[WIP]Forum Skin - Advice Needed!

Hey All

Those of you that know me will know I havn't been designing much lately, so I decieded it was about time to get back in the swing of things. I'm creating this forum skin for the sole purpose of selling it on when done.

I'm struggling a little bit with getting the colour scheme to fit right. I've tried to integrate almost two colour schemes, one for the main layout and one for the forum bit. Weather or not it's going to work I have no idea, I have linked the two colour schemes through-out but still I'm not sure.

So here it is: View Forum Skin

The problem is with the blue colour behind the postbit. I can't decieded weather the blue fits in or not. Part of me thinks, maybe it's not so bad and once it's complete your not going to see that much of it anyway but then I'll think pale blue, deep red and vibrant yellow's just don't go together at all. I've thought a better solution would be to just have the background white, I'd need to add a darker stroke to the main forumbit though.

This is still very much a work in progress and I'm still not sure weather or not I'll finish this skin though, I just can't decied weather or not I like it!

So thats where you come in, any advice on that area (and the rest of the forum!) would be really great and very much appretiated.


Thanks Alot

EDIT: Here is how it could look with an off-white background. I think this one looks better personally but I still can't decied if it's all fitting together well enough or not - http://21exits.com/GFv2.jpg

Latest Version!

Wow, looks absolutely great. I prefer the white background version. My favourite part has to be the category header.

I like the white background version more aswell. I think the top part where it says "general chat" is a bit too bulky though.

Great job.

Thanks Jeff

I deffinately prefer the white too, the blue one has put me off alot though - I don't think the forumbit fits in with the rest of the design at all now even on the white one. I might just ditch the blue colours altogether.

The category header is probably the only part I'm settled on at the moment The rest is just a big mock-up at the minute.

Thanks Tucker! - I'll look into that

Loving the colour scheme mate.

Cheers mate

I'm still not fully decieded on anything though but I think I'll finish the whole thing off with that colour scheme now (using the whiteish background) and go from there. Should have it ready some time tonight actually.

Originally Posted by Jeff Andersen Wow, looks absolutely great. I prefer the white background version. My favourite part has to be the category header.

That plus the header text needs a kerning boost. The text on the black bars under the yellow either needs to be skinnier (--> <--) or the letter height needs to be set back to 100%

Here is the second version in full, I've got one or two things to tweak before I make the postbit, smilies etc to go with it. Im hoping to put this up for sale in a few hours, all comments and suggestions are, as always, greatly appretiated.

View It!

Looks great Bazza, but i'm not sure what the forum icons are - just half moons?

To be honest they aren't really based on anything, just random. I just thought I'd do something different that could be used on any genre of forum