rev.iew.me

Elated Designs has 11 Reviews

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

1. cocal gave it on 17th Sep 2011 and said:

   I'm a bit confused that when I hover over the link "Index" my browser says it goes to a page called "coding.html" but then takes me back, rightfully, to the index. Put this link last as your visitors will have already viewed your index page by default and will be wanting to view the rest of your site before any thoughts of returning to the front page come to

   Using Chrome on Windows | Report This?

2. 

   starlyts gave it on 26th Nov 2008 and said:

   First Impression: Five stars! A twilight layout, lol. Just kidding.

   I like how the layout had a blend of all the images you decided to use, with some brushes and colorization. I like the reflection on the bottom :). The brushes were well fit with the images, and the fonts were very creative.

   Your navigation is easy to find, and your site is very organized, with all of your orders down at the bottom for you to see, and new orderees to know how long it will take until theirs is done. The css for the navigation matches the layout very much, and adds a pretty effect to it all.

   The nice welcome bio was good for new visitors who just wanted a quick overview about the site itself. I love how its free, so visitors can still get professional layouts for their website, but not have to pay, since many of them don't want to pay, or don't have paypal.

   The blog and updates were very well put together. The css helped organize it all. I like how it counts all of the images you made so they don't have to, and can also make it easier for questions or discussions.

   I like how you organized the affiliates by putting them at the top, and also the small more | apply. This will be easier for visitors to find other sites.

   I also like how you give the visitors a preview of your work. This is good in case have the visitors ordered stuff but never used them because it wasn't "their style" and would cause you to work much much more than you would really need to. It would be extremely stressful.

   Overall: Your site is very well put together, and extremely professional for offering free items and layouts. A great site!

   Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?

3. OhSoEnvious gave it on 25th Nov 2008 and said:

   I like the fact that you use celeb images on your site, yes i know all the "there illegal" and stuff, but to be perfectly honest, what celeb is going to come across a teenagers resource site?....Nobody cared at one point, so why all the fuss now, magazines use celeb images aswell.

   Anyway i really like your layout, but i feel that the placing of your sidebar and blog, were just randomly put there, just doesn't flow to me, all though the CSS and colours match.

   It would be nice if your blog wasn't full of updates, yes write about them, as that what people want, updates, but don't add all the pictures to your blog, add one or two and then just write about the rest, give them a link, it will make the site look less cluttered.

   :)

   Using MSIE on Windows | Report This?

4. Kyle gave it on 24th Nov 2008 and said:

   Hi gwen (:
   Your attempt at making a decent resource site, was a failure, sorry.
   Your site is FLOODED by celebrity images, and almost all of your extras use these images, it is illegal, there for knocking you down 3 1/2 stars.
   You have potential, but its drowning in your lack of creativity, stop using celebrity images and start using stock.
   I would review this site farther but I cannot, as celebrity images are plastered everywhere.
   Don't take this as a harsh review, its just simply stating that you need, in my opinion, to delete everything with a celebrity image. That would be the best and safest way to go.
   Your coding is just okay. The fact that you used IFRAMES was a poor choice, and I would not recommend it in the future.

   Overall: You have a unique style and I or anyone else are not telling you to change it, just use stock. You can find stock at deviantart or sxc.hu. Also try new things with your css. And get hosted or buy a domain, if your serious, the fact that your hosted at freewebs is a major turn-off.

   Using Firefox on Mac | Report This?

   elateddesign's Response:

   Thank you for your review. Unfortunately, I will not be hosting my site, I actually like freewebs.... and I don't even know how hosting works! :(

5. 

   Emileh gave it on 24th Nov 2008 and said:

   Hey! :D
   Hmm, freewebs. You're good enough to get a subdomain, see where you can get hosted, because seriously, your talent is wasted on freewebs! (:
   I put your coding information into a HTML validator, and you got 35 errors, and four warnings.

