Please review these PSD designs. Thanks!

[Neustance]

Hello,

Im currently working on the redesign of my web design business and would like to hear what you have to say about these two designs. Its more like a versus type of thread, if you dont mind please let me know what kind of feel you like best and what would you improve.




*The dark theme is not finished yet but you can see the basic idea.

Thanks!

Francisco

[BALLERMODE]

I'm usually a fan of darker colored sites, but they both look pretty cool. Do you have any working samples yet?

[PsiPro]

One thing to keep in mind that is is very hard to implement some of these design elements.

One the first layout
1)You have an outter glow around the entire site, that just won't translate to css/html easily or efficiently. Sure you can do it with enough container divs and semi-transparent images, but you need to make the call as to if you want to do this.
2) If at all possible you should try to avoid extra large images, such as the header with the girl and the text. Its not all bad to do this but make sure you optimize it to death.

On the second layout
1) big radial gardiant background don't typically translate well. On the first one as its a vertical gradiant it can be sliced into a 1px by 700px image to give the desired effect, there is no way to slice a radial gradiant to tile it. This will require a very large background image to implement.
2) Same comment with the header bar.

Anyway I think they both look good, just keep your goal of a fast and efficient web page in mind when designing

[Neustance]

Thanks for the feedback!

Ballermode,
Im currently working on 3 other sites. I'll be sure to keep in touch and let you know when I have them online and ready to go. I have been working like crazy to make a solid portfolio so stay tuned!

I was actually inclining towards the light version but lets see what happens. My main target and marketing strategy will be towards small-to-medium sized business so need to think if the dark version still looks professional. I wanted to keep a bit more corporate look. What do you think?

• On a side note, if you or anyone is interested in web design services, feel free to contact me and we can discuss everything related to it. I can send over a project questionnaire that covers all design and interface aspects. I'll be glad to partner with current business to help me build up my portfolio. It won't be free but I will be glad to work on a reasonable offer depending on your needs.

Psipro,
Thanks for the solid criticism, appreciate taking the time to review them thoroughly. As to the shadows, I agree but I wouldn't say its much of a compromise regarding the code as it's quite simple and unobtrusive, the key is using a technique called faux columns. If you want to learn more about it please have a look here A List Apart: Articles: Faux Columns

Thanks again! Keep the feedbacks coming, these are only work in progress so criticize all you want!

Francisco