So... I'm starting a freelance company...part deux

So I've got the site up most of the way, please have a look? I had to hand code the thing, and it's driven me up a tree... (the portfolio section isn't 100% operational.. I need to make a million little thumbnails )

Leviathan Graphics

Mods, if this is inappropriate, let me know!! I'm not trying to sell anything (yet ) but I want opinions!!

I think it looks good!

wooh! thank you.. and I fixed the white background isue, lol .. Apparently, i screwed up the meta tags.

Wow, that is great! And you sound so professional!

Depending on the age of your potential client, I bet I won't be the only one to tell you (fwiw, I am 50 and already into trifocals...nice one's though, you can't tell to look at them!) that I can not easily see your raspberry text (to me it's raspberry or rose?).

Other than that, looks very nice

Looks good!
The only thing I'd change is those "Windows Blue" links to your seperate pages... need some niftly looking buttons.

As a freelance web designer myself, I'll give you my opinion:

1. the lighter text on the services page is too light, darken it a touch. (see #4)
2. needs more white space. seriously. I probably have had too much on mine, but i was listening to a not-so-creative programmer at the time. I'm rectifying my whitespace, but still giving it color and ample whitespace.
3. lose the underlines on your links. don't ask me how in straight code. I can do it in Dreamweaver...
4. keep your text all black. Maybe make links the 'pink', but unless it's linked, keep it black... for consistency's sake.

now for the questions:
1. what program are you using to design?
2. do you prefer coding, or would you rather be a WYSIWYG designer like me? I'm not a programmer... not do I have much desire to be. code gives me headaches that would make nations crumble to their knees... i design in Dreamweaver (vastly superior to Frontpage...). I've been using a variety of programs to do my image work, but will (finally) be getting a full copy of Fireworks this weekend. That allows me to do thumbnails/albums galore, plus it links to Dreamweaver and is sweet to work with. MUCH easier than doing them individually. Did that in FP... yuck-phooey.

The colors are nice, the logo is also very nice. If I'm lucky enough to pick my cover designer for my future novels, I'll let you know...
is the address on the contact page an actual office address? I would hope so. I use a PO Box, because I work out of my home.
You may want to, down the road, make another page on there about you and your company. I suggest this to my clients. i also do it for myself (most of the time).

I'd show you my biz site, but I really need to tweak it again. I was going through a phase of 'must redesign sites' (don't ask how many I personally have... it's a sickness) then my move to Oregon got bumped up. I'll be re-establishing myself and business out there.

Just a few things...

Amanda

1. the lighter text on the services page is too light, darken it a touch. (see #4)
I agree. I think that these will go for the darker pink like the links on the portfolio page. They will be links in the future and I will be turning the links to be the darker color (like the control bar) so that should take care of that.

2. needs more white space. seriously. I probably have had too much on mine, but i was listening to a not-so-creative programmer at the time. I'm rectifying my whitespace, but still giving it color and ample whitespace.
I'm not so sure I agree with this, as when I had more whitespace it looked odd. Also, I'm trying to keep it reasonably viewable at 800x 600 resolution. You'd be surprised who keeps there's this way.

3. lose the underlines on your links. don't ask me how in straight code. I can do it in Dreamweaver...
There shouldn't be underlines in my links, what browser do you use so I can trouble shoot? I've found that for whatever reason, Firefox has a hard time with link classes.

4. keep your text all black. Maybe make links the 'pink', but unless it's linked, keep it black... for consistency's sake. As above, Those are intending to be links in the future

now for the questions:
1. what program are you using to design?

Hah... Notepad. Sadly I am not with dreamweaver. So it's hand coded CSS and html. No tables.

2. do you prefer coding, or would you rather be a WYSIWYG designer like me?

As above, right now, I'm doing it in notepad

is the address on the contact page an actual office address?
Yes, it is the office address for RALT & Partners (My current job, who I get a lot of freelancing through)

You may want to, down the road, make another page on there about you and your company. I suggest this to my clients. i also do it for myself (most of the time).
I wamnted to remain anonymous, in a way, simply because I don't want to look small time. Eventually, I do agree that this is a good idea. Amusingly, the first one I'm going to do of the "employees" will actually be Paige, one of our cats, because she's currently the name on the "service" email address.
I'd love to see your site and take some ideas from it! Thanks!

I hope this addressed some of you all's comments! If you're seeing purple or underlined links, let me know your browsers, as it seems that I don't get the same errors in the 3 I use?
So far IE seems to read CSS most reliably.

Firefox and Safari basically tell Style sheets to take a hike. hmm.