   My first impression was 'what a lovely layout' and yes, it is a really nice header image, but celebrity image usage is a big no no. I know it's a hard habit to shake, but it is illegal. I really wish it wasn't, for people like you who so obviously have amazing graphical talent! Try see if you can turn those talents to taking pictures, and using them instead, or not using images at all! Just brushes, text, textures and your own creativity! I have faith! I know you can do it! :)
   Right, the title. E L A T E D D E S I G N S. What's wrong with simply 'Elated Designs' and a small tag line, maybe?
   Your sidebar, everything that should be there, is there, and anything that needn't be there, isn't there. Well done. However, how big do you need those links? Honestly, do they have to be THAT huge? Yes it's readable, but that's just taking the mess. I would reorder the links if I were you, Index should probably be at the bottom, with site, portfolio, extras, then order, following that.

   iFrames, bad bad bad. Though, I know you can't really get out of that, because you use Freewebs, but it's still not good, it affects search engines and your hits.
   You make some really nice layouts and graphics, just try not to use celebrity images. I personally disagree with all these copyright laws, if the images are on a public space such as the internet, why shouldn't you use them unless expressly told not to? It makes no sense, but hey, what can we do?

   "Order", goodness me! What a long order form! But I guess that's needed, eh? Not really any complaints here.

   Extras, oh goodness! What a long list of things! Well done for having so much Visitor goodies! I would seperate the 'Tutorials' and 'resources' to seperate sections and pages, they're both sufficiently large enough to do so. You have some really nice and useful tutorials, well done!
   The PSD's are nice, but I don't like the fact that you have to download them- that would put me off every time, even if I liked the image. Your layout palettes are nice, but there are too few, and people don't usually rely on them- they'd rather make their own according to the colours of their layout. I find no fault with any of the light, flare
   or grunge textures, they're all gorgeous! I love them! You have some lovely content under the premades section, it's all well made to a very high standard, but still, celebrity images- no thank you. But you do what you do very very very well. Lovely work! I can't help but praise you on your graphic skills, they're very good, now go put them to good
   use on non-celebrity images and layouts, that will definitely bring you more hits, people are leaving the celebrity image stage, and are now very much into non-celebrity layouts.
   I would also say that you shouldn't put the basic html section under resources, because it isn't really a 'resource'. But I don't know where else you could put it, because you only have two sections!

   Now for the site section! Ooh, nice long list of things.. Firstly, your 'about the site' page is wholly too short. Too short by a long long way. Elaborate! Be more descriptive! Tell us more! We're interested or we wouldn't be looking at the page! :)
   On your apply for affies page, you don't have a form, which I find strange, because you have a lot of forms on other pages. But an email form is fine. I was just wondering why! (: It's quicker, but I agree, they are a hassle to make.
   Your affiliates page is nice, you have everyone nice and ordered, but I am going to say this: Why have a 'pending' section? It takes as much time to add them for real as it does to add them for pending. Makes more sense to add or decline them straight away!
   Nice 'ask questions' page, but I would put that section as 'Frequently Asked Questions' or 'FAQ', so people DEFINITELY know which have been asked before.
   Awards page, gooood. (: No qualms with that.
   Right, re-looking at the list, I can see you already have an FAQ page, so I'd combine that with the 'ask me questions' page, because all in all they're really the same thing, only FAQ is the responses to the questions.
   Nice credit list. Very good that you've credited as many people as possible.
   Whoaaa, too many link buttons! Only have a few up, with a code to make it easier for the visitor.
   Past layouts page, a major turn off for me. I see them as such a pointless waste of space, time, and energy. Yes, it's nice to keep a document of how you've progressed, and maybe it's just me, but I really don't care all that much (yes it sounds harsh) what was the layout of your site five, six, or seven months ago! I'm wholly more bothered about what it is NOW. Maybe I'm silly, but that's how I see it.
   The Reviews section is nice, but It would be better to link to the actual review on the site that reviewed for you, instead of copying the whole review and just pasting it to your site. Linking to the actual review is more polite.

