Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

rach · 02:22 AM

Hi i designed a website for my sister for her new business. I am also not a professional by any means.

The logo though has been giving me problems. The first idea that i had was the words going round in a circle shape. My sister likes the colour yellow and her website is in the colour yellow so i chose that as the colour for that logo. However, i think that this maybe a little too simple for a design i am not sure. My sister needs to make some tee-shirts so that she can wear them when she does her classes with her logo on it.
As a logo idea I also came up with an idea of children playing on the letters and i added that idea as a banner on the aboutus page. I really do like this idea. Originally i wanted to use that as her logo but done in a circle but when resized you can barely make out what some of the children are doing so i turned it into a banner instead.

What do you think about the logo any ideas? Do you think that the one that i have on her home page is too simple?
Also any constructive advice on the site would be appreciated also. My sister is happy with it and so are her children but things can always have room for improvement sometimes.

Thank you

Thorzdad · Oct 21, 2006, 03:33 PM

A logo should reflect the business in some way...it's mission, product...whatever. The logo you did on the main page doesn't really say anything about the business. I should think you would want it to reflect health and exercise in some way. Or perhaps transformation. Energy?
You get the idea.
The one on the "about us" page is far too busy. Though it DOES try to convey ideas of exercise and activity. If you could find a middle ground between the two logos, you might be on the right path.

rach · Oct 21, 2006, 05:16 PM

Thank you for your advice and for the push in the right direction. I do appreciate your help. I am finding that doing the logo is actually the hardest thing that i have done for my sisters site. I have been thinking about an idea for over a week now.
Thanks

Originally Posted by Thorzdad

A logo should reflect the business in some way...it's mission, product...whatever. The logo you did on the main page doesn't really say anything about the business. I should think you would want it to reflect health and exercise in some way. Or perhaps transformation. Energy?
You get the idea.
The one on the "about us" page is far too busy. Though it DOES try to convey ideas of exercise and activity. If you could find a middle ground between the two logos, you might be on the right path.

rach · 02:23 AM

I have come up with two ideas that i will give go ago now. It is a bit of a pain having to draw the logos in hand and then scan them in so i have downloaded Illustrator and will give that a go as i have read good things about that on this board. If that doesn't work for me i will have a go at drawing them by hand.
You can get an idea of my ideas by the two pictures that i have linked.

The first idea that i had was a child jumping and the words at the top arching around them.
http://www.daycaretrust.org.uk/mod/f...irl_yellow.jpg

The second idea which i like quite a bit is a of a child leapfrogging over the words.
http://www.importliquidators.com/Sup...g-KT-52125.jpg
I will get on with it and hopefully one of those will work out.

rach · 01:08 PM

I think that i may go with the girl jumping as it is much easier for me to do.
I have been working on it and i have uploaded the revised logo idea to my sisters website

but the writing on the top in the logo is not centred. I would like it more centred than that but in the same shape.

I was wondering how do people write in an arch like this so that i am writing around the circle as opposed to writing in a straight line etc? I had to do mine in hand before and then scan it in but i should imagine that there is an easier way to do it?

This was the old logo how it was
Thank you for your help

art_director · Oct 22, 2006, 01:54 PM

For setting type in the arch try doing it in Illustrator. You're looking to put the type on a path. Don't have time to walk you through it but a Google search will turn up many tutorials. Also, try the Adobe user forums.

rach · Oct 22, 2006, 02:22 PM

art_director thank you for your help. I will post at the forum that you recommended.
Thanks

chirpy22 · Oct 22, 2006, 05:11 PM

rach,
All good designers start out with a pencil and paper and sketch ideas out. Don't ever think when you are designing a logo (or anything else) that "you have two ideas for it." What is great about sketching is that one idea can lead to another and another.
Once you have a couple good cencepts, then jump into Illustrator or whatever and work them up.
Also, do not think that having a simple logo is a bad thing. Usually, the simplest logos are the most memorable. Look at Nike or Target. Also, don't think that a logo MUST be contained in a shape like a circle or square to be a logo.

