Template Design, Input wanted.

[Dave]

I was looking for a nice template for my new top site I was creating but I couldn't find anything decent that would suit my site. So I attempted to create something eye pleasing in Photoshop. Any input and feedback is more then appreciated!

(70% export)

What would you improve? Would you want to add your game to this site? Is it to dark? To much red? Any help is welcomed!

[W3Theory || Peter]

In all honesty, I am not a fan of it. The problem I see are a couple of areas. Way too dark with just one set of color and everything blending into the background. It needs to be more distinctive. However, seeing your previous work it is an improvement. Good job and good work on the site

[Danny696]

I have to agree with peter, dont make it all fade out to the background.

[Dave]

In all honesty, I am not a fan of it. The problem I see are a couple of areas. Way too dark with just one set of color and everything blending into the background. It needs to be more distinctive. However, seeing your previous work it is an improvement. Good job and good work on the site

I was thinking it was too dark, but I wanted a very dark feel due to it being directed towards gaming and such. The background was really a focal point I wanted all the elements to not be connected and to be "floating" in between one another.

Could you potentially give me any detailed changes you would personally make to this template?

[W3Theory || Peter]

I would definitely do something different with the main content and set up a different way of doing it, at the moment I have no idea on what to change. As you said you want it to not be connected and floating. Sorry, if I get any ideas I'll post some

[Lilith]

black on black reminds me of the kid that doesn't want to be seen. I think thats what has happened here as well. Now I think if you were to go with light and dark gray on black with a slightly brighter red that pops (accents) rather than fades together, I think you would have something good. At this point, there is nothing to tie in your white. It just floats on top of the sea of black looking like an after thought.

[Dave]

black on black reminds me of the kid that doesn't want to be seen. I think thats what has happened here as well. Now I think if you were to go with light and dark gray on black with a slightly brighter red that pops (accents) rather than fades together, I think you would have something good. At this point, there is nothing to tie in your white. It just floats on top of the sea of black looking like an after thought.

Okay I shall play around with changing the silly amount of black to some more lighter shades of grey and see how that pans out. What would you suggest for the white text to make it flow more?

[Lilith]

The white should tie in a lot better once you get the shades of gray. I like to use rule of 4 in design work I do. I tend to apply this to shades rather than tones. Where you are looking for a dark/ black theme. the rule of 4 would apply in using full black, full white, and 2 tones in between. With Black, this is easy to figure out as you have 4 web safe colors to choose from: White #FFFFFF , Silver #C0C0C0, Gray #808080, and Black #000000. by alternating dark and light you can really find emphasis in your design. BY adding a shade of red corresponding with one of the four colors, you can add some accents to really emphasize certain places. (Corresponding shades of red would be #FF0000 :White, #C00000 to silver, #800000 to gray, and Black only pairs to black)