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So, after the last article I continued working on the beta. I took the comments on board (sort ot)… and turned on the beta version. It’s now the live front page of the TAC web-site.

It still is not at the quality you’d get from a real designer. During the redesign, I consulted my local graphic designer, who really knows nothing about web design, but knows a lot about using text and setting things out – the thing I came to understand was the need to create a layers to make the design more professional looking.

Layers, meaning, not just text on white… but texture, imagery, borders, clearly defined spaces. Hence, defined boxes, similar but subtley different.

Despite the advise, I didn’t quite get there… got over the whole process and made the beta site live.

A small part of the new version is the use of some imagery for the Bible talks. When the concept for this web-site was being discussed on this very blog, we discussed using photos. I never achieved that on the site, but using photography to represent our Bible talks is much easier than showing people in our church (and less fake than using stock photography to represent the people of our church).

So, I went about fiddling with some stock photography to represent the Bible talks. Where I previously created clip art derived graphics, I made a photo based graphic (seen on this page). I also made a larger version that can be used in church, as part of the PowerPoint presentation, to give a consistent image to the talks of a series.

But then last night, I had a new idea. An idea that would take the design back to 2 columns, and increase the imagery:text ratio on the front page. Beta2 (have a look), well… I don’t need to explain, it’s pretty obvious what I’ve done. What do you think? Be honest, I know you will be. I’m still not a fantastic graphic designer, but I certainly like the feel of this new look.