Topic: Design Faction - A place for moderately good graphic designers
http://www.design-faction.co.nr/
Join if you're good and not just novice.
- sirena
- Senior Member
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Re: Design Faction - A place for moderately good graphic designers
Hmmm. I don't mean to be too critical, but perhaps you may have a problem.
A flat, colour and essentially style-less forum design like the one you have built probably won't inspire many good graphic designers to join up, I think. 
Design communities are a very fussy and critical lot and will be hard to attract unless you have a forum design that turns them on.
I suggest adding a bit more zing to your design if you want good designers to join. There are plenty of good styles on punres that, for example, would be a good jumping off point for developing a more funky look and feel for your forum.
Have a look at a punBB forum like http://macthemes2.net/forum to see what good graphic designers might like to see in a design-oriented punBB forum...
Or check out some of the other impressive punbb sites you can see in, for example:
http://punbb.org/forums/viewtopic.php?id=12691&p=2
The competition is tough but there sure is a lot to learn from some of those other forums re great typography, CSS, layout and graphics.
3 2007-09-17 05:31 (edited by Jérémie 2007-09-18 00:42)
- Jérémie
- PunBB Donor
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Re: Design Faction - A place for moderately good graphic designers
sirena wrote:
Have a look at a punBB forum like http://macthemes2.net/forum to see what good graphic designers might like to see in a design-oriented punBB forum...
Or not...
On this example: main header can't be resized, thread's name have a *very* low contrast to the point of being impossible to read with some sun, the whole page has so many ill used images that it loads in block, slowly, like we were still in 1995, they have attempted a grid effect but it's off.... and I could go on.
Good graphic designers are, first and foremost, good designers. And this is not it. It might be more graphic intensive that the minimalist one presented (which has also a truckloads of issues, don't get me wrong) but it's no more usable.
Re: Design Faction - A place for moderately good graphic designers
Jérémie wrote:
sirena wrote:Have a look at a punBB forum like http://macthemes2.net/forum to see what good graphic designers might like to see in a design-oriented punBB forum...
Or not...
On this example: main header can't be resized, thread's name have a *very* low contrast to the point of being impossible to read with some sun, the whole page has so many ill used images that it loads in block, slowly, like we were still in 1995, they have attempted a grid effect but it's off.... and I could go on.
Good graphic designers are, first and foremost, good designers. And this is not it. It might be more graphic intensive that the minimalist one presented (which has also a truckloads of issues, don't get me wrong) but it's no more usable.
Or check out some of the other impressive punbb sites you can see in, for example:
I do agree with you on the number of images and the main header (actually, the entire page: it's really a fixed width site above all).
However, I'm just not seeing what's wrong with the grid (or the topic names, unless you're talking about closed topics) 
Re: Design Faction - A place for moderately good graphic designers
Isn't it possible that what graphic designers want is the same as everybody else i.e. something fast and easy to use so they can get in and out as quickly as possible.
- sirena
- Senior Member
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Re: Design Faction - A place for moderately good graphic designers
Paul wrote:
Isn't it possible that what graphic designers want is the same as everybody else i.e. something fast and easy to use so they can get in and out as quickly as possible.
Indeed. But you can still have that + a bit of pizazz too.
But if truth be told I have to say all the graphic designers I've worked with or come across are real eye-candy whores and style snobs. They wouldn't be seen dead on a site that didn't sparkle somehow.
They also never really worry if a site's visual impact comes at the expense of speed and usability, so most of their favorite sites are in fact performance pigs.
And they all use Macs. Say no more
Re: Design Faction - A place for moderately good graphic designers
Which are all good reasons why graphic designers should not be allowed to design websites.
Re: Design Faction - A place for moderately good graphic designers
Minimal can be done with class. Contrasting visibility and cartloads of eye candy are two very different things. Speed should be foremost, with content built for speed. Merely using two colours that distinguish well against each other is far preferable to cartloads of imagery or snazzery. (And yup, I know that's not a real word). 
- Jérémie
- PunBB Donor
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Re: Design Faction - A place for moderately good graphic designers
Paul wrote:
Which are all good reasons why graphic designers should not be allowed to design websites.
Amen.
Re: Design Faction - A place for moderately good graphic designers
Wow, thanks people! I'll try to design my own style. <3