   I think that's all the pages. (:
   Now, all I have to say is, you seem like a lovely person, and you speak properly, with good grammar, and that makes me happy! Your layout and graphic skills are very good, now all you need to do- like I have mentioned like 12745369280715 times, start using non-celebrity images, and try get a subdomain, so you can stop using terrible iFrames!
   A seriously good site, you should be proud,
   keep up the excellent work!
   x

   Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?

6. 

   Theresa gave it on 24th Nov 2008 and said:

   Firefox 3 | Windows XP | 1280x1024

   Aesthetics
   My first impression was not great. There are a lot of celebrity images on this site, A LOT. I understand how it's easy to make something (that you may consider to be)beautiful from those types of images, but unless you have gotten permission to use them, then it is illegal. Not to mention, just to blend images and add a few fancy effects doesn't show a whole lot of creativity. A person can throw a blend together within an hour, a good design, manually created, can take hours if not days.

   I do, on the other hand, love how light the site is. It definitely flows with your "elated" title. I don't feel as though your blog/update section is defined enough, maybe make it a lighter or a darker color to give it more definition? At this point it appears as though it could just run right off of the edge of the page if it had legs, there's visually keeping it contained.

   Your text for that same area appears too small. especially for the color you chose for it (which looks a medium gray on my monitor), it could prove difficult for some to read.

   I don't know what you've got going on with your cursor effects, but my cursor doesn't appear AT ALL when I hover over any of your links.

   Content:
   - Blog/Updates: It's just filled with celebrity blends, icons and layouts. It's really great that you've made celebrity blends using copyright protected photographs for me to use. I can understand how you would not want to offend, most of us on the internet don't sign on with the express goal to piss as many people off as possible, but the last line in your blog post makes you seem very over cautions, asking people not to bash you. Just be you and express your opinions openly, if people bash you or dislike you for it, there's not much to be done.

   -Portfolio: Flooded with celebrity images. Not only are these images in your portfolio horrible but you've put your "watermark" all over them. Just so other people won't take them and use them. I wonder if the photographer who took the original pictures that you used should have done the same thing so YOU wouldn't use them? In general I find this section to be crap.

   - Order: When someone is "ordering" something, that usually means they're buying something, it doesn't appear as though you're selling anything, which is good. If you were selling layouts with celebrities on them you could be in a lot of trouble if the "wrong" person caught you. You also are telling people "Go out and find someone else's work so I can create your layout.", not good.

   If you are selling things, then you need to NOT make it celebrity based and you need to list prices.

   - Extras: "No Stealing!", because you didn't do the exact same thing by using photographs taken by someone else without asking them first? "Do not change anything in any way!", because you didn't do that with all of those celebrity images you put on your site?

   Your slideshow script is okay, but did you write the script yourself? If you did not then you don't have the right to redistribute it without the permission from the author of it.

   Image mapping is outdated, it doesn't even work in some browsers.

   Your "Coloring tutorials" aren't too bad, they are at least more then 2 steps but you can find these almost anywhere, same with your scratch texture Photoshop tutorial.

   Almost everything on this page features images that were not ORIGINALLY yours and I won't tell you how I like them, because I don't. Your textures are kind of crap and not very texture-like.

   - Site: Just a list of links, I didn't even bother going any further. You should try making the main page for "site" informative and adding extra links as need (such ass "apply for affiliation" and you "faq").

   Your Coding
   I normally don't even look at coding unless my validation plug-in (handy plug-in for Firefox) tells me there's something wrong. In which case I hover my mouse over it and find out what's wrong. What turned out to be wrong, you're freakin' using inline frames! You don't have a doctype. Because you're using inline frames my validation plug-in is showing errors with not only the main page but the sub-pages as well. I really suggest using DIVs in place of the frames.

   All in all, I gave you 1.5 stars. You seem to making a valid attempt, but it's just not doing it for me because of all of this content that's wasn't even yours to begin with.

   Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?

7. 