I would suggest that if you want this to look professional, and you have no experience at doing this type of thing, then your sister should hire someone to design a good logo from the start. You seem to have a decent grasp of building a website, but not the design aspect of it. Look at some competing websites and see what they are doing. Look at websites that you like. Why do you like them?

Make sure you have purchased the photos on your site and not pulled them from a Google search or something. They may be copyrighted. Also, squishing a photo like at the top of the Healthy Tips page is a no no. I'm not sure why you have both a Clear and Reset button on the contact form? They do the same thing.
If you are comfortable with doing the coding, I would suggest finding a designer to help you out with the graphics.
Also, I want to say that your work is not terrible. I have seen many many sites that do not look nearly as nice.
Good luck!

rach · 01:09 PM

chirpy22 thanks for your help.
I have done the logo now. This is a link to it. It took a bit of work but i got there in the end
Only one of the pictures my sister picked from google but the rest belong to us. In fact i took some of those pictures myself which are in the banners.
I cannot see anything wrong with the healthy tips logo from my end but i will have a look at that again.
I will also take a look at the contact form also.
I doubt that my sister would pay out i am her web builder for the moment but maybe when her business takes of if she wants to change or give it a different look she may.
I have had a look at several similar websites that are similar to my sisters and her site is doing ok.
Thanks for your help.

Originally Posted by chirpy22

rach,
All good designers start out with a pencil and paper and sketch ideas out. Don't ever think when you are designing a logo (or anything else) that "you have two ideas for it." What is great about sketching is that one idea can lead to another and another.
Once you have a couple good cencepts, then jump into Illustrator or whatever and work them up.
Also, do not think that having a simple logo is a bad thing. Usually, the simplest logos are the most memorable. Look at Nike or Target. Also, don't think that a logo MUST be contained in a shape like a circle or square to be a logo.

I would suggest that if you want this to look professional, and you have no experience at doing this type of thing, then your sister should hire someone to design a good logo from the start. You seem to have a decent grasp of building a website, but not the design aspect of it. Look at some competing websites and see what they are doing. Look at websites that you like. Why do you like them?

Make sure you have purchased the photos on your site and not pulled them from a Google search or something. They may be copyrighted. Also, squishing a photo like at the top of the Healthy Tips page is a no no. I'm not sure why you have both a Clear and Reset button on the contact form? They do the same thing.
If you are comfortable with doing the coding, I would suggest finding a designer to help you out with the graphics.
Also, I want to say that your work is not terrible. I have seen many many sites that do not look nearly as nice.
Good luck!

rach · 01:09 PM

The logo has changed again. Somebody helped me to tidy it up who is good in design. There were horrible black marks around it before that i only noticed this afteroon. I am pleased with how the logo looks now though my sister will be able to use it on pamphlets and tee-shirts and on her site.

besson3c · Oct 23, 2006, 08:50 PM

A very good first attempt to your site, but you might want to look into image compression and resizing so that those mastheads load quicker and are not stretched and distorted.

If you created the site in Dreamweaver or some other tool, it might also be good practice to try cleaning up the code as best as you can. Her Google Pageranks might be significantly higher with compliant code. I haven't really gone over your code too carefully yet, but it doesn't look too bad - just a few things you might want to clean up.

Also, perhaps it might be a good idea to not make the link to the section you are in clickable as to provide the visitor a sense of orientation. I'm not sure if the nav buttons are just placeholders for now though, so perhaps this doesn't really apply just yet.

rach · Oct 24, 2006, 03:56 AM

Thank you for your advice and thoughts on the site

I have to come up with a new banner picture for the about us page as i took my hand drawn one down and when i do that then i intend to go through all the pictures in the banner and see if i can improve their quality.
I may also stretch out the page width a tiny bit i am not sure.
I did all the html by hand to code so as to try to keep the code as clutter free as possible.
I will have a look at the code again and see if i can tidy any of it up

Thanks

Originally Posted by besson3c

A very good first attempt to your site, but you might want to look into image compression and resizing so that those mastheads load quicker and are not stretched and distorted.

