(Rated by 7 people, viewed by 197 people)
Dynamite-Design has 7 Reviews
Below are the reviews left by other members on Dynamite-Design. Jump to review form?
![[img: avatar]](/avatars/Dayna.png)
Dayna gave it
on 25th Dec 2008 and said:Reviewed using Firefox 3.0.5, Windows Vista, Resolution 1440 x 900
Layout & Navigation
The design is original and neat. I really like the header image. However, I am not too sure about the site name on the layout. It has the same font, style and size as the navigation text which makes it quite hard to distinguish. It might just be a personal preference but I feel that the site name should stands out in the layout. The stripped background matches the layout design but I'm not too sure of the colour. There is a big contrast between the 2 colours of the strips and it kind of makes the main image loses the focus. Perhaps reducing the contrast between the 2 shades of blue?
I like how there are different images when I hover over the links. It is really cute and creative. But the images take some time to load though (especially the portfolio image). For the hover images, it includes the entire header design. I would suggest just changing it to the navigation design (the rest of the design is not re-loaded), so that the image size is a lot smaller and loads faster (using list and styling it via CSS). If you get what I mean, I'm not too good at explaining, my apologies.
On a side note, the layout image might be a bit too big. On 1024 x 768 resolution, nearly the entire screen is filled with the header image and only a little bit of the content can be seen. I would suggest reducing the size in the future designs, this is just a personal preference though.
In the sidebar (under credits), there is a huge gap between the 2 words "Original background". I feel that aligning it left instead of justifying it would looks better.
Content
In one of your blog entries dated Dec 20, 2008, there is a photo. I feel that photo is too close to the text on the left. I would suggest adding a padding-left so that there is more space and look less cramp.
About: I like how you wrote a lot about yourselves. :)
For you: You have some great stuff here, I enjoyed reading some of the articles.
Portfolio: I would suggest separating the categories into different pages.
Site: I feel that the history link should go first. http://www.anothermelody is a dead link under credits.
Conclusion
I really like your design, please do expand your portfolio. I would love to look at those. :) You might wish to start validating your site coding and CSS to move it forward and be even better. Wish you all the best and Merry Christmas. :)
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Laurence's Response:
Thank you for the review, it's much appreciated! I'll take your advice into consideration for sure :)
![[img: avatar]](/avatars/Greykitty.gif)
Greykitty gave it
on 22nd Dec 2008 and said:The layout is nice, I'm not a big fan of striped backgrounds, I find them hard to look at for more than a minute, but this one is ok. The contrast isn't that much. Everything is neat and organised, none of the colors clash, though not real keen on the pink links next to the green headers. Then again that's a personal pref...and I say that with almost every layout that has pink... lol
I like the little gingerbread man and snowman. It's a cute header.Everything is organised and your text is big enough to read, kudos to you! Though watch out on your You page it randomly changes style and size.
Looking at your code it looks like you are missing a meta tag. That is one thing I thinkg you should fix. Everything else looks pretty good.You articles are interesting and I found even more interesting that you have an article about neopets. I could say something similar on a lot of online games, like World of Warcraft. It's sad how many people think their lives depend on games...
Anyways! It took a while for your graphics to load but that's photobucket's issue, not your site so not docking points there. Your brushes look nice and your icons are pretty nice too. I'm glad to see you don't use celeb images.It was nice to see you review, but it would be good if you had some kind of anchor links near the top to direct someone to a specific review or make seperate pages for each. I have never seen a personal site that offers reviews on resturants, that is really unique. Again I would suggest anchor links.
Your tutorials are nice, though again your text is really small and in a different style on the tutorial menu page. You don't have much but what you do have is good. Everything is easy to follow as well, nice work.
Your portfolio is nice, you have good skills with the pencil and other mediums. I like how you have a description on each piece as well. I do have a suggestion though, make a gallery with just thumbnails and then let the photos/drawings open up in either another page or something like lightbox and put the description under image then. That way your page won't be so long and the visitor can see everything all at once and browse through the gallery faster.
