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Bluedette has 7 Reviews

Below are the reviews left by other members on Bluedette. Jump to review form?

useroo gave it on 13th Feb 2009 and said:
This site definitively looks nice.
Amazing to discover web designers sites through a websites reviewing community site like rev.iew.me.

The Portfolio of this web design service site may look a bit small, but everyone has to start somewhere i assume.

Perhaps the graphics are more the domain of this designer??

The layout of her site is inviting but does not overwhelm, contents is obviousely not latest seo technology.

As the designer mentions herself on her site
"For many years I've always been interested in art, but for some apparent reason I do not seem to have some kind of a strong "artistic" aptitude in traditional art."
it's all about being creative.

I myself have started out as an artist with drawings and paintings, my work can be seen at artistrudolfmegert.artbabyart.net - but with the coming of the internet and laptops it was an almost natural step to venture into the new art, the virtual art, create graphics on a computer software program and learn how to knit together a website design in simple html, then in complicated html, then with all the options Flash movies offered, then in the age of Google back to html and text writing and using css layouts to spice up the flat world of web site designs, My portfolio isn't filled with the latest creations but contains a bundle of sites and graphics i have done, either just for my own rials or as paid sites for customers throughout the world, literally speaking.
http://11awebdesign.awardspace.com/
shows some, but not the latest sites, of which some are in Chinese, Vietnamese, German and English, where the various langauge versions always pose an opportunity to venture into other cultures

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Mimi gave it on 20th Dec 2008 and said:
Reviewed with:
Mozilla Firefox 3.0.4 | 1440 x 900 Resolution| Windows Vista
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First Impression:

Don't be offended by anything I say here in this review because I am actually a REALLY nice person, ok? :D A lot of times it's hard to know how to take something someone says on the internet because you can't hear the way I would say it, typing can seem so cold. So if something feels like an insult to you, please realize that I would never intentionally insult you. :)

That being said, my first impression was that this looked like a site of a very young person just starting out with web design. I think it's a combination of the overly skinny content areas, the much too bright blue everywhere and the dodgy header. I was a bit surprised to see you say this in response to a review:

... but I got more focused on web standards & accessibility than design trends instead.

To me that says that instead of focusing on design trends you are focusing on accessibility and web standards.. Did I read that wrong? It seems the opposite to me just at a glance. Like I said before though, no offense intended. This is all a first impression, I haven't dove into the details yet. :)

Coding:

Alright, already I have been proven slightly wrong. Your site is standards compliant. See, that's why one should never judge a book by it's cover. :) There are 12 warnings in your CSS, if you care to address those. Half of them are because you need to put quotation marks outside of the font Trebuchet MS, like so:

font-family : Tahoma, "Trebuchet MS", Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif;

.. Do this throughout the CSS document and most of the warnings are gone. The rest have to do with duplicate colors. If you visit Clean CSS.com and enter the URL to your stylesheet, you will see that there are quite a few things that could be shortened to make your file smaller. I counted 46 things that are longer than they need to be.

If you are concerned with accessibility then this is also something you should work on. I see that you are using Px for your font size. If a reader had sight problems and needed to increase the font size on your site, they would not be able to because when you specify your font size using pixels, it is set permanently at that size. Instead try using Pt, Em or Percents. I have found a handy-dandy calculator on a site where all you do is enter the value you have for px and it will calculate the equivalent in em. This way your font size will be the same way that you set it for everyone originally but if the occasional person needed to make the font bigger it would allow them to do so. So for example using the Px to Em Calculator, your font size that was 11px in your body section would be 0.69em. Of course I think this also is entirely too small for someone being concerned with accessibility. I would suggest that you increase it to at least 0.75em so it's easier to read, but more on that will be in the design section of the review.

Another thing you can do to your CSS document would be to implement CSS Shorthand. There are things in your CSS that could be shortened even more that Clean CSS.com didn't even mention. For example, using either this guide or Jem's guide, you could shorten your body code by merging the font-family, font-size and line-height properties like so (keep in mind I converted them to em in my example because of my statement above, also shortened the color code and used a bigger font size since the small one is hurting my eyes):

body {
margin : 0 auto;
padding : 0;
color : #fff;
font : .75em/1em Tahoma, "Trebuchet MS", Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif;
background-color : #003366;
text-align : center;
min-width : 750px;
}

Also be aware that the value min-width will not work in Internet Explorer so this is another standards compliance issue. Oh and I almost forgot, don't leave out other things like the background when using CSS Shorthand!

