Here is my new index page design based on CSS. I'm feeling pretty good about it. What do you guys think? Sorry, but the demo links don't work yet and I haven't added href's for larger pictures of the images yet. I have mainly been concerned with the layout and appearance. Also, I am rewriting the verbage to be more active and less passive. One specific question: do the Brand Logos on the right side bother anyone?

www.spacecityairbrush.com/test/index.html

Thanks guys! You've all been a HUGE help.

__________________
Mike Freeman
Space City Airbrush
www.spacecityairbrush.com

You should fix the width attributes of your site... i'm getting a scrol bar here (maybe caused by navlogo header) :/ also the position of the content boxes and the right side images go out of the boxes div!

Other than that you seem to have a good CSS knowledge and you use it ok! You also have an imense range of colours and that tends to take out a certain level of professialism of the site... but it's just my 5 cents :)

Take care and keep up!

__________________
My Radio | Wise Designs | Penaf.com

Penaf, what browser are you using? I don't have any image or width problems on msn or IE. If anyone sees technical problems, please let me know what browser and screen res you are using.

Gah! Tech prob's are driving me nuts.

Does the color range bother anyone else? Does it distract you from the content? Is there too much on this index page? Does it look cluttered?

Thanks all!

__________________
Mike Freeman
Space City Airbrush
www.spacecityairbrush.com

BIG improvement. The colours are not to my taste but they are related to what you do, certainly follows the airbrush theme. Logo looking good btw :D

__________________
Pet Care - Pet Cat Care

The problem seems to lie when using Firefox...left boxes are slightly covered, and the right boxes images spill out to the right.

I'm going to agree on the colour-scheme...pick a couple colours and stick to them. The 'carribean' look doesn't really do you any good.

Other than that, HUGE improvement from before.

Keep it up!

I just posted one for windsorhog.com...take a look if you've got a moment!

Mike - You're making great improvements!

But the very next thing you need to do is download Firefox and Netscape 7. They're free, for heaven's sake. I've never seen a site that looked more radically (or should I say "colorfully") different from IE to Firefox. Most sites look pretty-much the same on Firefox and Netscape - but not yours!

I can't begin to list all the different problems I see with images spilling out of their intended boxes, because they're so different from browser to browser. Some of the problems are very dramatic! You simply cannot troubleshoot any website properly without using Firefox or Netscape. IE masks problems.

Do you know about the w3c css validator? Go here: http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/ It's a nice tool. I just now ran your style sheet and it listed out a number of errors...

IMHO, you'd make this process easier for yourself if you'd design the website for a fixed width of 800 pixels. You might also want to try using "z-index" to control how things layer-up. Also, I'm sure you're going to want to add a second style sheet for print-outs. It's so easy to do! No way will anyone want to print the page with all those images and backgrounds. May I suggest you re-visit my author friend's simple little website and look at its two stylesheets? It's here: www.kb-thomas.com/mockup.htm In your browser, select "print preview" and see how much different it looks.

Challenge yourself to blow away unnecessary words. How many times did you repeat "This demonstration shows you how to..." in the column on the left? Why not put a header in that says, simply, "Demonstrations" and then in each button (in the column under it) cut straight to the chase: "how to airbrush a sunset", "how to airbrush a name design with bleeds and fades", etc.

I think you could stand to optimize your images quite a bit for faster loading. There are tips elsewhere on these forums that explain the mechanics...

As for the brand logos... First, they only look okay in IE at the moment. But to answer your question: no, they're not my favorite. I'd make them smaller and lower on the page.

Mike, don't get discouraged. You're making real progress.

If you can spare the time, feel invited to give me comments about the website I'm posting tonight: www.storyboardtoys.biz

Thanks for the thoughtful post, CJ.

I saw the site on firefox last night and was amazed at the errors. So I quess I'm not done yet. By popular demand I'm going to change the colors again. I quess they are just too bold.

Good point about the demos. I need to rewrite all the text I think. Thanks for the w3c link... I'll check it out.

__________________
Mike Freeman
Space City Airbrush
www.spacecityairbrush.com