Critique please

I had a little play combining bits from two styles

I'm not normally an advocate of dark skins either, but decided on giving this one a try

And come up with the new look to my forum
www.thespainforum.com

The logo is not an image with the forum title written onto it. The forum title is separate text over the image

A couple of bits I'm not too sure about, if they look right or work

Lets see what you guys think and where I have or have not ballsed things up

It's a little dark. I think getting rid of the black background will really help to lighten the site up more.

I like the idea of having a photo as your header, but I think yours could use some work.

I would recommend hiring a good logo designer. Graphics work is almost always best left to the experts. I learned that first hand from trying to do it myself on old projects!

Thanks for that Joe. Just the two cosmetic changes.
I can wipe the sweat off my brow now

I have integrated part of the VBSEO skin in with a style called Modern Blue.

The header and a few of the forum images came from VBSEO

Remember to check out this thread as well:
Your Site Review - Stuff to Do First

Cheers for that Joe. I noticed that post the other day.

I changed some of the icons today, they fit more in with the colour scheme and make forums with new posts stand out more.

Plus decided to bite the bullet and change how the URLs are written. Changed them to the same as VBSEO. Part of the reason was it was showing URL, forum URL, thread title. I have the word forum and Spain in my URL and by having the forum there as well, it might have been seen as keyword stuffing.

I get between 3k to 6k google search bot hits a day, so with any luck the new changes should start showing up with any increase in hits over the next couple of weeks

Checked that link Joe. Checked the code on my forum and wished I had not

Now down to about 52 errors from 120

And looking at a bottle of wine thinking it will give a lot more pleasure than banging my head with this one

just a minor tweak that could help

these icons

then saving, matte them with color #152F3E and they will look a lot cleaner on your forum.

Good tip with the icons.

Im a little bit lot with that tip. Sorry to be a pain, can you explain it a bit more please

Thanks Lee

I might have the logo under control after all this time.
Just ordered three new themes. All with different logos that go nicely with each other. About a days work editing all three and giving members a choice of what ones they use

I would love to take a look the new themes and logos once they are available.

Originally Posted by Caddyman

just a minor tweak that could help

these icons

then saving, matte them with color #152F3E and they will look a lot cleaner on your forum.

if that is the forum icons you are using and you have the psd file for them send it to me and i will save them in the right way to make them look sharp and send them back for you to upload

chase @ talkdelaware.com is the email address...

ETA: see how it looks good on this white background here but i little rough around the edges on your dark background of your site. i would be cleaning that up.

Joe the designer I found selling skins, is doing them what I would class as cheap at present. $5 for a skin reduced from $30 for a limited time.

With my growing understanding of forum mechanics, next I'm moving onto quantum mechanics and brain surgery which must be easier and less time consuming All the skins pass the xhtml test with flying colours, through the link on here.

More than sixty themes to choose from as well
http://www.sultantheme.com/theme-store/vbulletin-372/

If your limited in skills like me, there is a good selection depending on what your looking for.

Caddyman, thanks so much for the offer. The only files not included in the psd files are those icons. I used them from another skin downloaded from vb.org

I will have a play with photo shop and see if I can tidy things up a bit. Now my copy is working again

Thanks for all the help and input

Quick update.

Three styles are in place.

Googlies need blending in still
Navigation links still need doing

But you can get an idea of how they will look when bodged together. Sorry I meant expertly built

Choosing the right text colour for each styles h1 header and tag line will be my next mess up.

Click on the link in my sig to see the new styles. Style versions 3 4 and 5 are the ones being set up

Nice, i think i like 3 the best, 5 is a close 2nd....