I would like a critique

[LaurenMarie]

I think the style is unique, but it's all images! You'll never obtain good SEO if you don't have some text in there. Have you done web design before? Your work is good, now you need an appropriate venue to show it off in! Try to work on the concept a little more and center your site (left aligned sites are just too tense, they leave you wanting to see what's hiding outside the browser!). I definitely encourage you to keep the same style of a library book, though. It is different than the portfolios I've seen and it was excellent thinking on your part to make it match your portfolio. That will create familiarity when people type in your address from the resume (they won't think they've got the wrong website).

Also, even though your contact info is on the home page, have a Contact link on the side. People will instinctively look for that and probably not remember it was on the home page. Perhaps having it on the homepage is a little presumptuous? You're assuming people will want to get in touch with you before seeing your work (or if they got there from the resume, they already have your contact info and this is irrelevant. They want to see more work!). Why not display your favorite piece or a collage of pieces on the home page? Remember, this is your first impression to future employers/clients. And on the web, you probably have about 10 seconds to make it or they will click away to somewhere else. I think even your bio would be better (say something that's not in the resume, especially about your design philosophy or inspiration. People love to know those kinds of things). People may disagree with me on this...

If you think you'll be getting a lot of work from this website, I would pay a professional who knows good SEO, CSS layout and some usability guidelines. It will be worth it to create an air of trust and competency for future clients.

[eismont_designs]

Thank you that last post helped the most. That is my first website and a lot of people on here where telling me things but not telling me why they where wrong. So in effect I should center all my webpages on the center of the screen? I am using dreamweaver by the way. CSS and all that other talk is foreign to me. I dont care if anyone where to stumble across my site on google, so having text on my site doesn't matter much to me. I am sending out a self promotion to companies via snail mail, so they will look at my promotion and go to my site.
Wow that last post was very great though. It really helped.
Is this what you all mean by center
Mitchell Eismont ??

[SatanicPenguins]

Your sites intro page is centered, But the text is statically positioned?. So it never lines up with the image unless its 1024x768 (even then its off to the right)

I can tell the style or was goin for though, You could pull it off

[eismont_designs]

how do you position text non statically in dreamweaver? sorry I am new at this. and what is the size 1024 by 768? How can I fix it?
Thanks

[SatanicPenguins]

Well to exactly mimic how your page currently is except fixing the text.

You would need to make a layer (a div) that was centered with the paper image (background-image) and a css tag to align the text in the middle (text-align: center)

so, Your CSS code would be:

.blah {
background-image:url(httq://wvv.com/paper.jpg); /*This is your paper background */
margin:0 auto; /* This will center the entire div layer */ /* This may only work if the parent is absolute sized (hence the wrapper) but i cant remember */
text-align:center; /* Easy one, Centers all the text placed inside the div to the center */
}

then, Your HTML would be:

Welcome Welcome somethin somethin, was to lazy to go check what ur page said right here

Might have to make a wrapper div.

That's if the image's exact middle is the middle of the actual paper area as well.

(when i said 1024x768, I meant thats the only resolution that ur text matched the image at, I think you positioned in DreamWeaver and it looked right to you on YOUR monitor you see?, But on someone else's monitor with a lower or higher resolution, The text is all over the place (not how u see it), But doing the above will fix that)

[LaurenMarie]

Mitchell, I can appreciate your effort in building your own site, but perhaps you really would be better off hiring a web designer. I'm sure you know the value of your time and maybe it's better to spend it doing things you know how to do well. I'm not trying to be mean! I would think this website is very frustrating to you, but it's something someone with training could throw up fairly quickly, especially seeing as how you've already designed it. There are a lot of problems with it and I think it would be easier to start over rather than trying to fix most of them. Just a thought... please don't take it personally. You have some really great print pieces and photography. You need a great website to show them off on! Maybe you can trade skills with someone, do some photography or print design in exchange for the site. Do each other a favor and build a professional relationship with another local designer.

[flashwiz]

Remove the biggest no no there is....... 'Site under contruction" this is never a good thing to put on a site no more... otherwise i agree with the rest, its not showing of your work in its best light, which in short MAY mean that people looking at your work are not actually getting that far.... ie you could be losing out on possible work.

The internet is usually your 1st chance at a good impression...

[pa007]

You have literally seconds to tell the user what you do and how well you do it. You could do this with words, sure but you're a graphic designer, visual artists, whatever you call yourself. This is about communicating visually. I don;t really know what you do without doing some investigation. In the flash bang world of the internet the user has gone and is looking at a better example before they've got past the splash page (which for numerous reasons is a bad idea).

Pete. :)

[dannynosleeves]

Originally Posted by eismont_designs

This website idea is based on my resume, which is an 8 page mailer and at the back is an old library sleeve with my business card in it.

Thats a cool idea and I think you should play off that, but I think the site could be so much better. Right now it is very plain, and not in a cool way. Try adding a background image or design so its not so stark.