[Project Complete] Nature’s Touch Ponds -1 Page $600.00

[ntrtouch]

(Admin code added by Palmer - 92H10955EM756162D)

Hello Everyone,

The goal of redesigning my website is to create a new, clean and professional website for Nature's Touch Ponds. I would like you to be able be free with your design ideas. Please see attached navigation guide.

Please post a message to let me know you will be entering!

Thank You!
Darren Lucas




Company Details

1a) Name of Company Nature’s Touch Ponds

1b)Company Tag Line or slogan: none

1c) Do you have a company logo? Yes, see attached file

1d) Do you have a corporate visual identity (a customized (non stock) logo and color scheme carried out throughout your office, stationery, business cards, etc.)? Yes, but it does not have to stay with the scheme. See attached logo and business cards

1e) What is the nature of your business?: Briefly describe your products or services:
We install and service koi ponds and water gardens.

1f) Who is your target market? Who are you hoping to reach with your site? Homeowners in our local area with koi ponds or water gardens. who are looking to have them serviced or people looking to install new systems.




Website Details

1b) Do you have an existing website? If so, what is the URL? www.naturestouchponds.com

2b) IMPORTANT: Please list at least 3 URLs (web addresses) of high quality sites that you like the look of (these do not have to be sites who’s business is similar to yours. It aids us in determining what your design style is.) Please consider layout, colors, navigation, graphics, and typography.

www.lagunakoi.com This is the website I like the most
www.wlimstore.com
www.galandscapedesign.com

3b) What colors or color schemes would you like? Open

4b) List the Navigation links for your Site: (See attached scan021.pdf) this is just to show how I would like the buttons oriented and a list of what I would like. You do have full creative freedom

5b) What type of look are you trying to achieve? (e.g. clean, high-tech, conservative, warm, flashy, etc.) I am looking for a clean, professional and unique website that stands out from local competitors out there. Something that is very functional but astatically pleasing.

6b) Please provide the addresses of competitors' sites, if possible:

www.fullserviceaquatics.com
www.premuimaquascapes.com
www.outdoor-magic.com
www.liquiddesignsnj.com/


7b) Do you have any images for use in the design of your site? If not, do you have images, can you offer suggestions of what you type of imagery you feel would be most suitable for your website: I have a lot of images on my current website www.naturestouchponds.com. Please also see attached photos. Feel free to use stock images if you wish



Deadlines and Deliverables

1c) What is the deadline for your template design? March 14th 2010

2c) Will you require HTML coding? (Yes/No) Yes, I will require a copy of the psd also

I would like to have this website to be 1024 wide

3c) If so, will you require it to be ONLY CSS layout? No

4c) How many pages coded will you require delivered? 1

[will]

I'm in :D

[jeff797]

I'm in!

[will]

Here is my concept :D Let me know if you like part or the whole of the design. Also any suggestions about the elements is welcome :D

[vhgdesign]

Here's my idea. It's different of what you are looking for, but I've decided to make it. Probably will have another version for you ... tomorrow.

[vhgdesign]

and another one

[ntrtouch]

I would like to thank you both for submitting a design so quickly!

Will (Post 4)- I like the design your submitted! I like the way the photos worked as well as the colors of the site. Can you remove the bar (filtration systems, heating ect) under the header and links. Can you add some buttons on the left side like I had in my template so I have more room for links?

Vhodesign (Post 5)- I like the way the buttons came out across the top and the left side. I also like the information boxes on the right hand side. Can you use some of the photos I uploaded into the design? The colors are not working for me.

Is anyone else interested in submitting a design?

[ntrtouch]

Vhqdesign (Post 6) - I like this design much better then your other design. I don't see any additional changes needed to this design. I will wait for the rest of the designs to come in and make my decision from there. Thank You!!

[will]

Here are the changes. :D Let me know if you want me to add or remove anything.

[Ziol]

I'm in, I'll post a design shortly. :)

[ntrtouch]

Thanks for the changes Will! No further changes are needed at this point!

[cosmic]

I will also be posting an entry.

[vhgdesign]

here is another slightly different version

[ntrtouch]

vhqdesign - (Post 13) Thanks for an additional design!

Jeff797 - Cosmic - Ziol - I look forward to seeing your designs!

Is there anyone else interested in posting a design?

[Elena]

Hello,
I'm working on my concept too.

Thank you,
Elena

[cosmic]

Here is my entry.

[ntrtouch]

Cosmic - (Post 16) I really like the way the header came out on the site! I like how the phone number is a focal point as well as the estimate button! The green color on my logo seems to be much lighter then it should be. The blue under the head isn't working for me as well as the colors below the header.

