I think the design is excellent, really fantastic!  I admired the old 
look alot but I think this is an order of magnitude better.

The colors are fine in my opinion. Probably the higher overall tone and 
reduced clutter is the operative thing, so the design feel would 
probably work with other harmonies too, by why bother?  This looks great.

It seems, as I recall, that your designs have always played with 
outlining effects.  The substitution of 3d sculpting around the edges 
instead of the flat outlines is brilliant, softer but still gives 
delineation, and an added eye-pop.

The subtle beauty of harmonies in blue and green is something it took me 
a long time in life, personally, to come to understand.  I think you 
have used it here very cleverly.  And there is just enough of the 
contrasting yellow-oranges to give it an upbeat, pop feel.  I 
particularily love the subtle shifts in lettering from dark on lime in 
the top banner through the white on lime in the subbanners to finally 
black on white in the actual text box.

The self-photo does give it an edge and grabs attention right away.  The 
good thing is that it does humanize and individualize the message as you 
intended.  The bad thing is that it is also very potent and you cannot 
control how people will respond.

My personal reaction was that it grew on me: Weird! But Ballsy! Direct. 
No Mysteries Here.  I know who I'm dealing with.

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"Jim Charter" wrote:
>I think the design is excellent, really fantastic!  I admired the old look 
>alot but I think this is an order of magnitude better.

Wow, thanks! I'm glad you like it. :)

> It seems, as I recall, that your designs have always played with outlining 
> effects.  The substitution of 3d sculpting around the edges instead of the 
> flat outlines is brilliant, softer but still gives delineation, and an 
> added eye-pop.

:)

> The self-photo does give it an edge and grabs attention right away.  The 
> good thing is that it does humanize and individualize the message as you 
> intended.  The bad thing is that it is also very potent and you cannot 
> control how people will respond.

That sounds right.

> My personal reaction was that it grew on me: Weird! But Ballsy! Direct. No 
> Mysteries Here.  I know who I'm dealing with.

That sounds like a quite desirable reaction. I'm still in doubt about the 
portrait. I'm leaning towards keeping it, but I have to consider it a bit 
more. I appreciate your input, as well as Gilles' and anyone else who might 
comment on it.

Rune
-- 
http://runevision.com

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Rune wrote:

> That sounds like a quite desirable reaction. I'm still in doubt about the 
> portrait. I'm leaning towards keeping it, but I have to consider it a bit 
> more. I appreciate your input, as well as Gilles' and anyone else who might 
> comment on it.
> 

You might differ scale or location possibly, to give slightly less play 
but retain the humanizing function.

There is also the opportunity, perhaps, to vary it from page to page, 
add a little humor or irony, or develop a kind of plot through out the 
site.  I wouldn't discard it outright.  Perhaps a little fine tuning and 
maybe you have something truly innovative there.  With or without, it's 
a very professional looking site, overall.

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"Jim Charter" wrote:
> You might differ scale or location possibly, to give slightly less play 
> but retain the humanizing function.

I have tried that now in several variations, but it just keeps turning out 
looking like some slick design ripped apart and clumsily recombined.

Like here: http://runevision.com/temp/design_sketch_alternative.png
I had to basically mirror the whole design to get just a remotely balanced 
layout, and even then it still looks bad. Maybe I have lost the ability to 
look at it neutrally.

> There is also the opportunity, perhaps, to vary it from page to page, add 
> a little humour or irony, or develop a kind of plot through out the site.

Humour is a good way to dodge the issue of narcissism, since it effectively 
destroy any suspicion that you take yourself too seriously. I was already 
aware of that, since my "branding strategy" is partly inspired by this site 
(http://tinysubversions.blogspot.com), which also features a prominently 
placed drawn portrait. This one, however, is a caricature, and I noticed 
that this avoids the issues I am having now.

I didn't want to use a caricature myself, and so I didn't quite know how to 
get some humour into it. Your idea of putting in variations is something 
I'll think some more about. Thanks for the suggestion.

Rune
-- 
http://runevision.com

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