dragonsjaw — Sun, 09 Apr 2006 18:57:22 +0000

I find that I do better with doing the CSS first (knowing or having and idea of the graphics helps), then adding the graphics.
The site I am working on now is heavy on images of the clients. It is so hard to design around them, as they are just too awesome to describe.
I would if left to my own devices, not use any images as graphic elements in her site ..but she is an artist and wants fancy fonts and stuff like that.
I tryied to talk her out of it, just go simple zen and let your art do the talking, even on the not gallery pages, but no..
so I am struggling to make my graphics (ugg) hold up to her wonderful images and it isn't easy!

~dragonsjaw

DaveyBoy — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 10:31:40 +0000

Roo wrote: I use XHTML and CSS. CSS= control baby!!!!

Heh, i'll eventually learn it but at the moment i'm happy making money doing tabled stuff

demonhale — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 03:27:10 +0000

What bugs me however if I design a site with photo programs like photoshop I make moderately good designs, not wowing or anything, if use CSS to make a draft of a design, I can get much better output from it. But if I do CSS first, then make graphics for the css design, it looks way better... Any of you have this experience?

Roo — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 02:04:03 +0000

I use XHTML and CSS. CSS= control baby!!!!

DaveyBoy — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 01:32:20 +0000

Roo wrote: I normally will do a mockup in Photoshop and then just save the images, and then code the site.

Same. I get by fine without any of the CSS skills Megan goes on about

Roo — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 23:47:09 +0000

I normally will do a mockup in Photoshop and then just save the images, and then code the site.

Wonka — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 21:47:03 +0000

Ahh, I see. Thanks for the help. Its definatly a bit more clear now =)

Megan — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 13:35:22 +0000

A site like that would have been fully designed in Photoshop ahead of time. The designer there obviously has a lot of talent for complex graphics but things don't have to be that intricate. You could try starting with a simple set of navigation buttons for example.

Then, what happens is you slice up the layout in Photoshop and make the parts you need to keep into graphics. This is a little complex because as Davey said, you have to use some as backgrounds and some as regular images. Then you would put everything together in a tabled layout in your web design program. It takes a lot of work to get a working website that looks just like the photoshop layout.

Of course, now people are using different layout methods and aren't using photoshop so much to design everything ahead of time. You might still do a mock-up in Photoshop but most of the design you would be able to do with CSS so only a few bits of the mock-up image would need to be used as graphics on the actual website.

If you look at my personal site, for example, ( link in signature), I just had to make the header graphic and the two backgrounds. I don't think I even did a mock-up in photoshop for that one, because i knew what I wanted it to look like. Then I created the navigation using CSS and put everything together). I got the photo in the background from a stock photo site.

So it is good to have some graphics skill but you don't have to be brilliant. I think you do need to be really good with CSS now moreso than graphics.

Roo — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 02:16:24 +0000

I use my own photos when I can because I'm into photography. Sometimes clients supply images, and if I don't have something I need or the client can't suppy, I buy from istock.

DaveyBoy — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 02:15:42 +0000

Yes, most designers create those kinds of things themselves - the ones on your example site are simple gradient backgrounds which are very easy to make in most paint programs.