I do use Firefox on my PC and Safari on the Mac... and my CSS shows up fine on both. Actually, the lack of underlining, when done in DW, isn't part of the CSS, it's in Page Setup. I've had... ahem... "issues" with IE over the last couple of years and only use it when something like my MSN Mailbox has a message. I thoroughly detest MS-IE... of course, my ancient PC may be contributing to the issues (it's four years old and counting and has its own set of issues... prompting me to want to hurl it out my 7th floor window on frequent occasions).

But, I digress... I've been told to design/code to IE, since most folks use it still (God only knows why).

I guess I'm one of those that doesn't mind looking 'small time.'

As much as I currently 'dislike' Frontpage, you could start with that and work your way up to DW. It's a decent program, I used it for years before finally converting to DW this past year. I think I even have my disc of FP (plus a couple books), if you wanted. That way you could do the thumbnails in FP (I imagine it's easier than hand coding them).

Give me a day or two to look over my biz site... I think I started going over it a couple weeks ago but got sidelined with moving stuff. I'll be the first to tell you I'm still learning new things and still growing in my abilities. I don't claim to be an expert... just another person learning what she can, when she can. My sites are fairly simple. I don't like over the top sites... too much fuss. That said, I do want Flash eventually. I've been avoiding it for far too long. I'm going to be running around batty tomorrow, but I have time today (plus, I need to slow down on the packing).

My site has the design biz, plus my writing and proofreading. Since I'm not much of a marketer (I can sell a product on a sales floor, but I've never been abel to market myself or my services very well, except in person to a degree), my text is a little blech... any tips you can give as well, would be appreciated. I'm still kinda starting out myself. Also, as I'll be relocating, I'll be starting the Biz over as well... even though I will retain my Chicago clients. I hope to expand further. This is technically a 'side' business, even though I don't have a 'primary' job right now. (Chicago has not been kind)

The whole whitespace thing... I guess I'm somewhere in the middle... My programmer friend pretty much tried drilling this concept (read: you need LOTS of whitespace) in to me... but there's still a huge difference between my sites and all of her sites. I love color... hate white walls in my dwelling, so why would I want all white on my sites... which are a representation of me online. I'm still struggling to find the happy medium. One of my clients refuses to have so much whitespace. It just depends on the feel of the site. That's how I am... I go by feel, not always the 'norms.'

Another one of those design issues where attitudes differ greatly is the use of frames, no matter how subtle. My programmer friend emphasizes using them to have a menu bar at the top or bottom no matter what page you're looking at. But I've been to designer's forums lately and many folks are cursing frames and saying they're passe. Who knows? I have one site where I don't use the frames... but on my own, I do. As long as things aren't needing to scroll, frames are fine with me... because then you don't see the scroll bar. those I hate.

Okay... maybe I do need coffee today... argh!

I'm gonna go play in DW... Drink coffee... And try not to pack anything today... HA! Like that'll happen.

Amanda

I do everything in Dreamweaver. I hated Front Page. If you can work in Photoshop, you can work in Dreamweaver. I find Front Page hard to work with. I also like that you can hand code, if needed in Dreamweaver. There are a few things I put on my website, that you have to hand code in, but to be honest, I would hate to spend all of that time typing everything in by hand.

Well I KNOw how to use the programs, It's more an issue of don't have & don't have money for. However, I now have adobe goLive, so, possibly, I can redo the links in there. However, I've been trying, and somehow, STILL the classes thing doesn't work outside of IE.. I'm researching this.(I need the classes for more than just the underline) However.. I did find an old copy of studio mx in my stack of old cd's so we'll see if that helps. Goodness knows, I'm not sure CSS existed at the time. We'll see.

As far as frames.. Actually having frames (read: many pages called in by a frame) is really becoming a BAD THING. So many things can gobadly with frames. By that same token, though... You don't want to use tables. That's why I like CSS. CSS should look the same on everyone's computer (Barring, apparently, that everyone but IE and possibly netscape can't see link classes -.-)

Hope, I hate hand coding, so much.. but at the time I didn't really have an option and I wanted a site up "now, now, now"!! Trust me it was a bad few days to be around me.

Amanda, if you want to send me a link, I can see about what your Spiel. I'm gonna toot my own horn and say that thanks to having a BS Executive for a father and an Ex-TV Sales Rep for a boss, I've got a highly developed sense of speil. Plus I can ask one of them for a quick read over.

Thanks all for the input, everyone!!

I like it, but I agree with RubSluts'Mommy... there should be a little more white space (the one place I noticed it was the SPMG link.... it's not that things necessarily need to be wider (in my opinion) but just a bit longer.

Also, the blue and purple links on the Ralt page are hard to read (again in my opinion), and they hurt my eyes...

I also agree about the light pink links..... after they are linked they turn purple and are very nice but are hard to read in the first place. Perhaps switch the colors?

All this is, of course, just opinion.... (esp. from someone not yet "qualified" as a designer!)