proservsecurity.com website template

[TopCat]

Hi all, (Admin code added by Palmer - V583710K)

ProServ security is a young manned guarding company based in London, UK. So far we have a very basic website (proservsecurity.com) which we would like to improve on. I am a director of ProServ and not a web designer / developer myself, although I have been involved with web projects in the past and have some appreciation for the terminology and technology (I should be will be able to answer your questions I hope..)

Deadline: Friday 28 March

Brief

Overall we want to achieve a less '1-dimensional' feel to the site than we have at the moment and perhaps integrate some photos to bring it to life - thoughts are images of the City of London skyline and / or security / customer service style people pictures. Whilst the site is only 'brochureware' it is a bit primitive and doesn't feel like a real corporate site - we would like the site to convey a professional, contemporary yet solid/deep corporate feel so we do not stand out as a young / small company (if this makes sense).

We were thinking of simply substituting the cube for a photo on each page (one photo for each site 'section') so if you think this works then a template that allows for different background photos would be acceptable - NOTE this is not a 'must-have' but rather a slightly unimaginative idea that we came up with ourselves.. We are ok with the existing colourscheme but open to suggestions - certainly the single colour blocks we are using at the moment don't look very slick, so hoping for something sharper, possibly metallic looking..

We are happy with our existing logo and it features in all our paper marketing materials (so can't change). The stylised cube also appears on the brochure so we could make use of it on the site somewhere - or at least borrow the look / feel of this in some way to provide a 'link' with our paper materials.

I have a jpg of our brochure cover and an eps file of the logo although I can't attach either here because wrong file type / too big (I think). For digital use the logo colours are black and 30% black, for print black and pantone 877 silver metallic.

We are happy with the existing copy and page headers / divisions - so the menu labels can remain as-is although the menu design / layout is of course up for redesign as part of the new template.

Good luck - I have another day job (!) so will endeavour to respond to queries quickly although there might be some delays.

Looking forward to seeing some ideas

Tony

[Doni]

can you email the logo to me?

[Palmer]

Actually can you just post it into a message so all of us can save it to our computer?

[motiveX]

Did I miss how much this is for?

Secondly, a HIGH RES of the logo would be great.

[Palmer]

It's $150, I'll add it to the message title.

[motiveX]

Here is an idea.

I had to recreate the logo since my free time is currently limited...hope that was ok.

http://www.placidminds.com/proserv/comp.html

[TwistedNewMedia]

Wow xterior, that is such an awesome template!

[motiveX]

Originally posted by ubergerlgeek@Mar 12 2003, 12:53 AM
Wow xterior, that is such an awesome template!
:wub:

Thanks ubergerlgeek.

[TopCat]

I can't attach the eps version of the logo but here's a .gif. Xteriormotive - that first template is great - I will talk to my partners and give you some more detailed comments but fantastic start thanks.


Tony

[motiveX]

Originally posted by TopCat@Mar 12 2003, 03:47 AM
I can't attach the eps version of the logo but here's a .gif.   Xteriormotive - that first template is great - I will talk to my partners and give you some more detailed comments but fantastic start thanks.


Tony
I wanted to note, that if you click the link I provided to my site...you can see a larger capture of the comp.

I drained all color from the image from London with the exception of the red on the woman's shirt inside of the Needle. I thought it not only provided a graphic of the area, but also provided a hint at Security...since she appears to be surrounded by people, as well as the thick glass structure...and by leaving color on her it produces a focal point.

There is also slight red hints throughout the cityscape to show potential clients or places your company has already secured.

Wanted to make sure you actually picked up on that one.

:)

[TopCat]

Hadn't picked up on that actually but like the 'watching over London' idea of having the London Eye in the graphic. More detailed feedback tomorrow after I can get our team together to look at it.

For now the only observation is that we probaly wouldn't have the '001' on the photo as it might mislead.

cheers

Tony

[motiveX]

Originally posted by TopCat@Mar 12 2003, 12:06 PM
Hadn't picked up on that actually but like the 'watching over London' idea of having the London Eye in the graphic. More detailed feedback tomorrow after I can get our team together to look at it.

For now the only observation is that we probaly wouldn't have the '001' on the photo as it might mislead.

cheers

Tony
Ya, I just threw that in as a possible navigation orientation.