The site page, again the font changes and shrinks in size. Anywho, it's very complete, nothing else needed there. By the way I really like the image hover overs on your navigation, especially the blog one. XD
Overall you have a really great site, the blogs are intersting, you have some great content and your layout looks nice. Keep up the great work!
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Laurence's Response:
Thank you for the review! Hmm, I could upload the pictures on my site rather than Photobucket, I didn't realize it was slow to load ;) Great idea, for the anchor links, I'll change that soon :) For my portfolio, I'll think of another way to organize the pictures. However, I want everyone to be able to see my portfolio, even the visitors who can't see Javascript on their browser. Thanks again for the review ^^
Marilyn gave it
on 22nd Dec 2008 and said:Hey, this is my first review. I'm going to try my best to give you constructive criticism :)
First off, my screen resolution is 1024 x 768 and I'm using Mozilla browser01. First Impression : Love the color scheme, everything looks like it's in order and it's not going to cause me to quickly exit lol The name just doesn't seem to fit with the site for some reason. I guess because you call it a personal blog, but it's called Dynamite-Design.
02. Layout : The layout is super adorable and the colors are so calming and wintery. The font size and color of the sites name don't match. I think it would have been better if it was placed between the ginger bread man and the snow man. Also, instead of using a cursive type font, you could have used a funkier one like on your roll overs. You get creative points for the roll overs. I think it's unique that each link has a different picture.
The thing about having a centered layout, is the 2 columns meeting at the end. It looks a bit odd when the main column ends but the navigation column keeps going, leaving an empty box at the bottom. It makes a difference and looks better, in my opinion.
02. About me : No grammatical errors, from what I was reading. The only words misspelled are "mentionning" and "hurted"on the scoliosis section. The page is organized in to sections, which is better than having a whole entire essay so that's good.
Oh you have/had scoliosis too? I can relate, somewhat. Doctors tell me it's not serious, even though the pains are sometimes unbearable. Congrats on a successful surgery!
03. For You :
----------Articles - I like how you wrote them and didn't rip them off another site. Shows dedication to a website. Choosing a career is very insightful because most people want to get a job according to how much it pays, which won't be such a great investment.
Clementines or Watermelons made me laugh. I actually thought it was about the food, but it turned out to be better than I had expects ha.
What I saw behind the hotel "turist" is spelled wrong. I can believe that that part of the island wasn't in the map. Sad.
10 tips to enjoy life helps me. I love this sections, because it's so true. When going through a tough time a person can forget all these things so reading it helps. Only misspelled word is "wether."
Sex Drugs and Hiphop? So true.
Neopets a danger for kids?['i] Kind of exaggerated but neopets is an addicting website.
I would read the rest, but I'm sure they are all good articles. Keep writing :)----------Graphics and Downloads - Especially love the icon textures. I didn't know you can add themes to firefox? Overall the graphics are well done and not so dull.
----------Reviews - Book reviews are an excellent idea, especially for me finding it difficult to catch my hands on a good one.
Restaurant review are good for people traveling to Canada. Most "but" is spelled twice in the introduction.----------Tutorials - Glad you don't have those "how to make a blend" boring type of tutorial. The tutorials you have are useful and unique, which is hard to find in many websites. Cartoon and 20 website tips are my favorite :)
04. Portfolio : it's nice to see your talent beyond graphic design because your work is amazing.
05. Site : Everything is in order and from what I read, I didn't see any errors.
Overall your site is definitely one that I would come back to. I love that you don't use pictures of celebrities and copyrighted material . Good work!
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Laurence's Response:
Thanks for the review :) For the site name, I agree, that's because I might consider putting up a real portfolio with designs or stuff to buy one day ;) I modified yesterday the site name on the layout, it looks much better now! I also placed a footer at the bottom and as you suggested, the two columns now meet at the end. Thank you so much for the suggestion, my layout now looks really more professional, rather than having a dull column that doesn't touch the bottom of the page. Oh, you have scoliosis too? :( That sucks... I hope that you'll get through it :) If you have questions or need advice, just ask ;) Oops, I'll correct those mistakes in the article, thank you for telling me. Thanks again for your time, I appreciate it a lot!
