Looking for ideas

[purplemist2002]

Hi everyone. Quick intro ... I'm Misty, a mom of three in Northern NY. I've been away from web and graphics design for a few years, but I recently got asked to help a local car dealership out with their (crappy) website.

My problem, everything I've done to try to give them a professional look using their logo looks like something a first grader would come up with... lol

The only original logo I have to work with is a little bitty thing on their current website...

www.dealmakerusa.com

Any ideas on how to take the red white and blue and make it professional and sleek would be much appreciated!

oh... and here's the latest crap I've played with so far...

www.dealmakerusa.com/dmtest

[ranchero80]

Check out some of these galleries

- Website Gallery - Find the Best Websites on the Internet
- CSS Gallery | CSS Showcase | XHTML/CSS Website Gallery | CSS Impress
- CSSelite.com - CSS Gallery Showcasing the best in CSS web design and development.

there are heaps of other website galleries out there to help get the creative juices moving, try google searches like 'best css website design'

[D856C]

We have those same colors in the American flag. You may not be aware of this in your country, but we have these giant election campaigns every four years. You may have heard.

Those campaign sites use the Red, Blue, White scheme to good effect.

For example, check out the Obama for America site. (BTW, he's the U.S. President now).


Obama logo ideas that weren’t chosen goes through some design thinking.

These are good sites for evoking patriotic/feel good emotions as your USA car dealers are probably looking for. And let me commend you on your use of English. You write just like an American designer ...to which the all the above would be exceedingly obvious.

Strange coincidence, we have a state with the abbreviation NY here.

[vdowsett]

Hi Misty

Mum of two in KS here! Some of my thoughts on your work so far:

I would stick with having a small logo, and not having the big flag across the top. Right now the header is looking too busy, and detracts from the information you would like people to read on the site.

As Mr Sarcasm above me mentioned, the Obama site is really nicely done, and looks very professional. You can do a lot with the use of better colors and clever gradients. The Obama site is using a deeper shade of red and blue than what is on your site. I think incorporating those colors work nicely on what you are trying to achieve.

On the left hand menu, you are using a bold white font which is hard to read. I find your headings hard to read to, but I think if you changed the color scheme you will probably address that. I would make the content black or a dark gray. To me blue just says hyperlink, particularly the blue you are using now.

I find browsing through online galleries so helpful, there are a lot of neat sites out there to inspire you. So doing that will also give you ideas on how to better design the site.

Hope this helps and good luck!
Vicky

[purplemist2002]

Thanks Vicky and Ranchero. I didn't even think to deepen the blue and red for the website. I was so focused on using the logo color scheme, which is harsh as a background, but the white is boring and looks unfinished.

The headings with the red paint stroke behind it was an attempt to make it all go together, but it was pathetic, I know. Hence the poor use of the English language... crap, crappy... as D856C so nicely pointed out. It's great to know that people can understand another persons extreme frustrations without making them feel inadequate.

I think I could combine the deeper shades with the current logo without the owner thinking I'm trying to change his logo.

If either of you care to share your opinions with me once I work on a new scheme, I'd appreciate it.

[graphicsAZ]

Template monster also has a large selection of web templates that you could look at for possible inspiration. They allow you to select categories as well.

Using a blue as the primary color is a good choice. It gives a very cooling appearance, which is what you would want if someone is looking at purchasing a car right? Good link from D856C (the only bit of useful information from that post).

Good luck Misty.