VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

SilverSurfer3001

Not sure why I'm doing this, since I'm not much of a glutton for punishment, but I'm not the best judge of what I've done here, so....

http://www.vosilvers.com/

There it is.

Be kind (or not).

thanks

>>winces<<[/url]
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Jody Silvers
VOSilvers.com

bobsouer · Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2011 5:16 pm Post subject:

Jody,

Mighty nice demo you got there. I like the website, too. A little wordy, maybe, for some tastes, but it hits me just right.
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Bob Souer (just think of lemons)
The second nicest guy in voiceover.
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cyclometh · Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2011 5:32 pm Post subject:

I love the logo.

A few notes:

The blue text on red is clashing. Blue and red are complementary colors and with two such intense versions the edges of the blue on the red are vibrating and very difficult to look at. The text on the "Can I get a VO Silvers" page is OK, use that color for the rest, or maybe lighten it up a shade.

Make the left column (with the text) about 35 to 50 pixels shorter; I put it on a 1024-pixel wide screen, which is my secondary monitor and the layout clipped over the right edge a bit.

Change the name of the demo from "Commercial Demo - Copy" to just "Commercial Demo" or something like that. You may also want to move it up a bit so it's on the main page after it loads without having to scroll. I'd also consider a different player or different options for the one you have, it doesn't flow with the rest of the site.

It looks like some of the text was pasted from Word or another editing program, as you have some stray non-breaking spaces in there. For example, "very well respected colleague" has two spaces betwen "respected" and "colleague", and looking at the HTML source, there's a character in there. I'll bet that was a line ending or something. Get rid of stray weirdness like that. Smile

There's a small few typos. "have never once waited tables (and would terrible at it even if I did)" is missing a "be" in there, for example. Nothing really bad, that's just something I noted.

And lastly- a minor nit. The graphic "high performance voice" seems to be slightly aliased. If that's a reduction from a larger image, use a different algorithm for resizing it?

Overall, not bad. Certainly is visually striking.
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Corey "Vox Man" Snow
http://voxman.net

todd ellis · Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2011 7:11 pm Post subject:

i'm with corey - the blue on red gave me a headache. i had to scroll down to get to your nice demo - i hate to scroll. as cool as that logo is, you might think about shrinking it a bit to allow you to place your demos more prominently. also - and this is jmho - but i'd choose one logo and stick with it. both are cool. maybe that's why there are two? i picked up on the aliased graphic as well, so i'd fix that. great ideas, though ... nice!
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"i know philip banks": todd ellis
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Mike Sommer · Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2011 7:12 pm Post subject:

Nice Demo

The Electric blue text is a little hard on the eyes, and the yellow text is not relating to anything on the site. Have you given the orange a try or a light gray like the chrome from the logos.

I love the V8, but it's too big/ I would not make it much taller than the text on the home page. Remember those V8 logos were on the fenders and not hood ornaments.

Not getting the emotion-con and the mic thingy, it nothing to do with what you done. I would put "The Sterling Choice" on the bottom right on the Hood Ornament, and "For you" on the other side dropped down like it is now. (This would add a 50's dealership look)

To fill in a 3 high checkered strip going behind the Hood Ornament would fill in the empty space on the sides. Like his:

I would center "High Perforce Voice" and maybe a lighter font.
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Acoustics are counter-intuitive. If one thing is certain about acoustics, it is that if anything seems obvious it is probably wrong.

Bruce · Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2011 6:59 am Post subject:

I had the grand idea of using a dark red when I re-did my site a while back, got knocked for it and I really see why. It makes things quite unreadable. Even on a more neutral colored background I think that extra italicized chrome script will be hard to read.

I'd move your demo player way up and make it clearer/bigger, so those who just want to hear you and hire you don't have to hunt for it. Also, your email link and phone number(?) should be centered and very visible to a short-time viewer.

Also, 3 logos on one page? I'd stick with one.

B
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I'm not a Zoo, but over the years I've played one on radio/TV. .

Chuck Davis · Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2011 7:51 am Post subject:

Liked that demo too!

