Our new agency site
- Started
- Last post
- 18 Responses
- pubdoggy
Has launched.
We've had really positive feedback so far, so thought I'd put a downer on it by posting it here ;)
What do you think?
- monospaced0
Clean. I really get the 'blog' thing loud and clear, but I'm still on the fence with this sort of project presentation. I do like the aesthetics though. My mind is programmed to have more of a distinct confirmation of landing on a new part of a website. The headline, 'Straight-talking, effective design," is great, but it's on every page giving the weird sense that you haven't gotten to a new page. I almost expect that line to update for the "Our work" and "Get in touch" pages. Also, when I'm on the "home" page, where am I exactly? There are 7 posts there, but there are 10 in the portfolio section. The work and design are awesome, but the navigation feels unconventional.
- so i guess you're okay with the Groucho Marx pic on the site??robotron3k
- Who WOULDN'T be okay with a Groucho Marx pic, sir? Who wouldn't be?Continuity
- monkeyshine0
Why is everything a blog these days? For an agency, it seems like lazy and uninspired execution. The message seems to be 'on the surface we're like everyone else out there, totally indistinguishable, but keep clicking to see our distinguished work.' The client work is good; rise to it.
- utopian0
Great... yet another lazy blog design...
- Continuity0
^ Agreed with both monkeyshine's and utopian's sentiments.
'Straight-talking, effective design' ≠ taking the easy way out with a WordPress template, customised or not.
Look at it this way: if you're looking at potential new colleagues, you want their folios to wow you, right? You want to see that they took the time and care to find a really clever and innovative way to show their even more excellent work, yeah? Well, this is the same with your potential clients, and you're really not delivering with this site.
- bjladams0
overall i think it's clean.
two things that i don't like are:
1) the stock-looking images in the about/contact sections and
2) the writing throughout the site is bloated and unimaginative.the wp/blog theme doesn't bother me so much. but if it's going to be a blog, i think the same effort should be in the copy as is in the images.
- akrok0
"Great... yet another lazy blog design"
spot on!
- jadrian_uk0
excellent work and site.
- instrmntl0
clean site. maybe make the interaction for navigation, viewed work etc. a little more sophisticated. otherwise it does have that blog/wordpress feel.
- dbloc0
search doesn't work at all.
- utopian0
Should of used a WordPress theme like this!
www.iampersona.com- Nice colors!, nice transitions, smooth. Great link.CyBrainX
- pubdoggy0
Thanks for all the comments. The remarks about the nav are really helpful - we'll look at addressing that as I think the focus slipped as we got closer to launch. Regarding the 'cleanliness' - yeah, that was the aim, both for potential clients' experience and our ease of updating internally.
On that note, I've been a digital designer for 15 years and I, too, baulked at the use of Wordpress in the early stages of this project. It seemed like we were cutting corners, taking shortcuts and using a non-'proper'-designer tool. But, in practice, we are a very small company and we are busier than we've ever been. We needed a new site quickly, we needed it to be Optimised and we needed it to be easily and quickly updatable by all employees. There was no way we were going to bespoke everything. To that end, Wordpress completely ticked all the boxes.
I actually think calling a creative company out because they're using Wordpress or any other off the shelf solution is a bit snobbish and is itself a 'lazy' argument. The users we are appealing to are current and potential clients and lots of them are using or considering Wordpress or similar technologies for their own sites for the same reasons we did for ours. Straight talking, effective design actually does = what we have here when you consider our current and prospective clients. An overblown, expensive, bespoke and lengthy reinvention of "The Web Page" is, in our experience, not what our clients are looking for at this moment in time.
I used to sneer at designers who used Windows rather than Mac OS, but I was young and foolish then ;)
- ukit20
Nothing wrong with using WordPress but it's strange to land on a page that features blog posts and not your work.
If you're determined to make the blog the homepage, at least use to it feature some of your own stuff. That's what people come to your site to see, not a screen capture of the Design Business Association's website.
- NONEIS0
Everything is so evenly balanced, I dont know where to look.
Feels like a Tumblr feed.
Dont like the mix of sans/serifed fonts you are using.
Nothing about this site says "Agency".
Copy is treated like a comment instead of something I might actually want to read.Sorry, you asked for the downers...
- dMullins0
Nice blog.
- dMullins0
Yo, does this shit really say "niggling". Wow, wtf does that mean?
- spmitch0
niggling present participle of nig·gle (Verb)
Verb:
Cause slight but persistent annoyance, discomfort, or anxiety: "a nasty leg wound which still niggled at him".
Find fault with (someone) in a petty way: "he loved to niggle and criticize people".