   Charlie gave it on 24th Nov 2008 and said:

   Hi Gwen =)

   First impressions are so so. Your blend demonstrates talent in composing images and using filters but you've used celebrity images. I know from my initial switch from celebrity layouts to my own it's difficult but I don't have the flare and ideas you do. Try putting your inspiration to better use on stock photography or something from scratch so that you can truly call it your own. Your colour scheme is interesting and with the colourful designs in your blog, works. It took me a few seconds to catch your website name in the layout. I'd suggest making it more prominent next time. On the first page you've linked to some blends. They look interesting but on hover my cursor disappears completely. Scrolling over all four leads to confusion. Putting the cursor back in your CSS would get rid of that problem. On your design blog you've used a lot of adjectives which although make sense, pad out the sentence too much. "A very fall theme" would be fine as "a fall theme".

   Oh dear, I've just scrolled down the page and encountered a massive blank space. This is on all your pages and I believe down to the height you've set for your iframes.

   Your welcome text is brief, polite, and includes your name which is always a good idea.

   Index

   I'm a bit confused that when I hover over the link "Index" my browser says it goes to a page called "coding.html" but then takes me back, rightfully, to the index. Put this link last as your visitors will have already viewed your index page by default and will be wanting to view the rest of your site before any thoughts of returning to the front page come to mind.

   Portfolio

   I was pleasantly surprised how quickly this loaded as initially, on seeing the number of images included, I prepared for a long wait. It's ok for now, but once you've got a few more layouts and icons under your belt, so to speak, make this portfolio into different sections via pages to split it up and make it easier for your visitors to find what they're looking for. Again though I'd say experiment with your own photos etc. Consider putting your buttons on an affiliate page as although they do fit under "portfolio" they'd be better in your linking section.

   Order

   I'd re-phrase a couple of your rules, namely 3 to:

   "In the box titled 'image URLs' please give the exact location of the images you want used. I will not complete your order if you simply say 'find some yourself' "

   Extras

   Wow, there's a lot of links here. In your rules add a bit more of a description, such as "don't use my tutorials on your own site without permission". Rule 3 is unnecessary, it's the same as 1.

   I'm not sure as to the purpose of your slide show script, most people would use an animation program to achieve that effect. Also include a bit more of an explaination about the script. It would be an easy mistake for someone to assume that by using the script they will get the image you've made. Your image mapping coding is missing some closing tags and the example given at the bottom is wholly problematic. It looks like a word wrap issue. You've also got a horizontal scrollbar which is easy enough to get rid of by making your page smaller.

   Your colouring tutorials look useful for those unsure of how to achieve certain effects but you should add an introduction to them explaining what programs can be used.

   It seems all your image links exclude a hover cursor, adding one to all of them would make scrolling much smoother and less confusing.

   Your "premades" would be better placed in your portfolio as they are the same kind of things.

   Your basic html page is a good idea but you should think about changing the bold and italic coding to CSS coding or the updated strong and em tags. Your body background coding would be far better stated as CSS and as:

   body{ background-image: url("imagelocation");}

   Site

   I'm unsure why you have a different rule for regular affiliates and top affiliates. If I was looking to affiliate I would be put off by your statement about quality. Your question page is a good idea, but if you're going to give coding for iframe transparency be sure to add a note that the coding will only work on Internet Explorer!! Your awards page is good as a list rather than full of the images. You credit the sites you took photos from which is good, but go a step further and think about negating the need for this page completely. Consider having your FAQ's linked in your main navigation.

   I notice you've included your buttons from "portfolio" on your affiliate links page. Maybe making the portfolio section with them in a blank button resource could be an option? I love past layouts pages, they provide a great opportunity to really get a feel for someone's progress and the talent you miss out on if you've only seen the current layout. The fact you've added notes beside them is a bonus =) Although all the reviews listed have given you high scores you've left in the negative opinions which shows you're willing to improve. Awesome =D

   Coding

   So first up is that blank space. I've been guilty of it myself before when I used tables and I know it can often be tough working out how much space you're going to require. In order to combat this I suggest switching to divs. You can set the height to "auto" and then everything will look better.

