FF.com Redesign -- Feedback Experiment

Post by **Allan** » 11 Aug 2005 20:57

Hello!

As anyone who has visited http://www.freedomfootbags.com over the years can attest, I am not an exceptionally talented graphic designer

While I know tons about the technical side of web development, my design capabilities leave a lot to be desired. This has left Daryl with a rather bland public image for far too long.

To remedy this situation, we have hired a professional designer to create a graphic template for us to work with. I have been involved with this designer for over a year in my capacity as a commercial web developer and have come to appreciate his unique capabilities - which is why we asked him to come up with a "cool" image for us.

The primary issue, for me, is that I've been working on this web site for 6 years now and I'm pretty burned out on the concept of even trying to know what looks good and what will appeal to you, our faithful customers and friends. So, before I implement his creation, we thought it would be a good idea to get some feedback from the community on what he's come up with.

If you would, please visit the following page and give us your opinion on the "cool" factor:

EDIT: Thanks to all who participated - this experiment is now closed.

Keep in mind that this is just a picture of what could be - it is completely non-functional as a web site.

Please vote in the poll and, if you like, give us some more detailed feedback on your impression - whether it be positive or negative -- tear it apart if you must, but please be nice about it -- constructive criticism is what we're after.

Thanks for your time and opinions in this, our grand experiment in trying to be as open and honest with the community as possible. Your input means a lot to us.

Best regards,

Allan (on behalf of Daryl and Sunny - Freedom Footbags)

sampotter · Post by **sampotter** » 11 Aug 2005 21:01

It looks nice and professional all... But a lot of it seems arbitrary to me. Call me conservative but I preferred how it looked before -- the design wasn't really claiming to be anything it wasn't. What's up with the picture of the guy in the hat? "Da blogs?" "Buy buy buy?" What's with the Jesus-esque looking picture? Is the little person standing besides the logo about to shred (as the boombox would suggest?) or is he shredding? Why is the sandbag wearing a crown? Where in the design is footbag??? Also sort of important is the abscene of the FF logo. This design is somewhat confusing to me.

Post by **Allan** » 11 Aug 2005 21:05

Nagasake wrote: Call me conservative but I preferred how it looked before -- the design wasn't really claiming to be anything it wasn't.

Well, the design can't claim to be anything, really, because there isn't really a design at all

Nagasake wrote: What's up with the picture of the guy in the hat?

I dunno

Nagasake wrote: "Da blogs?"

Text that will change. All of the actual text on the page is liable to be changed.

Thanks Sam

shreddaily · Post by **shreddaily** » 11 Aug 2005 21:19

SWEET. In my opinion any change is good. Nothing makes me wanna throw my money at a freestyler more than seeing new stuff like this. Any change will get me surfing the site more....
tis all I got.

sampotter · Post by **sampotter** » 11 Aug 2005 21:21

Yeah, I guess reconsidering what I said (as I was more getting worked up over the temporary content), it does look great. I imagine with the right ideas and some working around you could have a great looking design. The framework of what's there is awesome, you just need some themes to fit in.

Dat · Post by **Dat** » 11 Aug 2005 21:31

I think 'freedom footbags' and the links below it are a little hard to read. It does look a bit cooler.

QuantumBalance · Post by **QuantumBalance** » 11 Aug 2005 23:20

the text seems garbelled and crunched together - but i really like it though

its pastelly I LOVE IT

Chema · Post by **Chema** » 12 Aug 2005 00:56

I think it's trying a little too hard. I don't know everything about graphic design, but my dad has been a freelance graphic designer for over twenty years now, and has been teaching for like ten, so I've gotten very used to giving constructive criticism to this sort of thing.

The most important part of a company's identity is the logo, I personally think this attempt at a new logo isn't very good at all, the logo should have something that can be identified quickly as Freedom Footbag. For example the "F" in the old logo could eventually become like the Nike "Swoosh", in that you don't need to see the word Nike to know its Nike, once you see the swoosh you know what it is. The other thing is that the actual site design seems a little too cliché, it looks like it could be any site at all. The feeling "Freedom Footbag" needs to come through the design of the site, not the feeling "look at all this random stuff that we put on our site in an attempt to be hip, because all this cliché random stuff is the cool thing to do."
The site needs to be unique most of all, that is often achieved by simplicity, but if done corretly can be more (for lack of a better word) cluttered. I suggest that you guys ask the designer to focus on an identity for the company before designing the site, than build the site around the identity, so that it all goes together with the brilliant name of "Freedom Footbags".

That's just my two cents (more like five or six cents)

sampotter · Post by **sampotter** » 12 Aug 2005 01:11

Chema wrote:I think it's trying a little too hard. I don't know everything about graphic design, but my dad has been a freelance graphic designer for over twenty years now, and has been teaching for like ten, so I've gotten very used to giving constructive criticism to this sort of thing.

The most important part of a company's identity is the logo, I personally think this attempt at a new logo isn't very good at all, the logo should have something that can be identified quickly as Freedom Footbag. For example the "F" in the old logo could eventually become like the Nike "Swoosh", in that you don't need to see the word Nike to know its Nike, once you see the swoosh you know what it is. The other thing is that the actual site design seems a little too cliché, it looks like it could be any site at all. The feeling "Freedom Footbag" needs to come through the design of the site, not the feeling "look at all this random stuff that we put on our site in an attempt to be hip, because all this cliché random stuff is the cool thing to do."
The site needs to be unique most of all, that is often achieved by simplicity, but if done corretly can be more (for lack of a better word) cluttered. I suggest that you guys ask the designer to focus on an identity for the company before designing the site, than build the site around the identity, so that it all goes together with the brilliant name of "Freedom Footbags".

That's just my two cents (more like five or six cents)

Well put. This is sort of what I was trying to convey in my first post.

Asmus · Post by **Asmus** » 12 Aug 2005 01:16

I think the design is a little to splitted between being hippie and being street.
If the design should look like that i would remove all the fancy colors and use shades of black, white and brown. That would look way cool'er and more styley i think.
I like the Mr. Sandbags crown

Chema · Post by **Chema** » 12 Aug 2005 01:28

Nagasake wrote:
Chema wrote:I think it's trying a little too hard. I don't know everything about graphic design, but my dad has been a freelance graphic designer for over twenty years now, and has been teaching for like ten, so I've gotten very used to giving constructive criticism to this sort of thing.

The most important part of a company's identity is the logo, I personally think this attempt at a new logo isn't very good at all, the logo should have something that can be identified quickly as Freedom Footbag. For example the "F" in the old logo could eventually become like the Nike "Swoosh", in that you don't need to see the word Nike to know its Nike, once you see the swoosh you know what it is. The other thing is that the actual site design seems a little too cliché, it looks like it could be any site at all. The feeling "Freedom Footbag" needs to come through the design of the site, not the feeling "look at all this random stuff that we put on our site in an attempt to be hip, because all this cliché random stuff is the cool thing to do."
The site needs to be unique most of all, that is often achieved by simplicity, but if done corretly can be more (for lack of a better word) cluttered. I suggest that you guys ask the designer to focus on an identity for the company before designing the site, than build the site around the identity, so that it all goes together with the brilliant name of "Freedom Footbags".

That's just my two cents (more like five or six cents)
Well put. This is sort of what I was trying to convey in my first post.

Yeah, I was trying elaborate on your post a little

Great minds think alike.

Post by **Allan** » 12 Aug 2005 02:50

Thanks for the comments so far everyone, it's helping a lot.

Chema, I don't quite understand your use of the word cliche. Can you elaborate on how this design is cliche, please?

It's simply that "cliche" is probably the last word I would use to describe it. If anything I would describe it as quite original. Maybe the stuff you said about the logo rings true, but I've just got to question where you've seen anything like this before.

Thanks y'all

Post by **Allan** » 12 Aug 2005 03:59

Oh, and the logo not being clear enough is my fault, really. I approved it - the designer is a pro and he did start with the logo and then designed around it - I just didn't give him enough direction and approved something I likely shouldn't have.

ptaku · Post by **ptaku** » 12 Aug 2005 04:17

All what I have to say... When I see it I don't think "Footbag" ...

Post by **Allan** » 12 Aug 2005 07:09

Alright - Thanks to everyone who voted and commented.

We've decided to go back to the drawing board

Cheers and when we get a new version we'll do the same thing.

Chema · Post by **Chema** » 12 Aug 2005 09:25

I'm glad you guys are going back to the drawing board, it's rare that my dad would ever get anything on the first attempt, or even the second. What I ment by cliché, is that I feel like I've seen that before many times, it is definately a current style being used often (In my opinion). I think that the main problem with it though is that the logo needs to be perfect!

Bander87 · Post by **Bander87** » 12 Aug 2005 13:13

The image link dosnt seem to be working. I would really like to see the new design.

professor · Post by **professor** » 12 Aug 2005 13:35

^^^^^
What he said.

Post by **Allan** » 12 Aug 2005 14:52

Thanks for the curiousity, but I've taken the link down.
thanks Chema

ericksonj · Post by **ericksonj** » 12 Aug 2005 18:53

heh why didn't you guys get a designer in the first place. Programmers are no good at design

good luck with coming up with the right changes. I would like to see more flashy javascript on the site. The php looks pretty solid though, even does screwy url parameters to get higher search engine rank. Good stuff.

modified

FF.com Redesign -- Feedback Experiment

Is this cool?

FF.com Redesign -- Feedback Experiment