![[img: avatar]](/avatars/bubblez.png)
bubblez gave it
on 21st Dec 2008 and said:Hello Laurence. I am Bubblez. I might be harsh or too honest. I hope you don't mind. While I am reviewing, I will use Firefox 3 on windows XP. Here we go...
000. Site Name
Original except the 'design' part isn't so original. But it's easy to remember.001. Layout && Components.
Image; Wow, it's really creative and christmas-y but the font 'dynamite-design' needs to be a bit bigger.
CSS: Very nice. I love the rollovers.
Color scheme: Very christmas-y.
Overall: Centered layout! Way to go! Everything looks fine!002. Html/CSS validation.
Having these validated will affect how fast your site will load.
CSS: 30 errors. I am not too sure of what it means...
HTML: You have 16 errors. First of all, you need character encoding. Code for it is (remove the spaces):
< meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252" >Make sure you remove
the spaces and put that code after your head tag. Other than that, I wouldn't be too concern about the other errors.003. Sitely Content
- Affiliates: Easy to understand!
- Awards:Very nice awards!
- Contact Me: Nice.
- FAQ: Really nice laid-out.
- Link me: Some of these buttons can be made in higher quality.
- History: Wow! Interesting. Some sentences are a bit too long, making it a run-on.004. About Me page
Wow! Neat. Where you wrote this: My favorite subjects are maths, sciences and arts, it should be Math, Science and Art. It's only
like that in Francais!005. Visitors Content
* Articles/Reviews: I won't judge these because these are written from your perspective. And all opinions can be right or wrong. Therefore, I won't
judge on these.
* Backgrounds: I love these except some of them are quite plain..
* Brushes: Wow! I love the grungy spatters. I also liked how you saved them. A imagepack and Photoshop Brushes.
* Color Palettes:Cool color schemes. Some of the color schemes are kind of weird. But that's just me.
* Firefox Themes: Very nicely done! It reminded me of my school's Firefox theme.
* Icons: Really nice icons except some of the fonts can be in a pixel font.
* Icon Textures: Wow, I love your textures^^ They are very heart-warming and original.
* Tutorials: I love your tutorials. They are so easy to understand. One of your tutorials is very helpful to me! The one with MS Word Problems.006. Overall
I really enjoyed browsing your site, Laurence. It's original and different from other sites. Your site is definitely a website that is worth-visiting. I think you should add more content to your graphics section.UPDATED 21 Dec 08:
Your welcome! No, you need to change the endings of those subjects.In French, i's this: Les Maths , Les Sciences and Arts.
In English, its just: math, science and art. xDand once again, your welcome and good luck with your site.
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Laurence's Response:
Thank you very much for the review, it's really appreciated! I'm glad that you liked my site :) I will change the size of my site name in the design as you and other people pointed out, it's true that it's quite small. For the errors in the HTML and CSS, I know that there are some, but to be honest, I don't understand most of them... I'll add the character encoding though! ;) Oh really? I didn't know that subjects started with a capital letter in English O_o I'll change that quickly! I thought it was only for languages... I'm glad that the MS tutorial helped you! ^^ I'm working on adding more content in the graphics section, I think I have an original idea on what to add, but I'll see if it will take too much time or not.
Well, thank you very much for taking the time to review my site! :D
![[img: avatar]](/avatars/MirandaAdria.jpg)
MirandaAdria gave it
on 21st Dec 2008 and said:Hello, my name is Miranda. This is my first review, so let's see if my input helps you out at all. =)
Layout
I very much believe that personal sites/portfolios should simple, direct, and functional. Your site is certainly all three. The layout is perfect for the holiday season and completely appropriate for a personal site. As others have stated, I agree that the name of the site should be bigger. Despite the fact that the web address will always be visible in the address bar, the logo you use to represent your site is just as important as the site itself. It shows others that you have carefully considered every element of the design.The header image itself is very well done. It loaded quickly for me, which is always a plus. The lines are clean, the colors are well chosen, and “reflection†effect done on the top half of the image is like the icing on the cake. It gives it a nice little touch.