   Your header section has some duplicate tags like html and two style tags. You've not only got a link to an external CSS file but inline styling too - may as well copy all the styling that is in your header and put it in the external css. This will decrease loading time and make your pages more manageable. You've a body tag before your closing header. Switch them round.

   Your content of your navigation iframe would be best placed in the div with your customer names. The multiple tags you have at the bottom are unnecessary and having the freebwebs sticker below it means that unless someone actively scrolls down to the bottom (which I'm only doing because I'm reviewing your site) they'll never spot it. Think about adding title tags to your images for those times when loading is slow.

   Your external stylesheet (style.css) doesn't need the declaration at the top telling the file that it's a stylesheet - that's what the .css is for in the name. A lot of the things you've added are for elements with nothing to specify, for example, background: none. If there's nothing to specify, you don't need to refer to it at all. I'm not sure why you're styling bold, italic, and underlined text like that, I've never seen it before. If you've a paragraph of text, style it with a p tag. Lastly, think about putting you body information at the top.

   Your written content gives the impression of a girl willing and wanting to learn and improve on skills she's already showing promise in. Your responses to reviews so far back that up. Don't be afraid to try new things and above all have fun. And definitely work on adding more content =D

   Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?

8. memorylast gave it on 24th Nov 2008 and said:

   I'm reviewing in Mozilla Firefox 3 on a 1280x800 Mac.

   /*First Impression*/
   My first impression was that your layout is pretty awesome with the whole effects you did with the image and the way you arranged the brushes and everything. I just noticed that you were running on freewebs, for a freewebs site you're pretty good.

   /*Layout*/
   Well same as my first impression basically. I like the way you did the whole image, though I'm not that fond of the whole CSS. It probably could have been done better to better match your entire site. If you scroll to the bottom, there's a huge space. I see that you used a lot of br tags at the bottom there. If there's no point of it, I'd remove it. So as some people say, celebrity images are illegal, because technically you did use somebody else's photography without permission, though being a design/graphic site I understand how it's hard to avoid using celebrity images. Looking at your source, I can actually see that some of your style tags are a little messed up? You have an external stylesheet yet you still use the separate style tags on your site.
   I can see that you have two opening tags for your styles. Yet you only have 1 closing tag. But having 2 of those opening tags are pointless anyway.

   /*Portfolio*/
   Some basic stuff here, I like that you didn't use the whole 'drag the thumbnail up into the url thing' because that kind of takes a long time to load.

   /*Extras*/
   So you have a lot of content here which makes it hard to review them all. But I'll say that some of these are pretty good and would be useful to quite a lot of people. And all in all you have skills in graphics from what I can see.

   Using Firefox on Mac | Report This?

9. Mandarks gave it on 24th Nov 2008 and said:

   Outside of the celeb images, your editing is pretty surperb (on current layout). nothing distintive, but good non the less. I agree
   Iframes=bad
   endless scrolling=bad.
   Trying the hide the freewebs badge=bad.
   twilight layout=annoying too the 1000th degree
   I really dislike how huge the navigation is, especially when you have a welcome passage right over it. Links that large should stand on its own with no excess baggage around it.

   the layout looks pretty but you need a little work on how you format your content. Its too much and in too many different sizes making it look pretty messy. Previews are a great way to organize large graphics on a page. pick a pretty standard size and work from there.

   Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?

10. 

    Shadow gave it on 24th Nov 2008 and said:

    First Impression

    For starters, celebrity images would get you in trouble. If you can create something like this, which is good, but forgettable, then I know you can create something that doesn't require using celebrity images. Then it scrolls forever...and ever...and ever. There shouldn't be so much white space on the bottom!

    Main Content and Sidebar

    Underlined regular text confuses people into thinking it's a link. It shouldn't be there. The font's a little small and you can use a little bit of padding on the sides. At least no one will complain about your navigation being lost.

    The other pages

    Portfolio: Celebrity images galore! I can see that you can do graphics well enough to not have to use these images as a crutch. I said well enough, but as is, it's all "meh". I've seen it all before. I've done things like that before.