Another thing that bothered me about your CSS was that you keep telling it to make the font size 11px and the line height 14px. If you do this in the body section you do not have to keep telling it. Once is enough because it will be inherited. Same thing with font color and background color. So your #nav section would go from this:

#nav {
background-color : #003366;
width : 115px;
float : left;
color : #ffffff;
font-family : Tahoma, Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size : 11px;
font-weight : bold;
line-height : 14px;
padding : 0 10px 0 2px;
}

.. to this:

#nav {
width : 115px;
float : left;
font-weight : bold;
padding : 0 10px 0 2px;
}

Once you clear out all of those unnecessary things I am willing to bet all of those color warnings in your CSS document will be gone. You seem to use it a lot in your CSS so I bet if you did all the things I said above your CSS file would end up being wayyy shorter which is awesome because it's easier for you to go through and it makes your loading time much faster. :)

The actual coding structure of the site does not seem to be bad at all, except maybe that you don't seem to need h1 class="blahblah" because there is only one occurrence of the h1 tag. You could just combine the h1 and the content head parts in your CSS and then simply use <h1>Blah blah</h1> instead of <h1 class="contenthead">Blah blah</h1> . I just like to keep things simple, that's all. Of course if I am wrong and you are using the h1 tag for something else as well that I did not catch, by all means disregard that part.

Let's move on before you fall asleep at all my blabbling. :P

Design:

Here is where I get MEAN. Haha, just kidding! I do have some advice for you, though. I think I shall just list it instead of making long paragraphs for this section:

- The blue needs to be addressed. If you insist on using that blinding blue, why not change the background color of the content areas to a different color to add some balance. As it is now it's just a bunch of white text floating on a massive, blinding blue background. I feel it lacks structure because of this, like the words are lost in a big, blue ocean.

- It would help out TONS if you not only increased your font size but if you also would change the color so it's not so blinding and also if you made your main content area at LEAST twice the size in width that it is now. It's SO skinny, it's weborexic!

- In your navigation I notice that when you hover over it a menu pops up to the left. That looks great except in that menu that pops up, the text is bumping the sides. You should probably add some padding in there. I think also the main list of navigation that you have there should be spaced out more, they look kind of cramped vertically.

While it's definitely not my favorite layout these are the only real valid points I shall offer. I am already past 1000 words and we haven't even gotten to the content yet, yikes! I think with the improvement suggestions I have given you, your site will look so much better very quickly.

Content:

Random thing I noticed in the Portfolio section was on business cards make sure you are not making the text information touch the sides of the card. There should be padding there, I actually had a few college assignments related to these sorts of things on business cards! :D

If I were you I would personally make my portfolio a separate site that looks much more professional simply because I don't think this layout is as impressive as some of the work in your portfolio. I think it would be much better to just move it away from your personal stuff.

Ok, I see now that you also have a resume and such.. If you are looking to obtain clients via a website, you should probably not use a set-up like this. I was under the impression that you were operating a free graphics site, kind of like mine. The use of the word "stuff" in your header also makes it seem very silly. I would have never in a million, billion years guessed that this was a portfolio site..

So let me change my advice strategy a bit here. I would not have a list of links up on a portfolio site simply because it's like you're saying "I want you to hire me and I am capable of doing all of these things, but here is a list of a bunch of other people that can do it, too." Kind of like you are giving away your potential clients.

Random- I don't think the whole 'Copy and paste' code for a text link is necessary. If someone is linking a site I would say 97% of the time they know how to construct a simple link tag.

Final Thoughts:

I really think you should redesign with the attitude of a professional designer. It seems to me that you have talent but you need a bit of help in the optimization of your CSS and the presentation of your portfolio site. I would steer clear of kid-like flowers in the header image, and if you must create 3d characters, integrate them into a more professional header better. Also please take bigger text size into consideration. Generally the people that you want to appeal to (IE the ones with actual money) won't want a trendy, teeny looking site, which is what your site reminds me of.

However, I do think you have a good start by validating your coding. I would truly be excited to see a really professional layout up, so do please consider it! :)

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Vera gave it on 10th Nov 2008 and said:
= First Impression =
---------------------------
It's blue... and I mean extremely blue.

= Layout and Organization =
----------------------------------------
Though my first impression might indicate otherwise, I don't have a prejudice against monochrome layouts. A a matter of fact I quite like them. Still, when I think monochrome, I think white, and more shades of the color you use. So have white and blue... and the header image. The latter though very nice, doesn't really match with the general style of the layout.

