One of my favorite clients

Nice Jester artwork there.

Here are my comments…

The home page doesn’t really need to say home at the top.

What the home page needs to say is ‘fun’ ?? not literally, but I feel that the home page should maybe contain more fun elements, instead of being text and tiny photos. Maybe just some nice clear large pics of people having a fun time with the costumes, balloons and whatever. Vicki and Steve look quite photogenic, so maybe they should be featured much larger, helping everyone to have fun.

I’m not sure I would care about the ‘about us’ text on the home page.
If I’m having a party I just want to know at a glance (not by reading) ‘have you got costumes? have you got balloons? Are you in my area? Okay where is the telephone number.
oops.. not on the home page where its needed!

The overall theme and colour scheme is nice, but I would change the background colour behind the main content area as that purple and the black text don’t contrast too well. And I’d add padding around the main content area, the text is too close to the edges – left, right and bottom.

I’d make it inline with the ‘Home’ link in menu above, that way it feels more orderly.

Hope that helps ?? Thanks for sharing your link.

Nice Jester artwork there.

I will tell her you said so!

Here are my comments…

The home page doesn’t really need to say home at the top.

Client’s decision, I had no choice.

What the home page needs to say is ‘fun’ ?? not literally, but I feel that the home page should maybe contain more fun elements, instead of being text and tiny photos. Maybe just some nice clear large pics of people having a fun time with the costumes, balloons and whatever. Vicki and Steve look quite photogenic, so maybe they should be featured much larger, helping everyone to have fun.

Yeah, I know. I am not paid to do content, so it is entirely up to Vicki. I have offered it before and it just is not in her budget to pay me to do content right now.

I’m not sure I would care about the ‘about us’ text on the home page.
If I’m having a party I just want to know at a glance (not by reading) ‘have you got costumes? have you got balloons? Are you in my area? Okay where is the telephone number.
oops.. not on the home page where its needed!

Indeed, again that is a content thing. I have advised her in the past to have an About Us page if she wanted to include it and I have also advised her to placed her phone number in the sidebar as well so it is on every page. She just gets too busy and forgets what I have told her. I might have to send her another reminder.

The overall theme and colour scheme is nice, but I would change the background colour behind the main content area as that purple and the black text don’t contrast too well.

I totally agree and I made three versions of this for the client (one with each main color as the background). She wanted it to be purple.

And I’d add padding around the main content area, the text is too close to the edges – left, right and bottom.

I’d make it inline with the ‘Home’ link in menu above, that way it feels more orderly.

I had not thought of pushing it that far before. I might try it and see what she says.

Thanks to both of you for your feedback! It will help me in the future make better ones.

Those colors are really screwing with my eyes. Here are my suggestions:

– The diamond background pattern is way too busy and has too much contrast. I would choose one of the colors and to a duotone diamond pattern with it. Even mute them back a bit, because the colors are fairly bright.

– The homepage content area needs to be white (or possibly very light cream). You are the designer here, not her. You have to explain to her why it NEEDS to be white or a light color. Purple is one of the worst colors to work with from a design standpoint. It absolutely CANNOT be black text on a purple background. Right now, the page background takes priority over the content area (although, honestly that is a good thing on this homepage). It draws all my attention.

– Everything on the homepage looks like it is floating. In particular, the right sidebar. I would just remove that altogether on the homepage.

– Even if your template was perfect, the homepage ruins this website.

– The oval of the logo looks very aliased around the edges (pixelated).

Basically, I would have said that if they are only paying someone to do a template, then I would’ve turned this client down. They can buy a pre-made template and just change the colors. If they are your client and have a good working relationship, then they should respect your design decisions. That’s why they hired you in the first place, isn’t it.
You need to put your foot down with them.
Not trying to be mean or anything, just telling you after many years of experience, that you need to be firm with some client in order to help them make the right decisions for their business.
Hope this helps.