If you created the site in Dreamweaver or some other tool, it might also be good practice to try cleaning up the code as best as you can. Her Google Pageranks might be significantly higher with compliant code. I haven't really gone over your code too carefully yet, but it doesn't look too bad - just a few things you might want to clean up.

Also, perhaps it might be a good idea to not make the link to the section you are in clickable as to provide the visitor a sense of orientation. I'm not sure if the nav buttons are just placeholders for now though, so perhaps this doesn't really apply just yet.

andi*pandi · Oct 24, 2006, 02:23 PM

the final logo text is a hard to read (curly all caps in an arch), and the figure looks like it lost its hands.

agreed with besson don't stretch your banner images, resize and crop them in photoshop to be the right size.

tpicco · Oct 24, 2006, 05:53 PM

My logo comments:
The typeface isn't a great choice.
One thing to consider with a logo... it has to reproduce really large & really small... from t-shirts & posters to business envelopes... Personally I would pick a simpler, stronger font.

My instinct also suggests that the fuigure in the circle should be larger compared to the circle. Right now the kid seems a little lost in the yellow circle... maybe even have her feet stick out of the yellow circle at the bottom...

tpicco · 06:32 PM

I whipped this up real quick... the kid still needs hands and the type needs to be finessed, but this is what I was talking about... I think by breaking the edge of the circle, the logo gets a lot more energy and looks more "athletic"

tpicco · 06:32 PM

deleted

art_director · Oct 24, 2006, 06:26 PM

Originally Posted by tpicco

damn that is too big... what did I do wrong?

Just go here and see a reasonable size image
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ad2bfitREV.jpg

nope.

tpicco · Oct 24, 2006, 06:31 PM

hold on, i'm fixing it... you caught me with my art down...

OK... now scroll up & look

art_director · Oct 24, 2006, 06:34 PM

that's taking it in a more interesting and dynamic direction, tpicco.

would agre that a more robust typeface would help. as would hands on the figure.

tpicco · Oct 24, 2006, 06:36 PM

now that I look at it, 'cause my sloppy rushed type doesn't match the circle, it kinda reminds me of a jumprope

tpicco · Oct 24, 2006, 06:37 PM

Originally Posted by art_director

that's taking it in a more interesting and dynamic direction, tpicco.

thank you!

art_director · Oct 24, 2006, 06:40 PM

you know, if you leave off the hands and add drops of blood shooting out...guess that kills the 'glad to be fit'...nevermindbadidea...

:•>

tpicco · Oct 24, 2006, 07:09 PM

I see Halloween is on your mind...

rach · Oct 24, 2006, 07:56 PM

Thank you for your help. About the hands i cut them of when i did fill bucket lol. I noticed it but i thought that maybe i could get away with it but is not the case. I burst out laughing when i read what andi*pandi wrote about the hands.
I like what you have done with the logo

About the logo script i really like the font that was used it maybe a little unconvential but i think that it looks good.

About the pictures on the site i have been working on them and i widened the page from 662px to 700px I think that it needed it.
I also have to tidy up the contact form and of course the hands lol.

Thanks

Originally Posted by tpicco

I whipped this up real quick... the kid still needs hands and the type needs to be finessed, but this is what I was talking about... I think by breaking the edge of the circle, the logo gets a lot more energy and looks more "athletic"

rach · 07:43 AM

I put both logos to my sisters children to decide as i could not decide and they opted for the one that i have got on the site so i will go with that. The only thing is that it will be given hands

and the one on the site is smaller. The one that i showed here was the bigger version for publicity stuff.

Other than that though now i think that the site is finshed now. I have tided up the pictures the best that i can do and looked at the script again and added a few different things.

It pays to ask fo feedback sometimes. Thanks you all for your input and help.

rach · 01:10 PM

The logo has changed again lol, here is the final logo. Of course it is going to be resized for whatever purposes it needs to be.

It is quite similar to the idea that tpicco had with the figure coming out of the circle actually. I got somebody who is good in graphics to spruce to it up a bit for a small sum.
My sister loves the finshed article and so do I.