[cosmic]

Revisions

[cosmic]

A different layout.

[Elena]

Hello,
Here is my concept.

Thank you,
Elena

[jeff797]

Hi Darren,

Sorry I haven't posted my entry yet, I've been out of town for the last week. I'll post it in a few days.

Thanks!
Jeff

[ntrtouch]

Cosmic(Post 18 + 19) - Thanks for the revisions, they look much better!

Elana (Post 20) - I really like your design, I will have some small changes but let me spend a day or two really looking at it and I will get back to you!

Jeff797 - I look forward to seeing your design!

Is there anyone else interested in posting a design for me? Please let me know

[Elena]

Thank you Darren,
I'm ready for further work.

Best regards,
Elena

[belladonna]

Hi :), Im working on something, I´ll have it ready later tonight!

[belladonna]

Hello :), here is my concept, feedback is appreciated!

http://www.julieta-garcia.com.ar/julieta/do/bella_natures_touch_ponds4.jpg

[ntrtouch]

Elena (post 20) I really like the overall design. I like the header buttons, the background. The only part I am not crazy about is the content area of the page. Can you adjust the headers and the text boxes? Maybe make the boxes smaller

Belladonna (Post 25) Nice design! I don't see any changes as of right now. I will study it and get back to you if i see anything!

[Elena]

Hello Darren,
I've not received the message notification from the site :(
Thank you for the feedback! I will make changes soon.

Best regards,
Elena

[belladonna]

Hi :), thanks, I couldn´t resist trying a couple of backgrounds...

http://www.zulemarocco.com.ar/juli/bella_natures_touch_ponds5.jpg

[belladonna]

http://www.zulemarocco.com.ar/juli/bella_natures_touch_ponds6.jpg

[ntrtouch]

Belladonna (Post 28) I like this background the most of the designs you submitted. (Blue with the water movement marks)

Is there any other designers interested in submitting a design? I could extend the deadline if needed!

Thanks

[ntrtouch]

I would like to extend this contest until Saturday March 20th

[Kogar]

Hi.

Here's is my concept.

Feedback appreciated.

Regards

[silviu-ivan]

Hello,

I'm also working on a concept for your project.

Regards,
Silviu

[ntrtouch]

Kogar, I just got power back after being out for 52 hours! I will take a look at it and get back to you tomorrow

[silviu-ivan]

Here is my concept.

The big image (Welcome to) is going to be a slideshow were we can display something about the services, the portfolio, whatever you want. These are basically going to be beauty shots.

Please let me know what you think about the graphics, colors, content arrangement and overall design. I look forward to your feedback.

http://silviu-ivan.com/do/ponds/ponds-silviu-v1a.jpg

[ntrtouch]

Kogar - Post 32 Thanks for your design. I dont see any changes I would like to make to it.

Silviu- Post 35 I like your design! I will look it over and get back to you on any changes if any.

Jeff- Are you working on a design?

Any other designers going to submit a design?

[ntrtouch]

Silviu - The only thing I see about this design that I don't like is the green water in the background. Green water in my business is bad. I do like the green color but can you make it or something else like pond plants or something. Could you also try to change it to a more of the color of water and see how that works. Other then that I really like the design!

[Elena]

Hello,
Here are my updates.

Thank you,
Elena

[silviu-ivan]

Thank you for the feedback. I will post my revisions tomorrow. Really sorry to keep you waiting.

[silviu-ivan]

Here are my updates on the background.

I've tried adding some plats in the water, but I didn't look too great. So I've kept things simple and made the water background a a cool blue similar to the one from the logo. This look good to me, but we can always try something different if you want.

Let me know what you think.

http://silviu-ivan.com/do/ponds/ponds-silviu-v1b.jpg

[ntrtouch]

Thank you for the changes! It looks great!

Is there anyone else interested in submitting a design? If not I will look over all of the designs and make a decision in a few days!!

[jeff797]

Hi,

Sorry about not getting a design to you. I've been out of town for the last week and a half and thought that I would be able to work on a design but I wasn't able to.

Sorry again,
Jeff

[ntrtouch]

Jeff, would you be able to work on a design this week if I extended the deadline?

[mightymau]

hi I would like to submit a design tomorrow! :)

[ntrtouch]

mightymau - I look forward to seeing it

[jeff797]

I would be able to get something ready by Thursday if that is ok with you. Thanks for this!

[ntrtouch]

Jeff, Thursday would be fine. I would like to extend this contest to Monday March 29th

[jeff797]

Hi Darren,

Sorry it took me so long to get this to you. Here is my idea. The body copy area still needs some tweaking, but I'd love to hear what you think and any comments that you have.