I’m also very grateful that all your sections are clearly marked, and there is no confusion as to where one section ends and another begins. The headers have a good background color, since it matches the layout well and clearly stands out against the white background. And may I just say, I am happy to see you added a section for Credits. To often, I have seen people using other people’s code or designs, and no credit is given. So, kudos to you, my friend. However, I have a bit of a problem with the credit going to someone who uses copyrighted images to create banners and wallpapers.
About Me Page
Well done. Defining the different sections (i.e. aspects of your personality) will help visitors learn about you in a much more efficient manner. There are some spelling mistakes, but as Shadow stated, your grasp of the English language is still quite impressive. Good job.For You Page
I would have liked for the headers on this page to be similar to the way they look on the About Me page. When things don’t translate seamlessly from one page to another, then it looks like the designer did not take these things into consideration. I would choose either bold with no underline (like in the About Me page) or no bold and underlined (like in the For You page) and just stick with it throughout the site.As far as the content, I think you have a lot of great things to offer your visitors. I have to say, I very much agree with your article about Hip Hop music and culture today. I’m a fan of old school hip hop, music that had a meaning and purpose, so it’s nice to see you feel the same way as I do.
I’m happy to see that your backgrounds were done with non-copyrighted material. I’m an avid supporter of copyright protection and giving credit where it is due.
Your brushes are wonderful! I may just use some myself in the future. My favorites are the “Early Leaves†brushes. If I do use any of your brushes, I will link you back and notify you (of course).
Your icon textures are also quite nice. Again, I like that you divided the sections, but the headers are still different from the ones in your About Me page.
Portfolio
The headers are the same format here as they are on your For You pages, so that’s good. For the images, I would recommend having the images open in a LightBox. Here is a very simple one you can use: http://dolem.com/lytebox/ Unlike the majority of light box codes out there, this particular light box script is excellent, since it only requires referencing two documents (a CSS file and a JS file) in your coding.If you decide you do not want to use that, then I would recommend having them open in a new window OR in a new tab. That way, the image can be opened without taking the visitor away from your site. Considering the links to your affiliates open in a new window, I will assume you know how to do this.
Normally, I would prefer it if the images were all together so that I could quickly glance over all of them and then click on the one I want more information on. However, since you have a small collection of images, the layout you currently have works just fine.
Site
I agree with Shadow, once again, in regards to this page. I can understand the reason why you did this: Some of the links have a lot of reading involved. However, considering that your layout allows for infinite vertical scrolling, I would pick and choose some of the topics and have them actually on the page. My suggestion would be to have the History of your site on the Site page itself, and then incorporate the links to the other pages within the history. You could even divide up the History into sections like you did on your other pages. As I said before, consistency is key.Final Thoughts
Overall, the site is very well done. It is obvious that you put a lot of time and consideration into it. I gave you a 4.5 because, as I have stated in the review, there are a few things that could be improved.Another thing that I would suggest is to have a FavIcon. A FavIcon is the little image that appears right next to the web address in your browser’s address bar.
You can go to this site to easily turn any image into a FavIcon: http://www.favicongenerator.com/
Choose an image that will accurately represent your site. Remember that this icon will be recorded along with the address whenever someone bookmarks your site.The site linked above also explains the coding you need to display your favicon. Make sure the image is in your ROOT directory, i.e. where your index.html page is.
A short re-cap:
--The Headers on different pages should match, to allow the design to flow more smoothly.
--The content on pages should match the accompanying pages. having just links on one page, breaks the flow.
--Adding a FavIcon: Remember, the devil is in the details.I hope this review helped you out. =) I wasn’t too harsh, was I?
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Laurence's Response:
Thanks for the review! The name of my site is now bigger on the layout, it looks better that way ;) For the credits, yeah, I admit that it's a little strange to give credits to someone who breaks copyright laws, but you know what really pissed me off? The owner of the site wrote in her footer that she was under copyright protection or something like that! xD Haha, funny. I'll try to match the headers and reorganize the pages. It's true that having one page with links can be annoying... Maybe page anchors or something like that, or simply having everything on one page, I'll see. For the portfolio, I used to have a script similar to that one, but people who don't have Javascript allowed won't be able to see my portfolio... However, I'll find a better way to organize the pics. Favicon? Good idea! I used to have one on my subdomain, but I forgot to add it on the domain, so thanks for remembering me! :)
No, you weren't too harsh, it was super helpful! :D Thanks a million for the review!
