Surely I can't be the only person who thinks gradients look bad?

Other than that, great!

Thanks for that tip, Thomas. I should probably browse through the PHP manual more often when I run into problems like these.

Right now the logo is a pretty big problem. Dekudude (xyteran) commented on it on Facebook, and he suggested we should try removing the tagline as well. But I really like your idea of an indirect tagline. I wonder what we could possibly say though. I can't think of anything that wouldn't be an obscure inside joke.

yeah, of course. I don't think I have the time to make two sites....

And yeah I definitely tend to prefer gradients for some reason. I'm thinking of removing that one in the background, because we don't really need it and I spent most of my time working without it. I only added it to see how it looked like since we had one on the current site, and then I saved the preview image.

The layout feels very trendy, following all the latest rounded corners/glossy big buttons for iPhones trends. =p

Maybe we can make an acronym out of Interguild for the tagline?

Please don't do that.

I can't even think of any acronyms...

It's trendy partly because it works so well. I guess when using this style, you're kinda walking a fine line between making something with the intention of making it feel really good and making something that is simply trying to be cool by mimicking everyone else. Hopefully the final design doesn't come off as pretentious.

Here's a quick update

I removed the tagline and made the text in the navigation bar smaller and not all-caps:
http://revamp.interguild.org/preview3.png

Dekudude suggested moving the logo closer to the bar, so I tried it out:
http://revamp.interguild.org/preview2.png
But I didn't really like it, at least when compaged to preview3.

Agreed on P3 > P2.

I still really don't like the gradients, but at least they aren't too extreme.

I'm trying to figure out how the rest of the page should looks like. I uploaded some of what I've been brainstorming with:

http://revamp.interguild.org/preview4.png
For this one, I was thinking "what if the background was bright enough for black text?" I'm actually surprised by how good it looks, but there's one big problem in that I'll probably have to find a new color to represent hyperlinks, because it's hard to find a nice shade of yellow that works on this shade of gray. Also, I don't know if it's weird to have text on one part of the page that is black, and text on another part of the same page that is white.

http://revamp.interguild.org/preview5.png
Again with the light background, but this time with a slightly different style and more text to play around with. I don't really like this one.

http://revamp.interguild.org/preview6.png
Dark colors! Although, this one's kinda meh, also.

http://revamp.interguild.org/preview7.png
What if there was a drop-shadow? Meh.

http://revamp.interguild.org/preview8.png
This ones better, or at least it feels tighter and nicer.

http://revamp.interguild.org/preview9.png
Just like the last one, but slightly darkened sidebars. I'm surprised by how big of an effect this had in the overall feel of the page. It's kinda nice.


I personally think that the two best ones are 4 and 9, but 4 definitely feels better. What do you think?

It's really hard to work on the darker side of the spectrum, because it's hard to generate enough contrast without having to resort to black or near-black. Maybe I should try embracing black and really dark colors and see how that looks. But I feel like the lighter spectrum will somehow make the place feel happier or something, and less gloomy.

All of these previews are done in Photoshop, so I haven't started programming yet, but I think I might use CSS for rounding the edges. It doesn't work in IE, but no one on the Interguild uses (or should use) IE, anyway.

no then I can't browse the Interguild at 3:30 in the morning nooo

jk.
9 is cute though.

9 is the best.

that's pretty damn cool.

I seem to be the only one to prefer number 6.

Definately 9. No question.

9 is almost as sexy as I am.

lol I'm the only one who prefers the brighter background. But I have to admit, 9 is also pretty cool, and I'm curious to see how it would look like with actual content on it.

I like 6, 7, and 9. My comp is in the sun though, so maybe I can't see well.  

Could you do 5 with a drop shadow? I think that would look great.

I think we should choose a mobile-friendly layout. Or we could just have a separate layout for mobile.  
Anyways, I'd like 9, but with different colour schemes like for the old new interguild, the old interguild, etc

Not a mobile friendly layout under any circumstances others large monitors will make the interguild fail.

Mobile layout needs to have:
1. Chatbox
2. Recent posts and comments
3. Online players
4. Your stats
5. A way to post ()

Hold your damn horses guys. Let's allow Livio to work on one thing at a time.

With drop shadow (plus a slight border to make it appear more crisp):
http://revamp.interguild.org/preview10.png
Without:
http://revamp.interguild.org/preview5.png

Don't worry, I already said that I'm planning on making a mobile layout.