My first Layout from scratch.

[Encryption]

I'm redesigning a website for a friend. This is the first website I have done from scratch so take that into consideration.

[IMG]http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/1207/ss20100913172405.png[/IMG]

Any ideas for the left blue rectangle? Thats just a place holder for now.

Constructive criticism is wanted.

[editline]05:28PM[/editline]

Obviously the PayPal and online support are from online those will be replaced later.

[andersonmat]

It's not very appealing both with typography and color choices.

[usocrazy]

Its too dull and cramped

[codenamecueball]

Typography looks very overused and colour is just SO 2004. Aim for streamlined, clean, monochrome.

[cas97]

The 'RA' in the logo, I feel, should have a different font.
And is the blue sidebar even required? Just remove it if it won't hold anything

[andersonmat]

Yeah, the entire design is too dull.

[BrettJay]

You probably should turn off guides before posting a screenshot (ctrl + ;) because it makes it a bit hard to critique a page with lines running up and down the comp. Also, the zoom is 90.92%, giving us a really aliased, poor preview of the design; better to zoom in to 100%, even if some of the composition had to be omitted (although if you removed the UI with Tab, that probably wouldn't have been the case).

It's not bad for a first design; my first designs were a lot worse.

[img]http://intrepidesign.com/misc/feedback.jpg[/img]

There's a fair amount of work and restructuring to be done. Like cas97 said, the sidebar should probably be removed if there isn't any content for it. Design should fit the content, not the other way around (and designing without a lot of content is hard). The design needs stronger alignment, and consistent spacing. It also really needs negative space (the space between elements). Colours are bland (and the brown is pretty awful), so try experimenting with different colours, maybe try using [url="http://kuler.adobe.com/"]Kuler[/url] to create colour schemes. Also, take it easy on the layer styles; many of them look like the default, stock standard layer styles.

Try reading up on [url="http://www.digital-web.com/articles/principles_of_design/"]principles of design[/url], [url="http://spinner.cofc.edu/~learning/visualhier.html"]visual hierarchy[/url] and [url="http://www.colormatters.com/colortheory.html"]colour theory[/url].

[mdakin]

BrettJay: I really like the idea of the tooltip style C&C.

[Qombat]

[QUOTE=Wipmuck;24819414]BrettJay: I really like the idea of the tooltip style C&C.[/QUOTE]

So do I actually.

And you managed to make the tooltips look better than some aspects of that design.

[BrettJay]

[QUOTE=Wipmuck;24819414]BrettJay: I really like the idea of the tooltip style C&C.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Qombat;24820049]So do I actually.

And you managed to make the tooltips look better than some aspects of that design.[/QUOTE]

Cheers.

The only thing is it makes it somewhat hard to look at; it's all well and good to point out a problem, but the tool-tips sort of obscure what they're pointing out.