![[img: avatar]](/avatars/Pocci.png)
Pocci gave it
on 21st Dec 2008 and said:Hi there :] My name is Pocci and I shall be reviewing your site today. I use Mozilla Firefox and my screen resolution is 1024x768. I might be a bit harsh or honest, but its a review, right? Well lets start..
1. First impressions:
Personally, I love the layout. Its so cute and it isn't overdone. In my opinion, the font size, 10pt Im guessing, is too big for my liking but thats just me.
2. Layout:
The rollovers are adorable, I love the whole christmas theme. Its very festive. I think the main header for the content should be a bit bigger, its too small for my liking. Also, use some different fonts or colours maybe?
3. Content:
articles - I can't say much about your articles since its mainly your own opinion, and that can be wrong or right. You have made some pretty valid points, though :P
~ graphics & resources;
backgrounds - I think they're really good but some of them are a bit plain and colourless. It'd also help if you provided a code :p
brushes - nice brushes, but add some colour to the preview? The seasons rhaspody is a pretty one :]
colour palettes - they're all very nice, none of them are overly common but I can't see the whites against the light content area.
firefox themes - wow, thats new! I haven't heard of an idea so practical yet original. that theme looks very professional and clean, good job :]
icons - they're pretty good. I like the captions for some of them.
icon textures - Woah, are you serious?! I love your colourful grunge ones! They're all really good, I might use some of them for my icons :]
tutorials ~
Tutorials on firefox? Thats definitely new! I found the 'Install a theme' one pretty useful. After looking through your tutorials, I found that they weren't the simple and boring, how to add a border onto your images or how to make a screenie.
4. Site section
Your site section is organised, well done :] You may want to change 'affiliates' to 'apply for affiliates' ?
Overall, your site very, very good. I would definitely visit it in the future!Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?
Laurence's Response:
Thank you for the review! :) It was useful! I'll add more colorful backgrounds and yeah, true, I'll change "affiliates" to "apply for affiliates". For the font size, even though it's maybe a little big, I'll keep it that size for my visitors who wear glasses ;) Sometimes small fonts give a headache to visitors xD Again, thanks a lot!
![[img: avatar]](/avatars/Shadow.jpg)
Shadow gave it
on 21st Dec 2008 and said:First Impression
I fell in love with your layout immediately. This is so cute! I love the navigation, especially. The only gripe I have is that the site name is so small and hidden in the corner. Make it bigger and get it out of the corner! I'm not 100% sure of the green used in the headers of the blog and sidebar, but at least we know where it comes from--it's not completely random.
Blog and Sidebar
I would have suggested to make the sidebar scroll all the way down to the same height of the main content area. Right now, it seems a bit unbalanced with the blank space there. There should be a little more padding on the sides of the content areas--not too much though; an extra 2 pixels may work. The text is large enough to see and the line height is excellent as well. Good job on that.
Once again, the green seems a bit off for the header. A shade of blue might work better here. The red for the links (presumably from the candy cane) is a bit weird as well. You don't necessarily need to use the green and red. Since you have a good amount of blue, the links can be a shade of blue. And yes, I have a bit of a blue fixation. I'm sorry. :(
The other pages
About: Paragraphs! Yes! Not only paragraphs, but paragraphs with a great sense of the English language! That is excellent, considering that your native tongue is French. This one line:
I'm very perfectionist, which can be both positive and negative
sounds a bit strange. It can be worded as this:
I'm a perfectionist, which can be both a positive and negative thing.
...Or something along those lines. This:
I'm not a very sportive girl.
Should be:
I'm not a sporty girl...
And this:
I learned that I had a scoliosis
Should be:
I learned that I had scoliosis...
But in comparison to some people whose native tongue is English, you're a step ahead of them. Great job on that. Great job on making it interesting as well. And ew, Rihanna. *clears throat* Moving along...