The flowers you chose to decorate the rest of the header image look incredibly tacky, and don't seem to have anything in common with the picture on the left. As said before, the picture is quite nice, very realistic looking, the flowers look "doodled out of boredom". My suggestion would be to have the picture of the girl as the entire header. The girl itself you could place on the left/right of the header, while the rest could be take up by the background of the picture, and have your header image take up space somewhere on that space.

Though the white text on the blue background does indeed have enough contrast, dark text on light background is easier on the eyes. I tried to describe my suggestion regarding how to change your layout, but then I thought better and just drew a rough sketch for it. You can view it at http://lianko.com/reviews/bluedette_suggestion.png
Sure, some pattern for the background wouldn't go amiss, but then my apteience when it comes to fiddling with graphics is rather limited.

Now as for your organization, despite the fact that none of it is "useless" per se, some rally doesn't have any place on the main page. For example: the way you coded your layout. This is your graphical portfolio, right? As such there's no need to display secondary information on the home page. Same can be said about your hosting information. I suggest you put this information in a domain/about type of page.

Personally, I'm not at all fond of three-column layouts, however depending on the site in question, I am able to see the use. In your case, I don't. The left column simply houses your navigation, which takes up five lines? What about the rest? Furthermore, the width of the column is rather small, making everything seem as if it had been cramped in there. Keeping in mind the size of the text, this shouldn't really be the case. I'm assuming that the reason for this, was to preserve space for the rest of the columns.
Your right column's content can be easily be distributed in the other two. Your welcome message can be shortened (you should describe the site, not yourself, in it) and put on top of your home page. While the last updates could be put right below the navigation. The rest, is not information that is important enough to be displayed on the main page. Get a links, respectively and about/domain/site page for them.

Your navigation, looks not only crampled but rather unwisely displayed. Technically it would have been more effective to have a subpage for each category, but then maybe you thought that there was no need for that, give the amount of links. In that case, I'd suggest you use nested lists with a bit of jQuery to display them. You can find a very simplistic example for nested list at http://css.maxdesign.com.au/listamatic2/vertical07.htm. As for the need for jQuery effects: you can make use of the slide toggle effect http://docs.jquery.com/Effects/slideToggle#speedcallback This way, you won't need to have a separate page for the sublinks, and you can show/hide them easier and "nicer" whenever you click on the parent link. Plus, they won't disappear when you stop hovering the mouse over them.
By the way, your copyright notice should be "Copyright © 2006-2008 Adrianne Marie", the rest is implicitly understood.
Oh yes, and please use a larger font-size. At least 0.8em (75% / 12px/ 9pt take your pick).

All in all, your your layout shows some promise, but you have to put more thought into designing it. Being a portfolio I suggest you aim for a more professional look, without so many frills, and more emphasis on its contents.

= Content =
------------------
-- Home --
As said before, you should put the introductory message on top of your main page's content, rather than your sidebar. Given the position of the actual content (center of the layout), people are much more likely to read what's in there, as opposed the right sidebar.
Speaking of the introduction. It's much too lengthy. You only have to touch upon the basics, and let the rest be discovered by your visitors. After all, that's why you built an entire site, right?

My suggestion of a brief introductory message, would be:
"Bluedette is the design portfolio of an aspiring digital designer named Adrianne Marie, containing everything from past class projects to
personal works. Should you like my work, feel free to hire me through the Services section."

The separator line for the blog entires is a good concept, however the flower in the middle is of really bad quality. At first I thought it was a really weirdly shaped colored blob. I'd suggest you make the lines thicker (3-4px), don't glue them to the flower, and make them also shorter. The whole image should then be centered.

-- Portfolio --
That's a nice selection of works. Not particularly fond of your adverts, but I love the business card, postcard and envelope designs. Having only two thumbnails per line is makes things a bit too dull. I suggest you try to put at least 5 per line.
The iCandy magazine looks interesting. I'll give it a shot later. The starting paage though uses dismally small font. You might want to remedy that. The other two pages use a good font-size.
Your webdesign projects use extremely small fint-size, much like this site. And those sites are not exactly in need of space. I know a lot of youngsters like to use small fonts because they're "cute", but being an Arts Major you should know better. By the way, put up some screenshots of the websites on the webdesign page. Or well... thumbnails of screenshots are good as well.
I LOVE your experiments page. I hope you will display much more of this.

-- About --
These are all interesting facts. Your writing style is not something that I'd call amazing, but you make up for it in content. Then again, this is an art portfolio.
Your styles page is an interesting take on this. I'd add a few small screenshots though, to illustrate some of the concepts you touch upon. Meh, sure, in theory everybody knows what you're talking about, but then since the article is so long a few screenshots might brighten it up, and make it less dull. Coupled with the fact that your font is so tiny, I really had to force myself to finish reading it.

-- Services --
Looks decent enough, although some sort of price would be useful, for potential clients. You'd be surprised how many people boast about "affordable" and then throw in $200 for a simple two-click photo editing.

The rest of your pages look fine, nothing to object or comment on.

= Coding =
-----------

Your (X)HTML looks clean, well indented and semantic. Aside from the "codewindow". Instead of using a div tag, you should use a code tag, and specify display: block for it (so as to have the same effect).
In your CSS though, you have some odd specifications for the body tag, namely centering it and specifying a with for it. Why? The body tag should have the maximum width allowed by the browser. You should have these specifications for the layout container.

= Score: 3.3/5 =
Your artwork is very nice. I'll probably come back here on and off. Your layout, however really needs quite an overhaul. As far as colors go, version 0.5 (the one you used for school) looks so much better. Plus, your font-size really is annoying. You HAVE to make it larger. I spent about 2 days writing this review, because I kept getting bored trying to decipher the font size.
Your site's got amazing potential, however you have to present it in a more appealing manner.

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Adrimarie's Response:
Thanks for the thorough review. Like the others it's quite helpful. :)

I am currently working on a new layout (I actually started working on it a few months ago but I abandoned it due to no inspiration, no ideas, which was why I submitted this one to be reviewed here) and I do plan on getting rid of some stuff unnecessary in there.

In terms of the services section I don't really like setting prices right off the bat, but I'm open to negotiate with the pricing. I do intend to start small just to gain some experience.

Thanks again for the review! I should be reviewing other sites at this point but real life schedules own me at the moment. :(
Sewwy gave it on 10th Nov 2008 and said:
Overall, I'm not too fond of the design. I think it's rather kitsch, to be honest. The floral patterns/brushes seem rather tacky and distracting from the overall content of the site. The colours are nice, but rather dark. It may be a little bit easier on people's eyes if the background was a lighter blue and the text was a darker colour: as it is at the moment, it's quite straining on the eyes.

The content itself seems rather clustered - the three columns seem rather redundant, you could merge the links column with the other sidebar and increase the size of the main content column, which would improve things dramatically.

Despite the design, the content is thorough and well thought out. Your about pages are insightful and very informative, which I think is very good: It's great to let your visitor know about yourself and who you are.

As your site is a design site, I think the portfolio is the most important side of things. Your portfolio is well set out and well categorised. It certainly helps any prospective clients with finding a specific artform. In addition, your services page is to the point, also important for prospective clients.

Content wise, I think you're spot on, and have done brilliantly. The design may not be the best to use for a professional site, as it seems more personal-blog than it does professional-designer.

Please don't take offense with this review, I did notice you did get a bit discouraged. Constructive criticism is really important to help you improve, and that's what you should do =) All good things take time, and I'm sure by listening to any of the reviewer's constructive criticisms, you'll be able to modify your site into something that works better for its overall aim.

Good luck, and feel free to contact me if you have any questions or would like me to re-review sometime down the track =)

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Adrimarie's Response:
Thanks for the review. I really appreciate it.

Well, the reason why I felt a bit discouraged wasn't much on the reviews part, but more of the fact that I'm falling behind with the "web trends" (and as you can see with the past reviews they all said the same). I know I would sound like I've been living in the past for so long to say this but it will take me awhile to get used to the whole Web 2.0 thing.

I have other sites I'm working on (personal blog included) but I haven't add them in here to be reviewed as of yet. They're all under construction and the designs I've used are just as bad as this portfolio one.

Well, I'll find some other way to improve. Thanks again.
Aisling gave it on 9th Nov 2008 and said:
OMG IT'S BLUE! Not that that's a bad thing, just making an observation of my first impression.

Okay, so header image is first up. You have an interesting looking 3D girl, and lots of brushes that come standard with Photoshop. I use that special effects flower brush sometimes too. I'm not sure about the font used in the header. I don't know if it's the font of the outer glow. I find bright outer glows to be obnoxious. Beyond the header, there is really nothing more to look at, other than vast amounts of blue. Pop out menus also annoy me. At least it's CSS based though. I would suggest you make it bigger, so it's easier to aim for the section of the site. Right now, I slip a millimetre, and am taken to the exact opposite of where I wanted to me.