    Extras: Hold on:

    1. No STEALING!

    But you're doing that right now with the images you're using, no?

    Everything here has been done by everyone and their momma. I would get rid of the celebrity images first and foremost. Stock images work just as well for your examples. You need more original stuff. Do something that hasn't been overdone. I'm sure there is something you know how to do that most people don't know about (or forgotten about)! Share!

    Site: I hate these pages with only links on it. You have one paragraph on your site info. That can be put on this page. A lot of the extra pages can be combined into one because there isn't a lot of things on a single page.

    Coding

    Now I know why it scrolls endlessly. You're using IFRAMES! IFRAMES is bad for you. I could go deeper into why it's bad, but endless scrolling is one reason. Divs give you the same effect, sans the scrolling.

    You lack a DOCTYPE. Putting it through a validator won't show all of the errors that you have. You need to get rid of the styling that's in the actual page, and put it in your style.css page if it isn't there yet. Position:absolute; doesn't render the same in every browser. You can use floats and margins for the same effect. read this. You need loads of help in your code so that you can step away from IFRAMES and learn about web standards.

    All in all...

    Your layout is nice, but forgettable. Not only that, but you're using copyrighted celebrity images. Step away from them please. You have potential. But the big problem here is your coding. You need a complete strip-down of your coding and done all over again. Remember, you needn't those copyrighted images. A portfolio with original works get passed around quicker. Good luck!

    Using Opera on Windows | Report This?

11. Kari gave it on 23rd Nov 2008 and said:

    Hey, I'm Kari! And I'll be reviewing you today :)
    First Impressions: Okay, so your layouts nice. Nothing too out of the ordinary. But, you use celeb images. Did you know those are illegal? That's a major problem with your site. Your css is fitting, but again nothing original. Nothing that really wants me to say, "hey i'd like to visit her site sometime later!"

    Coding/layout: Ok one thing about the layout, this is totally my opinion so it's probably just me, but i feel it looks weird how all the cast of twilight are like blended into each other. But again, this is just my opinion! It really bugs me how the sidebar is so far down the layout. Maybe you could put it to the side of the content on the far right. It just makes the organization of the site look a little odd. Your navigation is huge! Maybe you could make the font smaller? Again, your coding is nothing special - maybe look for some tutorials online or something to spice up the css. Dynamicdrive.com has really cool navigation/text effects. Also, the text size is only 8 pt, which is kind of small, making it hard to read. Why is there so much space between the content and the end of the page? It's like 1000 pixels and it looks kind of weird. I just checked your HTML for validation and there's 35 errors, but some might be because you have a freewebs site and others are easily fixable!

    Content: Your portfolio layouts are okay -- but you're using celebrity images and they're a bit average for me. Also not all of them are clickable. Wow, you have a ton of extras! Maybe you should label that content or something else- i thought it would just be like, a few brushes here and there. Some of your icon tutorials/coloring tutorials are nice, I would use them. I'm sure your psds are okay, but again they're illegal. Also are your light textures icon textures or large textures? Because I was confused since it didn't say icon textures. In general, some of your resources - i can't click on them at all for some reason. I'm not quite sure why, but I hope it's fixable.

    Overall: Your site is quite nice in that everything's pretty neat, but celebrity image usage is illegal and your layouts aren't extremely unique. I would work on making your work more original -- your layouts and your css too. :)

    Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?

    elateddesign's Response:

    Oh wow! I didn't know that using celebrity images was illegal! But my site is a design site, so people want celebrity layouts and stuff. What do I do about that? I didn't know I could get in trouble for it!

Write Your Own Review

Leave your feedback for Elated Designs below, and remember - the longer your review, the more points you receive. Don't forget to look at things like style/design, content, coding and originality as they will all help to improve the quality of your review.

You have to be logged in to write a review.

Site copyright © 2008—10 Jem Turner. Designed by Jacky Gilbertson © 2008.
About ⋅ Terms of Use ⋅ Site Map ⋅ Help ⋅ Contact ⋅ Points Charter