Website..
 

Hey!

I recently came across this site:
jek2kdotcom

And I just... LOVE it. I don't know if it was here or on talkfreelance that I found it, but anyhow!

I love it, and I love the concept and.. everything.
So do you think it would be hard to create a website like that?

Ofcourse, with some different stuff, I don't want to COPY it. I just want to create a site with the same structure(without wordpress though).

Tell me what you think..

Whats this site for? web design?

If you mean how hard would it to be to layout a site like that? Easy as pie. How hard would it be to do the graphics design for a site like that. Not as easy, depends on your knowledge of Illustrator/Photoshop and artistic ability to boot. The front page of that site is using pretty minimal graphics except for the large vector... the whole thing loads pretty slow for me though, when it loads at all. Probably all that Wordpress garbage.
-m

Does that matter? ^ ^

I mean.. both.. kinda xD

About graphics- There are no graphics? :O Almost..
There's the banderoll at the top left corner..(I <3 web design).
And there's the vector that you said.. but I don't plan having a big vector on my(if I do this:P)

But do you think it's a hard layout to make? Cause I really love it :-P

Not very hard, but time consuming... then again what layout isn't now-a-days. The only part I couldn't reproduce myself in a couple hours would be the drop down archives/categories/search div, but that's because I don't know javascript/ajax worth a dime - however it looks like they're just using mootools to do it, so it's probably pretty easy with that library to recreate the effect. I'm sure there's tutorials on it all over the web. If you're ever curious about how somebody did something, check the source, and download a copy of their style sheet to dissect it.

It should be even easier to reproduce, actually, considering it's based off the hemingway theme that you could just download and use yourself. ;-)
-m

Yea I found that link too ^^
But it's a wordpress coded layout.. and I just want the HTML part of it xD

But meh, I'll just have a go then xD

It shouldn't be too hard to port, it's a built for Wordpress template, but HTML and CSS are universal (well, they're supposed to be).
-m

@delayedinsanity:

Knowing how to make something in Photoshop is easy, if i would want to i could also copy that site in Photoshop within a few minutes.

But! There is one very big difference, it is to think of such design. Because it's simple but very stylish this is for sure a very pro. website!

Maybe you can think of that, dont get me wrong. But talking negative about this website does make you look like a fool. :)

What?

The only thing negative I had to say about the site was in regards to it using the Wordpress engine. I never said anything bad about the design and layout of the whole thing, just that it would be, as you said too, easy to reproduce. Despite that, I even mentioned way up there that it would not only depend on your ability with photoshop and illustrator, but your artistic ability as well to create something similar without just copying it.

The fact of the matter is that it's a simple design, made simpler by the fact that they based it off of somebody elses. Simple doesn't mean bad, or that it's amateur. I happen to appreciate simplicity, and I would rather use a web site that is clean, to the point and functional than one that's chock full of fancy buttons, useless tech and flashy glitz.

I think the designer who did that is good, but I think your point, "it is to think of such design" is a little off base. They didn't think of it. They added a large vector image to somebody else's template, and fancied it up here and there, and then used the exact same layout for their companies web site too.

It looks good, but it starts to lose some originality at that point. *shrug* Do you work for them or something? ;-)
-m

Please refrain from calling me names until you've read what I said a little more.

I must have misunderstood your posts than, my apologies ;)

Where does it says that it's a template? I'm not that familiar with WordPress so I don't know anything of it or their templates.

Oh and no, I do not work for them :-D

Near the bottom, and I definitely give them kudo's for giving credit where credit is due. It links to the original template here.
-m

Oh that site didnt want to load here. Quite weird that this guy who's on the web since '99 if im sure, can't design his own website...

To give him some credit, he did make it look much prettier than the original. As easy as HTML and CSS are, comparably to some languages that is, it's still hard to pull it all together nicely like he has.

I've been making little sites since the days of Netscape 2.0 and the first frames, and honestly, I don't have the patience for it. I'd rather code a backend then design the mockup for a single page of the front end. I'll sit there and put one element of a page in a hundred different spots trying to find something that feels good to me, and I'll decide on three or four places that I like, and never settle on a single one. It just frustrates the hell out of me, so even though part of my education and experience covers graphic design, I'll leave it up to somebody else every chance I get. ;-)
-m

Thats also my point in design, im def. not a designer. But sometimes (from years of experience) I do get nice colors and nice positioning. Just a few days ago I made this: Fightingarts.nl design. It's not a design hit, but from experience it looks pretty nice.

I do believe this guy has the designers touch though.

You also make websites for quite some years right? Have you always made your designes in the past, or did you download the well known templates?

Im the kind of guy who believes doing everything himself helps with allot of things.

But hell, i think i'm going quite offtopic :P

I've resorted to bastardizing a few templates now and again, but for the most part I just like doing things myself, which is where I think the frustration comes in. I want to do my designs myself, but I'll be the first to admit, they never look as good as the ones that inspire me. I can make a site functional, navigable, and all around usable, I just can't make it that pretty. When me and my wife are done school and we have our degrees, I really want to open our own shop - hopefully we can make enough off her photography and my programming so I can hire a graphics artist for any clients who need front end work done.
-m