Moving on to content, personally I don't find your portfolio to be entirely impressive. It's laid out well, I like the use of lightbox, but the actual content you're displaying doesn't intrigue me. Your About section is pretty standard, and you come off as pleasant. However, once I get to large bodies of text, like on your About - Yours Truly page, I find it very difficult to read, as it is rather small.

Is it REALLY necessary to teach someone how to put a text link on their site? Honestly, if they can't figure that one out, I'm not sure I want them linking me. It's not like it even says anything specific that you may want to be linked to for SEO purposes. It just says "Bluedette," which is what anyone in their right mind would link to anyway. People also probably know how to add an image link too. I personally see no need in providing a code for link buttons if you're asking someone to host the button themselves anyway. I put my buttons on a separate area that I don't mind having things linked from. If *I* want someone to link me, *I* don't mind if they direct link my link button. :P Therefore, I need to provide a code, so they get the exact URL to link from. You want them to link from themselves, I'm quite sure if they know how to do that, they'll know how to type out a link.

Overall, there's loads to work on on this site, and you've mentioned that you're trying to catch up with trends. Really, a think a clean slate would be best, as harsh as that may sound. You have the valid coding and accessibility bit down, and there are plenty of resources on how to improve your design! Good luck! :D

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Adrimarie's Response:
Darnit... serious typos there. x___x

I meant to say that I've been cautious with the way I design sites. Back to the drawing board. :)
Ann gave it on 9th Nov 2008 and said:
Well, "bluedette" seems a very appropriate name, given how much of that colour features on your site! I like the way that you've designed and set out the header and the title within - but I must say that I don't really like it as a whole. I see you're going to make a new layout soon so I won't be too harsh, just tell you my opinions and maybe a few pointers for the next layout.
I don't like the image. It's a nice touch (I'm assuming it's "you"), but it doesn't blend in well with the colours. I'm not saying you should go all for one colour, I think you've got that maximum amount of blue here in your layout, and perhaps it's a good thing the image detracts from that, but you need contrast and different colours which mix well. Personally I'm not a huge fan of Sims-like images like that either.
Aside from that, the 3D-ness of the image (for want of a better word) doesn't work alongside the flat images/ stamps of flowers you have. I see that you've used a lot of different images and styles of flowers throughout your layout, all jumbled up. Maybe it would look better if you just kept to one or two different styles, varying them in pattern or colour?
Your navigation is too small, and blends in too much with the surroundings - navigational links need to stand out. Maybe position them just under the header, in a different font/colour, large enough to stand out.
The section you've allocated to your blog/ updates is too small in width, and I'd prefer it if the text was bigger, or more spaced out. Moving the navigation out of the way would help with this.
At the moment there is no real distinction between your blog/ updates section and your sidebar. Maybe have a different background, change the font/ size or colour or maybe change the style of the headers. I think it would also make more sense to have the "This Site" section of your sidebar at the top, so that it's one of the first things new visitors read, so they can find out a bit more about your site - "Latest Additions" are only of interest to the regular visitor.
Having your sub-navigation as drop down hover links is nice, but only really works if you have horizontal navigation. You can check out this tutorial on how to do that.
Wow, you have a lot of thumbnails taking up your portfolio, in different sections. It looks like you've just kept the different sections as pages and simply pasted the image codes in there - why not think about putting them all in a gallery of sorts, where you can quickly browse from one to the next. If the main point of your site is to display your work, then you really need to open up the space, and make the main container a lot wider. Browse through some like this and this.
I must admit, I find it quite hard to navigate your site, because I don't have the steadiest of hands, and having to hover over a link, move to the side and then down to click on another sub-link is not very easy - and can just be plain irritating. For that reason I'll only be looking at the first link of each section.
You seem to write well, and quite informatively, my only complaints would be those that I've already voiced about the line height, text size and width. It's also a little difficult to read because after a while the white on blue becomes quite stark and not very easy on the eyes, so you should soften up the colours next time.
Freelancing: Not much to say, except I suggest that you take a look at the above sites to see how they set their qualifications etc. out - often just one long list is very boring.
Links: I wasn't expecting for you to give me links to your own site, rather links to other good sites! Perhaps this could be fitted in another section of your site, along with the rest of the information about you and your site.
Overall, if you want this to be a professional portfolio, then you really need to get your site up to the standard of other, high quality portfolios out on the web - you need to be able to persuade people that you are the best person out there for the job that they want done, and at the moment your site just doesn't look very convincing. I hope that I've given you some good pointers to start you off, and I'm sure that you can do very well with your next design. Good luck!