001, 002, 003, 004.

Just an idea.

[TopCat]

All,

Apologies for not including this in the brief but we have a quality accreditation logo which ought to be on the template also (attached here). Needs to be fairly discrete, but obvious - on xteriormotive's design perhaps bottom left under the phone numbers might work or on the right in the white space somewhere - I'll leave it you to suggest... The logo needs the certificate number LRQ 4000591 underneath it in place of the 001.

Many thanks

Tony

[TopCat]

quality logo attached (I think)

[Palmer]

Here's the logo if anyone needs it...

http://www.proservsecurity.com/images/logo.jpg

[motiveX]

What is the purpose of that HUGE attachment?

:blink:

[Palmer]

Originally posted by xteriormotive@Mar 13 2003, 05:29 PM
What is the purpose of that HUGE attachment?

:blink:
Please follow the thread...

All,

Apologies for not including this in the brief but we have a quality accreditation logo which ought to be on the template also (attached here). Needs to be fairly discrete, but obvious - on xteriormotive's design perhaps bottom left under the phone numbers might work or on the right in the white space somewhere - I'll leave it you to suggest... The logo needs the certificate number LRQ 4000591 underneath it in place of the 001.

Many thanks

Tony

[motiveX]

Originally posted by Palmer@Mar 13 2003, 04:31 PM
Originally posted by xteriormotive@Mar 13 2003, 05:29 PM
What is the purpose of that HUGE attachment?

:blink:
Please follow the thread...

All,

Apologies for not including this in the brief but we have a quality accreditation logo which ought to be on the template also (attached here). Needs to be fairly discrete, but obvious - on xteriormotive's design perhaps bottom left under the phone numbers might work or on the right in the white space somewhere - I'll leave it you to suggest... The logo needs the certificate number LRQ 4000591 underneath it in place of the 001.

Many thanks

Tony
I did, but didn't have to load it in the context of the post. It whigs the whole thread out.

Jeez.

<_<

[motiveX]

Originally posted by TopCat@Mar 13 2003, 11:10 AM
All,

Apologies for not including this in the brief but we have a quality accreditation logo which ought to be on the template also (attached here). Needs to be fairly discrete, but obvious - on xteriormotive's design perhaps bottom left under the phone numbers might work or on the right in the white space somewhere - I'll leave it you to suggest... The logo needs the certificate number LRQ 4000591 underneath it in place of the 001.

Many thanks

Tony
http://www.placidminds.com/proserv/comp.html

With those images you posted.

[QSDA]

I think I'm also going to have an entry for your contest.

[Palmer]

Here are my entries. I couldn't decide what to do with the left side, so I made 2 versions. Let me know what you think. :)

Full screen version 1 (http://www.yourwebbuddy.com/templates/pss/1.png) (border would be set to 0 so you wouldn't have the white gap at the top and left)

<img src='http://www.yourwebbuddy.com/templates/pss/1.png[/img]

Full screen version 2 (http://www.yourwebbuddy.com/templates/pss/2.png) (same as above about the border)

http://www.yourwebbuddy.com/templates/pss/2.png

[TopCat]

Apologies for the HUGE logo - it wasn't meant to be that big and 'preview' didn't warn me (I probably wasn't using it right..)

Thanks everyone for contributions so far - they're both much better than our current site. Palmer - your design has good impact however the 'block' construction and mix of colours isn't quite there, it has a sort of 'video game' menu feel to it - to be honest at this point we prefer the xteriordesign template which has a good 3-dimensional feel and has a nice 'clean' contemporary look to it. Still keen to see fresh ideas if anyone else is planning on having a go though...

xteriormotive - a few minor points:

- the LRQ# on the quality logo actually goes underneath the UKAS box (where the 001 was on the template)
- Could the diagonal on the top right triangle be parallel to the edge of the ProServ logo? - they're at slightly different angles at the moment - not sure if this makes any difference but it's a symmetry thing I guess. Might not look better, but a thought nonetheless.
- We are not sure about the large A on the picture, could we see it without this?
- Can we put an email address under the phone #s please? - info@proservsecurity.com
- How would the sub-navigation work (e.g. Bespoke solutions) for the site sections which have multiple sub-pages (like the Why ProServ? section). The design layout for the sub-menu links looks cool but not sure how it accomodates 5 sub-sections and whether there's a risk visitors won't realise there are sub-pages linked to the words?