I'm with the rest of the pack regarding the blue on red....I could barely read it. The emoticon/mic thing doesn't work with teh rest of the site for me either. Love the logo though.
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Scott Pollak · Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2011 10:00 am Post subject:

Okay, quick bullet points, from a guy who was a web designer for about 6 years:

- Your logo is pretty cool, but WAY too friggin' big! Takes too long to load. Size it down to a tasteful size. Don't ram it down our throats. Smaller is more tasteful.
- You already know the color schemes don't work. Personally, I'd not only go to a traditional text/background combination, such as dark text on a light b.g., but I'd change that red background. The color red has a psychological significance of 'danger' or 'warning'. It is NOT a warm and inviting color. Blue is warmer, and it's in your logo. Work with a variation of that.
- No consistency from page to page. On your third page "Can I get..." you at least have readable text. But why isn't it white on the other two pages?
- LOSE the BLUE ON RED Text!!! Or have we said that? You can NOT read it.

(But again.... cool logo!)
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Scott R. Pollak
Clients include Pandora, NPR Atlanta, Wells Fargo, Cisco, Humana, Publix, UPS, AT&T, HP, Xerox and more.

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SilverSurfer3001 · Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 6:31 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the words, folks.

One thing, I'm wondering about though: Do you guys think I should change that Electric Blue on Red Velvet Background? Wink

I've changed it up now to reflect a pale grey that on the red looks almost white just not as stark.

Corey -thanks for the heads up on the misplaced typography - I'll get right on that and hopefully have it changed up by the weekend - as soon as I can get my computer that seems to have a corrupted boot driver uncorrupted.

Mike, I resized the V8 logo to be a little less intrusive.

As to the emoticon: he's actually a bouncy red rubber ball, and I have tried to kill him numerous times, but everytime I do, I am met with an uproar by "non-vo types" who just love the little mascot, so I'm torn about killing him. I'll let time decide on that one. He's actually quite a simple and effective marketing tool, so I may just keep him around for a little while longer.

Scott, I hear ya on the red, but frankly, that seems to be the colour that people seem to land on when I focus group. Sure danger is one of the connotations with the colour, but so is energy, excitement, performance, attention getting, standing out in a crowd, and so on. It has been one of the most effective marketing colours for decades (e.g. Campbell's Soup, Coca Cola). But I get your message: Don't overdo it. Maybe since I'ma keep the little guy around, I'll let him stand out in a field of Blue, or even Steel grey.....

Off to repair the boot drive and get this sucker retooled.

Thanks for the input, peoples! It is very much appreciated!

Have a great weekend!
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Jody Silvers
VOSilvers.com

Mike Sommer · Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2011 8:37 am Post subject:

The Blue Yellow White fonts is seriously not working especially the blue, it literally vibrates with intercity and not in a good way.

Scott's right about the red. Red is a great color, but it's best used in moderation, specifically as an accent. You want people to read your content not reach for a dark glasses.

As for Campbell's Soup read can. Only half the can is red, and the white Campbell's Logo is separated by a drop shadow for intelligibility. The red used is also a much deeper red, more to the backs, and the secondary font color is "gold," to balanced against the red.
http://www.saintchristopherschool.org/campbells.jpg

Your red background is just way to bright and way to much.

And I have to agree with with Scott that the main logo is far to big.
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Acoustics are counter-intuitive. If one thing is certain about acoustics, it is that if anything seems obvious it is probably wrong.

Dan-O · The Gates of Troy Joined: 17 Jan 2005 Posts: 1638

SilverSurfer3001 · Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2011 10:00 pm Post subject:

Alright... after finally getting my system back up and running. I present the reformatted webpage.

I lost the vast majority of the red, went with a far more neutral BG, jiggled the header around and redesgigned the layout of it, moved the player up "above the fold," the type is still blue - but not electric blue and not on a red BG, added my phone number to my contact sheet and tonedd down the V8.

Whaddayall think, now?
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Jody Silvers
VOSilvers.com

Bailey · Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2011 10:50 pm Post subject:

Why are these words in pale blue?

Mike Sommer · Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 9:52 am Post subject:

You're getting more focused and it's much easier on the eyes.

You have a really good vintage logo theme going on, and then you throw this
into the mix:

I would lose this icon, move the sunburst behind it off page and center the
logo more. Then place the V8 logo into the void of darker gray sidebar, and
make it a little bigger.

The V8 logo is my favorite feature of this page. If you need a microphone on the page, I would use the V8 as a mic badge--- just a thought.
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The Blog:
http://voiceoveraudio.blogspot.com/

Acoustics are counter-intuitive. If one thing is certain about acoustics, it is that if anything seems obvious it is probably wrong.

todd ellis · Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 10:17 am Post subject:

i agree with most of what mike says - however, i like the off-center logo.

+1 on ditching happy red ball
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"i know philip banks": todd ellis
who's/on/1st?