Should I give up on design?
 

I threw together a teaser for another mini-site as a Blood Dolls spin-off. My main question is simple: How badly do my designs suck? The secondary question, of course, is what you think of the girl.

http://www.minigoth.com

The contrast between the white and black kinda hurts my eyes.



(probably coz it's late and it's dark in the room...)

Thanks, that's something to think about. I have always liked high-contrast, but it might work to try something different.

its pretty shitty... sorry dude, just my :2 cents:

Fair enough. I'm not a great designer. But *how* is it shitty?

I like it.

:thumbsup

Yeah my eyes are a hurtin. You should make the background all black. (the goth-look) And have a black, red, and white theme going on.

I strongly encourage you to apply at the nearest Taco Bell....

don't walk..... run.

I get bored making all black sites, damnit!

You are better designer than I am.
Girl sucks!

did u do Blood-Dolls design? that's pretty nice .......... this one here is pretty bad, u can do better.

Nice tits...but the big white shirt and "blood" all over, just doesn't seem sexy...I think its the size of the shirt:2 cents:

Thanks for all the feedback. Stuff like this is more helpful than "you suck!".

Since some seemed curious, here are some of my designs... Remember, I'm not primarily a designer.

http://www.blood-dolls.com
http://www.blood-money.com
http://www.gothicundine.com

As you can see, I will be working with outside designers more in the future. :1orglaugh

The design is not bad but the way you do the white is horrible as it hurts my eyes.

I like the girl, she is a cute redhead... I hate to admit but the design sucks. There are lots of sinful dark colors other than black.
It is like the current logo of Shadow Jen's site, the green is terrible. And I made one for free for you you are not using.. oh well.
I'm pretty broke now and can't work for free but you know where to find me.

My advice to you would be to take 6 months off....
















and then just quit altogether.

the girl is kewl - the shirt is not. the site is a little over-plain for my taste.

i also like high contrast, but it isn't always a great seller. i suspect a lot of very vanilla guys buy memberships to your sites, and they want black or dark colors. if you're really tired of black, maybe something like the background here http://www.xxxblackstars.com/xxxblackstars.html which is a black to blood gradient :)

you know what i'd REALLY like to see from you? a reality goth site. also a male goth site with ATTRACTIVE guys. i think you guys had one, but the guys just weren't the caliber of your girls at all.

Amp,

Ian is a rare-find photographer, not a designer and he has done some nice and clean design also.

okay fine....

he asked for feedback on his mad design skillz and I gave my opinion. If someone doesn't want an opinion, don't ask for it.

hey man, the "square" look is sooo 1997. Your design needs some nice rounded edges, circular shapes, more creative borders, etc.

:2 cents:

The black isn't aligning right.

and if you DO ask for an opinion, and you only really want fluff replies, then say so up front.... I can fluff with the best of 'em...

Wow! That rocks! You da man! Hot stuff! :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup

Then you 2 could be co-workers! I hear you're quite the burrito stuffer.

:glugglug

damn right.... I'm a taco stuffin' mutha fucka.... :)

That's true.

know why very few have ever said anything bad about my stuff?

I never ask for opinions. :winkwink:

Hi Goth,

It does look pretty good.

100000000% better then I could ever hope to do.

We won't talk about amp's stuff, don't want him to get depressed :))

hehehe.... the only time anyone says something bad about my stuff is when they're trying to dig on me.... because I have never once asked for a public opinion on a design. :)

LOLMAO now where the handclap emoticon when I need it?

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

Amp,

hahaha :)

True enough, when I asked for opinions once in awhile, I always have to expect that someone might not like something or whatever..

it could be better....but overall it's not that bad

you need something in the black to break up the eyeflow. some kinda of design element like a tribal design sort of. just to add some movement and connect everything together. maybe just a branch slightly different color from the BG that connects all the thumbs together. :2 cents:

but no i wouldn't give up. just keep expirimenting until you find what you like. if you need any tips for adobe just icq me.

239769445

it simply sucks.
starting with the layout.
and the "mini" ".com" texts are butt-ugly (font shape and colors), they don't fit at all the rest.

throw some traffic at it and see if it converts as good, better or worse than your other efforts.

I spent quite a bit of time searching for links, they are not obvious. I also like your photography quite a bit so I'm sure most surfers would not linger as long as I have. :2 cents:

I don't only want fluff feedback. Criticism, especially when it is specific, can only help me.

As for the lack of links-- It's just a teaser site now. A billboard, a draft design, etc. It's not getting traffic, except from this thread, and my email last night to the model.

1 word

voodoo

Like said before the design isn't too good, but it could work ofcourse. The most shitty designs seem to convert to way better than those hightech designs.

On the other hand I never seem to understand why I am booked for weeks as my deisgnskills aren't too good either. I am still in the learning part :) But I guess people like it.

Better stick to what you are good at and try to improve it :thumbsup

1 answer:

Where?

get rid of blue color on this site - doesn't work with goth theme.

black and white contrast is ok, but just don't mix it with too many colors (blue vs red don't look good)

Change the frames of the pics into one color - black or red.

get rid of the picture down - left (with blue(!) background), all other pics are made on the black background

I am not sure about the space on the top of the page - might be too large (?)

fonts: "goth" word is not that bad, but "mini" and "com" are just bad. in fact i would change all of them ( i don't like "blood dolls" logo but it's better than this one)

Girl - cute!

just my :2 cents:

Ian,

I mean no harm and see the limits of tolerance and wounded pride... I think you should start a new one from scratch. I am doing it often being very critical to myself.

Want a teaser which works? Use bigger sample pics.. forget that huge and weird black stripe-like background and the white which do not make a good combo in this opart layout. Instead of teasing the surfer this hurts their eyes and wakes them up.. you may test it but my guess is that it won't have a good CTR.

Hope this makes sense, I am up for 48 hr.

not great design.. maybe ok for an avs/personal site.. i'm sure you can do better (time is money though aye).. girl is pretty good.

The other advice here looks to be good so i wont add much. this is just my opinion but i would never use a white background for a goth site unless it was very clever design ( some sort of spider webby thing, etc) dark colors, no blue etc. just my :2 cents:

that design sucks, it is worse than some other ones you made which were decent/perfectly usable :2 cents:

An example of how I am using black and white and it is a premium avs entry not finished yet

http://www.stocking-hotties.com/

hth

I think you need a design that will make the surfer's dick go hard and make them want to see more badly enough to pay for it. I doubt this design will achieve that goal effectively. But that's just my opinion and ultimately the only opinion that counts is the surfers'. Like quiet said, throw some traffic at it and see if it converts :2 cents: