•• New site •••

Interesting FF 3.5.6 handles the transform property Opera 10.10 doesn't.

Disable images and hover the list links, causes the other elements to jump or squirm.

Like the look , usual cool graphic design, still do have an issue with the slightly slow loading large nature of the graphics.

Naturally this is your own site but I wouldn't get too carried away with html 5 just yet, not in the real world at least.

I agree, the file sizes for the images are quite large. I was going to fix the image sizes, then got side-tracked. Thank you for the reminder Hugo!

Yeah, I was also surprised that Opera didnt support the transform or box shadows.

Where's the love people?

I like the header banner feel a lot. Not sure if I like the brick texture. The curtains are a little jagged around the edges and have a slight black outline (not sure if that is intentional). Although they were not underlined the list of services seemed like they were links at first because they are the same red as the email link. The edges of the site seem too hard or flat.

Lots of love Cupid, just not a lot of help...from me at least

Howsomever...thanks to Hugo for alerting me to the fact that FF has stopped updating itself (back in July apparently) - the check updates button is greyed and the Moz site is refusing to talk to me sensibly at the moment...but I shall persevere.

So...I gather the transform that doesn't work in FF3.0.11 will be ok when I update.
I didn't fire up IE6 'cos I don't want to be told off again (I remember visiting your site early on when I had the PC and it told me to go away).

All okay in Safari too.
I really like the off-vertical text but not so keen on the grunge Clients and Services headings.

And I know this is very subjective, but it seems dark to me, as in: doesn't go with the "star attraction" implied by the header (which is all fine and looks good). I'd prefer to see the body background below the green bar lighten up a few notches and without the grunge on it too.

As I said, all very subjective and just my 2cents. Great layout and graphics as usual ☺

(I've been trying to load this answer off and on for 2 days! Seems my ISP was having problems)

Like what you've done with the css3 things—stands out without being overdone. That will not be the usual case with other graphic designers.

A couple of nits:

Those bulleted lists imply they are links; they are not, you bad, bad boy. But don't worry about it. No one will pay attention to them due to the next issue.

The plaster is an uninviting puke green. It subdues the content, while making the relatively bright client buttons draw the eye away from what you're trying to say. Try more of a creamy off-white, or even the more yellowish color of old shellac on plaster, as you might see in the European country-side.

cheers,

gary

ROFL! Well at least I was a little more polite...was going to call it army khaki
(*whispers* and I think he likes that colour a lot)

I think that we are probably seeing a colour reminiscent of that often seen from old distemper washes. Shellac, while being a marvellous sealant, was not necessarily used as a wash on walls or brickwork; more commonly used as a primer for wood or as a final wash on oil based canvasses and of course in it's most famous guise as French Polish used to produce that staggering deep mirror gloss surface on Fine furniture.

I think the effect and natural colour we are looking for would be more in keeping with the traditional Lime washes or Lime plaster used predominantly up until the mid 20th century and which produced a beautiful soft lustre to plaster and brickwork so much so that it is once again finding favour amongst the modern design guru.

Actually, Hugo, I do mean a shellac used on plaster. It was probably used as a sealer, but I have seen the yellowish walls when I lived in Germany (I'm not sure about France). I have since learned it was a very common finish for plastered walls. I read somewhere that Andropov's office at the KGB had just such a finish. It is a very common sealer here for plasterboard/gypsum walls and ceilings. Even the whitest shellac will have a yellowish tinge which darkens with age.

I have to say I love a rubbed oil/shellac finish; especially on darker woods. Any closed grain wood will take it though, e.g. cedar, cypress, walnut. Oak, not so well, unless you have some really nice quarter sawn white oak, also known as satin wood, and that's damned near impossible to find any more.

cheers,

gary

What works wonderfully on many closed grain woods or hard woods are various finish techniques such as Gas oil or Linseed oil, Danish oil etc, the secret of all the finishes though is loving care and time, lots of time to slowly and patiently build that finish, applying buffing, applying buffing, over weeks and months. As for Oak it's a crime to do anything with it it simply ages, and takes it's own sweet time over it.

Worked for a while under a furniture restorer, never became fully proficient with French polish techniques but did use shellac as the primer base and that employed many of the same techniques employed by the French polisher such as using a Rubber correctly.

Another finish used to produce an aged look was to use the ubiquitous Briwax (+ Toulene) melted and kept warm and applied as a thick viscous liquid with fine wire wool

Ok sufficiently hijacked this thread but it's far more interesting than coding

Blimey! Hugo swallowed a book for breakfast!

Poor dog

My dad used it on furniture (hobby) when I was little - shellac's made of something disgusting...or is that pearl glue?...probably both. I don't want to know. I seem to remember it was a fragile finish though? Scratched or dented easily.

Gary, I'm with you, I just like "patting" an old nice old furniture, antiques I can't afford - that sort of thing. I'm sure that's how patina got it's name, from the patting

I'll give a thumbs up for the lime wash bg though!

So c'mon Cupid! Now you've got our love and attention you're nowhere to be seen! Typical!

Shellac is slightly disgusting it's a sticky secretion from a certain beetle (name escapes me) but it's an amazing substance with many unique properties that can't be necessarily synthesised or at least improved on.

Patina is interesting as it's the thing that time produces and is something that simply can't be replicated overnight, quickest way to drastically devalue a piece of fine furniture, an antique, is to remove it's natural patina as this is part of the inherent value of the item, nitwits do his using solvents and should be punished for their crimes.

Yes. Patting and dusting and waxing/polishing. Cannot resist the first one, try to ignore the last two

Don't go too far with the no solvents rant. All that patting and waxing that Vicki is talking about causes a build up of wax and oil/grease that has nothing to do with the patina due to long term oxidation of the real finish. Every few years (you'll know when by scraping the piece with your fingernail), wash the built up wax, oil, and grime off with mineral spirits. It won't harm the finish, but will bring the real beauty of the piece back to view.

Now, where is toe-jam, and what's he going to do about that ugly wall?

cheers,

gary

This is true Gary but cleaning a piece of furniture is in it's self a fine art and only carried out by those that really understand what their doing.

Toe-jam is reading his thread, bemused, shaking his head and wondering how he is meant to obtain this fine patina on his site, it's not a bad token name though could use it for the background?

Ahh, I see. Needs to be fixed!

You're right! Silly me.

yes, your response as very nice. Its like you said it with a kind smile on your face, while Gary was slapping me in the face with a splintered wooden board with nails. HAHAHA

Thank guys and gals for your wonderful DIY wall plastering tips! I will certainly come back to this thread whenever I'm going to plaster walls!!