Cheers

Tony

[Palmer]

Originally posted by TopCat@Mar 14 2003, 11:55 AM
Palmer - your design has good impact however the 'block' construction and mix of colours isn't quite there, it has a sort of 'video game' menu feel to it.
Perfectly understandable, thanks for the comments. I'll see what I can come up with that is more along the lines of what you're looking for :)

[motiveX]

Per the comments...

http://www.placidminds.com/proserv/comp.html

[QSDA]

Hello.
Every little thing is changable at this moment.
800x600
http://portfolio.iu.edu/otseren/qsdaProS.gif

1024x768
http://portfolio.iu.edu/otseren/qsdaProS_1024x768.gif

[TopCat]

Thanks QSDA for your entry, some comments:

- we quite like the bridge graphic, however the menu buttons, quality logo and photo don't seem to be very consistent in style / feel - the quality logo would be better lower down perhaps and we were not too keen on the woman photo as it doesn't really say anything - for a people picture, perhaps something more 'guardlike' would be better. Our logo may work better on the top right also - just feels this way intuitively (to us..) if the menu is on the left

Overall we felt the design was good but needed to be a bit more consistent / co-ordinated. Also, how would the sub-nav work in this design?

Xteriormotive - further to your design, could you do a comp (or two) with alternative colour schemes - one at least using the original black / silver of our logo - e.g. is it possible to do the top right triangle and bottom left colour block using these colours and merge the other graphics with a complementary (but slightly more lively..) colour than black / grey? (the blue shades of your design look good at the moment, however we are wondering how it might look using something closer to our original colour scheme..)

Also - is anyone else planning on entering this contest at this stage, as we may bring forward the deadline if not??

Many thanks all

Tony

[TopCat]

Also - for xteriormotive (should have put this on last post) - we are wondering whether the template allows enough white space for all the copy - it works with the example page, however some of the others have more words (e.g. those under the Security Services section) - could / should the graphic move up a few points so the copy space header is more aligned with with the Contact ProServ graphic on the left (could shrink the top-right logo / triangle a little to accomodate if need be)??

thanks again

Tony

[motiveX]

I don't know if this is what you were elluding to or not...

http://www.placidminds.com/proserv/comp.html

[TopCat]

Thanks - the shift up of the graphic should allow for full copy. Regarding the colouring I probably wasn't very clear but actually meant to keep the white space background but see how it looks with the top-right and bottom-left corner blocks in black / silver - basically the same styling using our 'corporate' colours rather than shades of blue. The black background looks pretty good too though, so if you could do a final comp with the above colouring we should have enough to go on...

thanks again

[motiveX]

http://www.placidminds.com/proserv/comp.html

I like the black one the best now.

[QSDA]

How's this one?
I found several pictures that I thought were appropriate, but this one I thought was fun because it can be used with no background. If you aren't really happy with the picture, I can send you several pictures and you can choose...
http://portfolio.iu.edu/otseren/test02.jpg

[QSDA]

Oh I didn't shift the logo to the right because the white area behind the logo is much bigger than the right side.

[QSDA]

How's this lay-out? As requested, different flat buttons, white background for the content area, and shifted the sub-directories to the top.

http://portfolio.iu.edu/otseren/FinalNewTest.jpg

[TopCat]

Thanks Palmer, QSDA and xteriormotive for you entries for this contest. Everyone at ProServ has been impressed by the high standard of all the designs and after much discussion we have chosen xteriormotive's design as the winning template.

xteriormotive - I will contact you separately by email to arrange completion of the site.

Once again thanks everyone - we (and several of our contacts) will be designoutpost again in the future.

Tony

[Zoe]

Congratulations xteriormotive.

Tony: Thank you for coming to Design Outpost for your web project.
There were certainly some great designs for you to choose from and it would have been a hard decision.
Mention us to your friends.... We hope to see you here again.

[TwistedNewMedia]

nice xterior. You know how much I adore your designs!

[motiveX]

Originally posted by ubergerlgeek@Apr 2 2003, 02:23 AM
nice xterior. You know how much I adore your designs!
:blush:

Thanks Kat!