Some design tips needed

Hi

I am really looking to make my site attractive, so I can draw some visitors.
Can anybody please suggest what I can do with it? Maybe suggest a good background color or style sheet of some kind.
Or anything else. Im really struggling with this.
my site
http://models.martialdesigns.com

Kindest
Louis

Bonechair--
Here are a few things off the top of my head:

1-Color scheme
Aside from your top menu, which has too many different colors, there's not enough contrast in your color scheme. The 'Welcome' blends too much into the background, and the orange text nearly disappears. Personally, I'm not a big fan of pastel-y backgrounds, and I'd make it a darker blue or even maybe black. I'd also make the backgrounds of the menu items the same color.

2-Balance
Your menu is centered, but the body of the page is thrown to the left, and the lines between each picture are too wide, throwing things off. I go back and forth between liking centered and left-justified pages, so I'm not going to recommend either, but make the entire page the same. If you do choose to throw everything to the left, put a bit of a margin in there -- the pics are kissing the edge of my screen.

3-Fonts
Think about making your menu and 'Welcome' images instead of straight text -- you'll have more freedom to do some more attractive things with them. The picture text looks okay, but try making some (or all) of the entries a little bolder. Perhaps the name.

4-Pics
Make resized versions of your pics for the front and interior pages -- especialy since you're dealing with models, you want the clearest pics possible, thumbnailed and full-size.

Also, this isn't a design issue, but what is your page for exactly? You some some sort of explanation on your home page -- is this for people looking for models for professional reasons, or is it a hot-or-not sort of setup, etc.?

Hope this helps.

Ucht

Color scheme on the navbar doesn't compliment the page. The main attraction should be the models and not your navbar. Try using more like colors rather than such different colors.

Your thumbnails need to be a lot clearer.

The font color for:
Name
Email
Age

etc is hard to read try changing your background color or your font colors so text is easier to read.

Maybe show 2 models in the same row to fill the space up some more. Right now you have only 1 and all to the right so the right hand side of the page looks bare.

The nav is in a table with a black border. This makes it look like you have a lot of empty slots in your nav. Try making the width of the table smaller and reorganize your search section so it is on the same page.

Hope this helps.

Thank you Sir

To your question (Also, this isn't a design issue, but what is your page for exactly? You some some sort of explanation on your home page -- is this for people looking for models for professional reasons, or is it a hot-or-not sort of setup, etc.?)

Still working on the frontpage(welcome page)
The website is for both the above mentioned and also just for fun.
I am mostly a backend programmer and is doing this so I can work on my front-end and looking for help from you guys...
Thanks for your reply.

Kindest
Louis

For the color scheme, go to www.colormatch.dk and pick a color that you want to use as your main color, and then use one of the matching colors for highlights and other elements.

Second, go to others sites, and see what they do, and try to pick out what works...

Hope that helps

Excellent thats what I was looking for thanks

I'm just curious.
Why did you choose to go with the OSCommerce site design? I've seen it on a lot of other sites, but it doesn't really seem to go with the meaning of your site. It gives it a look that doesn't realte to what your site contains.


I have seen some OSCommerce sites that have been COMPLETELY customized. If I can make a suggestion, it would be to try and customize the script to a design that suites your site.

Hope that helps