UPDATED 09 Nov 08:
Edit after response: Ah OK, thanks for enlightening me. The main points still stand though ;)

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Adrimarie's Response:
I'm aware of the main points and thanks for pointing them out (though to be honest personally I knew I didn't do a good job at it which was why it's taking me a long while to come up with a new (improved) layout to replace this one). I just want to clarify with you that I don't "steal and use" other people's images or have them generated from a video game or something. ^^
ko0ty gave it on 9th Nov 2008 and said:
I think the name of your site is so cute! Years ago, when I first entered the blogging world, I had a personal site called "Shades of Blue" .. totally reminds me of that!

LAYOUT: I like the organization of your site and it's content but the navigation on the left seems to be wasted space when you can have your entries extend out to that side. Maybe you can have your navigation span out across the top horzontally, underneath your header image but above the content and use a drop down menu instead.

Having a small compact website is a trend, but it's not very user-friendly and a wider space for the main content could actually make your site easier to read. The small font is also a trend but hard to read... I actually did a CTRL + when I went to your site just to make it easier to read.

Just a minor thing but you should also increase the margin between your content and the footer where your copyright information is because there is a bit of visual tension there since it's practically touching.

DESIGN: The dark blue background makes it a little hard on the eyes when you read your entries for too long. Don't get me wrong, the blue and the white has awesome contrast but I personally prefer blogs with a light background (and if the owner wants a dark background, best to go all the way black than some other color).

As for your header image, it doesn't appeal me and for a site that offers freelancing design services, it kind of reflects your skills. I think you need to do some research on current design trends. I don't mean to sound harsh but although a lot of your work looks nice and seems like you spent a lot of time on it, some of your art styles are a little outdated. Don't worry, there is nothing wrong with that; I see that you are self-taught but this kind of critique gives you a better opportunity to become a better designer! As you probably already know, there are tons of designer resources online to help you with that so make use of that. =)

I'm a lot like you though, I seriously can't paint or draw effortlessly so that's why I do all my art on the computer. =P

Misc: Good use of Lightbox on your site.. it's one of my favorite scripts and although it's everywhere on the internet now, I haven't gotten sick of it yet!

UPDATED 09 Nov 08:
You sound discouraged but don't be! I think one of your biggest weaknesses are your choices of fonts you use in your projects. You have a good sense of composition and some of your works have nice choices of colors but typography is huge in the design world and can either complete it or it can really throw off a design.

For example, I think if you chose a better font for your site title in the header, it can really change someone's first impression of your site. If I were to have the flowers in the background like yours, I would've chosen a cleaner font to contrast with the intricate design in the background or vice versa. You also have 2 "crazy" fonts (one for the main header and one for the smaller sub-header underneath); if you really wanted a font like that for "Bluedette," you should've chosen something simpler for "digital design & other stuff." There is just way too much going on all at once up there and the eye has no place to rest.

Also, Adobe CS2 isn't too bad... there are still some AMAZING things you can do with it. I still have CS2 at home and I use CS3 at work but I could still live with CS2... your creativity is the only thing that can limit you. =) Being a slow learner isn't all that bad, at least you're learning, right! You just have to take critique and turn it into something positive.

Check out design blogs like Smashing Magazine for current trends and what other sites are doing. Look through their archives... you can find some amazing and inspirational stuff.

ILoveTypography.com is my favorite typography blog. If you have any questions, you can ask John... he's awesome!

Also the Dirty Mouse has some links to some awesome portfolios so you can see what other designers are doing.

There are endless design resources out there! Good luck!

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Adrimarie's Response:
Yeah, sorry about that. I did feel discouraged when I read my latest reviews yesterday that it came to a point that I couldn't design at all.

As I mentioned my response to Aisling's review I've being cautious with my designing because I've gotten accused of "copying" other people's sites before (I'm not talking about copying the exact same design graphic by graphic here... I got accused of "copying" the smallest of things such as color schemes and graphic bullets on lists (and they're not even the same graphic bullet either =T), etc. etc.).

In honesty I used to go "all out" with my designing in the past but I got more focused on web standards & accessibility than design trends instead. On the other hand, thanks for linking me to some sites. I'll be sure to check them out when I have the time. :)