For you: When I read that you're highly against using copyrighted material, I was hoping that you went all the way with it--as in not having one copyrighted graphic on there. I've seen people eliminate using the images on their layouts, but everywhere else is ridden of them. You have no trace of a photo of Rihanna (other than the one you drew, and I'll get to that later). Thank you for that.
I love your articles, especially the one on hip-hop. I knew the lyrics to some of those songs were sick, but holy crap.
Your graphics as a whole are really good. I was looking at the color pallets and I said "hm...maybe I can pull off that purple scheme." The motto is always "quality over quantity". You do this very well. You don't have a whole bunch, but what you do have will compensate for it. I commend you for spending 20 hours on a Firefox theme. It came out pretty well too.
Your reviews are short and sweet. I loved Animal Farm too. I had to read it in high school, and it took me a while to "read between the lines", but it was still enjoyable nonetheless. I think I want to try Boston Pizza too. I need to make a trip to Canada for that one though. But yeah, well-written pieces. Great job.
Finally, some tutorials that everyone and their momma don't have. I particularly like the Firefox ones. But all of them are well thought-out and well-explained.
Portfolio: I really shouldn't go through this, but I will anyway. this is beautiful. You really live up to your creative description there. I'm officially jealous of your drawing skills. I want to follow up and see when you finish your dress.
Site: A big pet peeve of mine are pages that are just there to hold only links. I would add something else to this, like a paragraph of what someone should expect to see at your site and the like. I would suggest a contact form as well on your contact me page.
Coding: Your site doesn't validate in HTML 4.01 Strict. I would suggest you read up on validating your site into XHTML 1.0 Transitional.. It's a lot easier than it seems. I would also look into CSS sprites, which will eliminate the use of Javascript in your navigation. It looks beautiful, but it someone were to view this site with no Javascript, they can't experience the cute Santa hat on top of the "site" button or the ornament dropping from the "y" in the "for you" button. That's what makes that layout extra special; make sure everyone can see it. Your errors are easy to fix, but I would highly suggest converting from HTML 4.01. :)
All in all...
The only thing that stopped me from giving you a 5 was the site page having nothing but links. It's just a small pet peeve of mine. Also, the coding, while a lot cleaner than some, is still using image slices. But it's not that serious--you should look into CSS sprites though.
I enjoyed my stay at your site. I was like "ooh!" the whole time. I had to tell myself to review the contents and stop drooling over the layout. One of the better holiday layouts I've seen indeed. Very creative.
I have to give you props for your exceptional use of English. It's not your native tongue, but yet, you're able to pull it off with only a few grammatical errors. Like I said, your grasp of the English language is much better than some who were born and raised in an English-speaking country.
I also commend you on the all original visitor content you present. And your portfolio is wicked as well. That hummingbird picture...wow. I hope you finish that dress soon. I'm interested to see how it turns out. Good luck, and great job so far!
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Laurence's Response:
Hey, thank you for that nice review, it's really appreciated! Other people pointed out the size of my site name on the layout, so I'll change that right away! For the sidebar, I tried to make it touch the bottom of the page, but it didn't work... Do you know how to achieve that without using fake columns in the background? I tried to put height 100% in the CSS, but it didn't work... :( He he, I love blue too! It's my favorite color in fact! I want to keep the Christmas-y colors, but I'll put blue somewhere else in my CSS, maybe for the bold, italic and underlined :) Thanks for pointing out those mistakes, I tend to use French structure and grammar to write sentences sometimes -_-' I'm really glad that you're for non-copyrighted content as well! I've seen so many reviewers telling a site owner to add more celebrity content on his site! That pisses me off so much! Haha, sorry if you don't like Rihanna xD Hopefully, there wasn't a page dedicated to her :P Boston Pizza is great, but not the best. If you come to Canada, I recommend you to try St-Hubert :) A typical restaurant that's very popular here! Hum good idea for the site page, I'll change that and I'll try to add a contact form, that would be a really great idea! I'll check for the HTML errors too. Thank you again for your lovely review, I will take every suggestion into consideration! :D I'll send you a message when the dress will be finished! Probably this week, I think...
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