like taking a splash of water and liquefying it into a word, or like the paint from the first image of your second spoiler) I'll have to learn how.

My question to you is fonts. How? Do you make each individual letter as a svg file and then copy and paste them where you need them? Or do you actually have a software to make fonts with? I need to know. It'd be cool to use my own fonts (if I could even make good ones.)


Again thanks for your input.
Sorry for the essay of a message,
-action man

EDIT: Added three FIVE new things to the main post... Got really bored and just kept making stuff.
Think I'm getting better...

Fonts.

Well the most common way, (i guess) people build a font, is first designing it in illustrator. I don't know a lot of things about making fonts, although i will in a short while. I just finished designing a test font (see above). I'll attempt to make that into a 'real' font, in fontlab. Not sure how it'll work out, but we'll see.

Anyway, I make them in illustrator, and then, if i want to edit them, or make something cool with them, import them in to another program (3d modelling, or photoshop, or whatever). The stuff like water letters are all modelled in 3d programs, like cinema4D or 3DS max (and possibly (most definetly) using a plugin like realflow) OR made by using stock photos of water/paint, and edited (but that's a hassle).

also, i see that you've turned your size up a notch, and you're practising color use and composition. this is good, really good. But what'll get you somewhere is when you start practising different ways of blending graphics together. you can learn more about all photoshop tools through sites like psdtuts which, coincidentally, just did a tutorial on shiny typograpy:
http://psd.tutsplus.com/tutorials/text- ... photoshop/

by the way, i like your new works, but the latest (green and red one) seems really jagged, although that might be the font. Did you turn off aliasing?

edit:
i made something really quick (in an hour or so)
i used cinema4d to render a composition of some of my characters (see previous post)
and blended it with some stock pictures

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1320443
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1272009
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1289343

added some typography too
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sky



btw that 'stuff' directory is my sketch folder, there's just not a lot in it. ;D
http://www.tomasknipscheer.nl/stuff/sky/
here's the c4d file too, and the .tif i made out of it
;D

Oh, never really thought it was made in a 3D program.
I don't own any, but I do have Photoshop CS5 Extended, which has 3d features (although limited)

I have Illustrator, so that sounds like a good way to go with fonts... Just gotta figure out how to use vectors. These paths and anchors are chinese to me.

What do you mean about the green and red one's font being edgy? I can't see it... it is a free font though, so it might be that.

Also the sky thing is cool.
You seem to like to use definitions


But I'm trying to blend some images to make something atm.
We'll see how this works out

An idea for a font I've been sketching in my notebooks for a while...

man that v
it is
diagonal

i like the idea, but that v
that v

good start though

what program did you use?

Oh the v actually is just a filler because I couldn't come up with one. No worries.

I used illustrator to make this