Thanks!

http://www.jeffbazer.com/designoutpost/nature touch ponds - jbazer.png

[mightymau]

Here's mine :)

[Elena]

Hello,
I've just updated my latest version because I noticed that one o f the main buttons was covered with the stone image! Sorry for that.

Best regards,
Elena

[ntrtouch]

Thanks everyone for all of your designs! I will make a decision this weekend on which design I am going with

[ntrtouch]

I would like to thank all of the designers for submitting all of these great designs! I didn’t realize how hard it going be to pick a design. The winner I choose is silviu-ivan with post #40, ponds-silviu-v1b.jpg


I would like you to make a few changes to the website.

Can you change the left hand buttons to these? All in Alphabetical order:

Aquatic Plants
Articles
Certifications
Outings and Events
Filtration
Koi
Koi Ponds
Links
News and Updates
Pond Maintenance
Portfolio
Sitemap
Testimonials
Video

-Can you try a different idea for the “Welcome to Nature’s Touch Ponds” it is taking away for the photo. Maybe not have it so pronounced in the photo with the white background

-Can you add 3 other photos so I can get the website off the ground, from there I can change and add photos as I want

I think that is it! Thank you very much!

[ntrtouch]

Silviu - I want to set this page up as a dynamic web template so keep that in mind when you are coding this site. I dont know if you need to do anything different when you have to do that

[silviu-ivan]

Thank you for choosing my design.

For the welcome box, would you like to have different text on the 4 slides, or keep the "Welcome to" on all 4? I can pick 3 other photos, and make a different psd with that box, so you can easily change the photos and text later. Or you can just give me the text for the other 3 and I can make the final versions for you.

Since this a medium size website, I already took the dynamic aspect into consideration, so I've used system default fonts for all the navigation links.

I will code the page using the best practices I am aware of, and I'll make sure the xhtml and css code is valid. I've never got any complaints about the code I delivered :)

Let me know if this arrangement of the welcome box works better for you. The image represents photo #2. On the left side, Koi Ponds represents how the selected state for those links will be.

http://silviu-ivan.com/do/ponds/ponds-silviu-v1c.jpg

[ntrtouch]

The text box would say the same thing for all 4 photos.

I like the way the selected text works.

The one thing I want you to change is the top header looks a little squashed, Can you make it taller and show a little more of that photo detail?

Thanks, I'm really happy with the way the site came out

[silviu-ivan]

Sure. Here's the header 40px taller. Let me know.

http://silviu-ivan.com/do/ponds/ponds-silviu-v1d.jpg

[ntrtouch]

Leave it the way it is in v1c.jpg.(one before the last one) Just add 4 photos and lets call it done!

[silviu-ivan]

Ok, that's great. I'll start working on the html code this week so by Friday it should be done.

[ntrtouch]

Hi Silviu,

I am just checking on the status of the html coding. Please let me know how it is coming out

[silviu-ivan]

Hey Darren,

I'm really sorry for the delay. I had some friend that dropped by unexpected for a visit last week. And next there was Easter, so it totally blew my schedule away.

I'm working on the coding today, so by tomorrow it will be finished.

Sorry to keep you waiting,
Silviu

[silviu-ivan]

You can see the html file in action here: http://silviu-ivan.com/do/ponds/html/
(http://silviu-ivan.com/do/ponds/html/)

I've tested the page in Firefox, Opera, Chrome, IE 6, 7 and 8 and the look is consistent. Both the html code (http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http://silviu-ivan.com/do/ponds/html/index.html&charset=(detect+automatically)&doctype=Inline&group=0) and the css (http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/validator?uri=http://silviu-ivan.com/do/ponds/html/css/style.css&profile=css21&usermedium=all&warning=1&lang=ro) are valid.

The only problem I encountered was making the slideshow work properly on IE6. I had to make a choice between using a plane fade effect that also works on ie6 but looks washed out, and using this one (http://nivo.dev7studios.com/) that is really great and makes an impact. Since less then 9% of the internet users are using IE6 and the number is dropping by ~ 1% each month, in a few months this browser will be history. So for IE6 we still get the same look, but the show will be paused at the first image.

Let me know what you think.

Regards,
Silviu

[ntrtouch]

It looks good, Can you send the site to me on a file as well as the psd?

[silviu-ivan]

I've just sent you a private message with the link to the files. Thank you for a great project!

[ntrtouch]

Got the files, this project is complete!!

[BlueCherryGraphics]

PROJECT UPDATE: moved to archives