[Project Complete] Website Design Contest $500 Deadline 31st August 2005

[componentfactory]

(Admin code added by Palmer - 6EY26563SK019734U)

NOTE:

I have attached a Word document with more detailed information about the web page design requirements. Also note that all visitors to the site are expected to be IT professionals with fast internet connections. So the page can, and should, make heavy use of have high quality graphics.

Company Details

1a) Name of Company
Component Factory

1b)Company Tag Line or slogan:
We build components. You build solutions.

1c) Do you have a company logo?
Yes.

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. Use this link to download a zip file with logo collateral.
http://www.componentfactory.com/logo.zip (http://)

1e) What is the nature of your business?: Briefly describe your products or services:
Software components for sale to other developers to speed up development of Windows .NET applications.

1f) Who is your target market? Who are you hoping to reach with your site?
Software developers using .NET on Windows machines.


Website Details

1b) Do you have an existing website? If so, what is the URL?
Holding page with just company logo.
http://www.componentfactory.com (http://)

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.
http://www.dundas.com (http://)
http://www.softwarefx.com (http://)
http://www.codejock.com (http://)

3b) What colors or color schemes would you like?
Has to use the colors from our logo. See above link to zip file.

4b) List the Navigation links for your Site:
Home, Purchase, Products, Downloads, Blog and Contact



5b) What type of look are you trying to achieve? (e.g. clean, high-tech, conservative, warm, flashy, etc.)
Clean and professional.

6b) Please provide the addresses of competitors' sites, if possible:
http://www.infragistics.com (http://)
http://www.syncfusion.com (http://)
http://www.softwarefx.com (http://)
http://www.dundas.com (http://)
http://www.codejock.com (http://)

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:
Only the above specified zip file.

Deadlines and Deliverables

1c) What is the deadline for the design of your project?
31st August 2005

2c) What is required breakdown of the files you require our designers to supply you with on finalization of your project?
A template that can be used in Microsoft FrontPage to generate pages for the website. Along with the bitmaps/gifs/etc.. needed for the website appearance.

I am looking more for the quality of graphics design more than the HTML skills as the pages are intended to have a very professional feel even though the structure is actually quite simple.

I look forward to seeing your ideas, rough mockups are fine for the initial stages.

[Aliska]

Hello
I will join to your contest with my idea in several days.

[Aliska]

Hello.
My idea. Waiting for your comments.

[componentfactory]

Thanks Aliska. I am very impressed with the design but want to wait for another couple of designers to give their ideas before providing detailed feedack. Definitely in the right ball part though!

[componentfactory]

Or even 'ball park'....

[componentfactory]

Hi Aliska,

Here is the detailed feedback I promised...

1)
Can you remove the green rectangle placed at the bottom and right of the main page area. Just extend the current area separator all the way across the page.

2)
Can you remove the blue and green rectangles placed on the immediate left of the 'Products' heading.

3)
On the right hand side of the 'Products' heading text the rest of the title area has a line in the middle. Although a nice artisitic effect I would prefer to just have it the same gradient background seen behind the 'Products' word itself.

4)
The tagline of the company needs to be changed from 'Making you look good' to 'We build components. You build solutions.'. Sorry about providing the wrong information in the design specification, my fault.

5)
Can you try coming up with another idea for the heading area that makes more prominent use of the company logo? At the moment it has the feel of a business card on the left hand side.

Overall I still love the design it just needs to feel a little more corporate and less like an artistic template. I look forward to see the new design!

Thanks, Phil.

[Aliska]

Thanks for the feedback :) I will start with changes today.

[Aliska]

Hello
Some variations. what do you think?

[componentfactory]

Thanks for the new versions. New changes...

1)
You removed the green rectangle on the bottom right which is good. Can you remove effect completely so that the bottom line goes all the way across as a simple straight line, without the larger rectangle area with gripper dots.

2)
You removed the blue and green rectangles on the 'Products' line. This is great but can you also remove that extra empty rectangle as well.

3)
I am still not really getting good vibes from the header area, even your two new variations. Take a look at the following site as it shows a nice looking header.

http://www.8dim.com

Thanks, Phil.

[Aliska]

Hello
How about the idea?

[will]

I'll post my concept in short time :D

[will]

Here it is :D I wanted to build the idea based on the factory concept associated with a high tech background.

http://www.willdesigns.com.ar/componentfactory_idea1.gif

[componentfactory]

Thanks for the design, it looks really good. Here are the more detailed feedback I would love to see incorporated...

1)
On the header area can you remove the close button and green light on the right hand side. It makes me think of the design as a skin for WinAmp! I would be happy to leave that area white or extend the blue middle section across a little now the button has been removed.

2)
I love middle blue area of the header line. I would like to see the blue just a touch darker to give more contrast with the white navigation text. Plus can you remove the text from within the little cogs. But I like the idea of the cogs and binary number in some sort of montage.

3)
The middle section look just fine apart from one small change. Can you make the left navigation area and the main area completely square instead of having rounded edges where they face each other.

4)
In the footer area can you remove the blue button on the right hand side with the @ inside it.

5)
This one is my fault. The tagline of the company has been decided as 'We build components. You build solutions.', the old tagline of 'Making you look good' is therefore needs to be replaced. I think it is worth trying to put the new tagline in the middle header blue section, inside the blue area. Give it a try and see what you can come up with.

6)
The outside area has a dark blue with a gradient grid effect. I really like the grid effect and would actually like to see how it would look if you just had the grid in all the outside area. Instead of having it fade in and out just have it in all the outside area.

Don't be put off by the long list of changes, I think the design is great. Many thanks. Phil.

[will]

Phil, thanx for the kind feedback. I'll make the changes as soon as posible.

Take care :D

[will]

Phil, here is the review. I made some other slight changes so I will leave my previous version for you to check what you feel fits your idea and what doesn't :D

http://www.willdesigns.com.ar/componentfactory_idea1c.gif

[componentfactory]

Thanks Will, I really like this one. I would request just one change though. The smoke on the logo goes outside the page area and into the border area. I would like to keep the factory itself the same size but keep the smoke into the page, maybe resize it or crop it somehow.

How do I assign a winner to the contest?

[will]

Here is the change as requested :D To assign a winner you just have to pick a design and place the name of the winner in the thread. I believe that from there on the admins will take care of changing the thread to the reviews forum.

http://www.willdesigns.com.ar/componentfactory_idea1d.gif

[componentfactory]

Thanks to both Will and Aliska for the hard work on the designs. After much thought I will declare that Will is the winner of the contest.

Will: Obviously I need to design turning into an actual html piece of code!

[will]

Cool, Thanx CF !!!! I will prepare the final files right away. :D

[will]

The final files have been sent through PM. Please let me know if there is any problem :D

[componentfactory]

Thanks Will. I got the zipped files and they work fine. Ta.