Comments on: 30 Minute Redesign: Nick Throlson

By: Paddy

Paddy — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 09:43:59 +0000

great post and great work, will you consider my site for redesign? http://www.paddykgriffin.com I need to make the homepage more appealing and lost on ideas.

By: Lee

Lee — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 06:33:44 +0000

Hi Tom, steps above the previous design. Good looking redesign.

Cheers,
Lee

By: Nick Throlson

Nick Throlson — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 07:33:17 +0000

Will be updating my site with the new redesign within the week had to get it coded for wp theme.

By: wingnutart

wingnutart — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 14:47:33 +0000

Kudos for doing this awesome project. I’ve seen plenty of sites, many of local friends and community supporters who need a design workout; thanks for breaking the ice on this and you should think allowing a submit form where visitors might rework sites and write them up as user submitted reworks. Might really grow interest in the project, too.

So great idea, and I’m definitely keen to try it myself.

That being said I wanted to do a little critique of your redesign. I’ve been struggling with my own design skills, and it’s nice to just take a minute and think it through.

I’d start by saying, the black logo doesn’t read as well as his original logo color, so I’d resist the urge to wholesale dump a clients branding. That being said your more stylized one is definitely more interesting though it’s also a little busy, and doesn’t match the client’s modern / high tech work.

The other things I’d offer are that the navigation is still pretty bloated, kill archives (their on the side, after all), gallery and projects sound like the same thing (or could be handled with a dropdown, under a common nav element), and think of drawing more attention to the any of the places that help the site owner sell something, “hosting”, “advertise”,”product”. Just as simple background image or color would help highlight these to help the client immensely.

These changes, are the kind of things that help show your value as a technologist, and creative thinker, over just your ability in Photoshop, btw.

Otherwise, think of sticking a little closer to a grid. It will help keep the positioning of the Advertising thumbnails, with the bio, and the archives all in better vertical alignment (I <3 subtraction.com)

I'd also rethink the social media icons on the sidebar. They may fit better under the bio, or they may work better on the contact page of the website. I'd be more concerned about providing the ability to connect with the content. I think, people want to help push great ideas, first; and despite wanting to serve the client, your inadertently do that more, by having people share their articles, then their name.

If I watch my twitter feed, I'd be less likely to read "@nickThrolson is pretty awesome" then "HasOffers – drop dead simple Affiliate Network building bit.ly/f@ke @nickThrolson"

That's my two-cents; and keep up with the good work.

By: 30 Minute Redesign: Week 18 Vote « PSDFan

30 Minute Redesign: Week 18 Vote « PSDFan — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 13:27:26 +0000

[...] 30 Minute Redesign: Nick Throlson [...]

By: Trisha Cupra

Trisha Cupra — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 02:49:01 +0000

That’s really nice and clean. Good one. I probably would have gone for a black background with blue accents rather than vice versa, and maybe keep the blue background with black logo for the footer and/or header areas.

The curly font in the logo looks a bit more feminine to me, but I really love the depth in the black circle.

The nav bar is inspiring – I wonder how that would work on a black background?

Thanks for the inspiration!

By: Oliver Bristol

Oliver Bristol — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:29:03 +0000

I always like to see your redesigns as they are always a major improvement on the original designs and this redesign is simple yet stands out compared to the original. I think it’s great that you can so easily redesign a site in 30 minutes and I will look out for next weeks redesign.

By: Twopo

Twopo — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 10:06:54 +0000

Thanks Tom for considering my site . Been going Through some great stuff here since Yesterday . Kudos

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 07:34:47 +0000

Another fantastic redesign. Considering it takes only 30mins for you, would take me 30 hours! It would be interesting, for me at least, to see a case study of what you would/could do not given any time constraint.

Anyway, I would love to put one of my sites forward for a redesign – http://www.paml.info. The site is Drupal based and uses an off the shelf theme. The site promotes an event we are now holding each May. I can easily code, but am no designer, hence the use of off the shelf designs. I would love to see what you could do with it, branding, layout, etc. I would be more than happy to convert it to a HTML and Drupal template for all to enjoy.

Once again, well done on this weeks redesign.

By: DMD Digital Retouching

DMD Digital Retouching — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 19:29:38 +0000

Haha, this series of articles is a brilliant idea. Love it.