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Site Name: Zellow Productions
Owner: Christina
Reviewed by: Georgina
Reviewed on: 27th October 2008
Site Name
I gotta be honest, it isn’t exactly my favourite and I have mixed feelings about it. I like the ‘zellow’ part a lot, but not so much the ‘productions’ – even though, overall, it is quite easy to remember.
Layout
While I’m not really a fan of celebrity layouts and should warn you that it’s illegal unless you actually are obtaining it from a legal source (see here) – I do like the look of your layout and I think it’s better than your previous one that I saw.
Your header image is blended really well. I like the colours and the brushes you’ve used and how they extend past the sides of the layout – it looks really good. The choice of colours was good and I like how you’ve used more delicate brushes in contrast with the paint/ink splats.
Your site name is clear and I like the font you’ve used. The way the text changes colour across, as the colours do in the rest of the layout, is really nice. It’s a bit of a shame that it isn’t so obvious on the navigation. I can see that you’ve tried to keep the colour change across the layout the same, but it looks as if you’ve purposely made the navigation a different colour. But I don’t think there’s anything you can do about that.
The background has a nice texture which I really like. It’s quite simple and doesn’t make everything look cluttered. Your CSS is pretty good and matches the layout nicely. I like how the headers in the sidebar and content are a different colour.
Now I notice that button in the middle of your layout on the phone/camera that Vanessa Anne Hudgens is holding. What is it? I don’t know if it’s an advertisement or an affiliate rotation, but it’s extremely out of place and it should go. Especially when the button that comes up is animated. It’s really distracting, and your advertisements can go first thing in the sidebar. There is really no problem with putting them there.
Your layout looks centered, but it isn’t when I look at it with a smaller resolution. Centering your layouts is a lot neater. Now I won’t be able to explain this properly, but you’ll need to find out how to use div containers. I use these but admittedly I am not good at explaining how they work – I am more of an edit-upload-check-reedit girl. You may like to check out this tutorial. If you scroll further down you’ll find out how to center your layout using those containers. 
Also when I look at your coding, it is not validated. You can see here. I have to stress that this is very important particularly if you want your website to load faster. The main problems you have are that you don’t have a doctype – which really needs to be included for your website and pages to be processed properly! Also, you have no opening HTML tag or HEAD tag. If you click the link I just provided, it will show you what other errors there are in your coding.
Overall your layout is really nice and well made on the outside, but you do need to fix up coding. It is not entirely important for things to be validated but it is of course preferable to make your site run smoother. And move that ad/button thing somewhere else.
Content
I’m not sure why you need those ‘links’ in your sidebar. I’m very sure you have them in your subpages. And I already see ‘apply’ under the list of affiliates. And as for the random link button – yes, it’s very random, and I don’t even know why it isn’t of a standard 88 by 31 pixels, or 100 by 35. Otherwise everything in your sidebar is fine, and nicely centered.
Content
This would be better off called ‘Visitor’. ‘Content’ inherently defines every content on your site, whether it be about you, about the site – whatever you’ve included. So ‘visitor’ would be a lot better, or ‘visitor content’.
I click on graphics under your visitor content only to be taken to another page of links! This is incredibly annoying considering I just came from a page of links and have yet come across more. You should place the links to all your graphic types on the visitor content page, under a subheading ‘graphics’. It would save time and space.
These advanced pictures are pretty good, but I wouldn’t use them. I think it’s great you included a link to your tutorial.
I wanted to see your icons and avatars, yet I get another sub-page with links. Avatars and icons are generally the same, just different sizes, and either animated or non animated. Your icons are nice, but the fact that they’re all animated is really hurting my eyes. I’m sure they look nice on their own. Unfortunately all on the same page it isn’t a good look. Also, what do you mean by ‘Old accounts‘? What accounts are these? Not all your visitors would understand. Are they just old icons?
Under your avatars, I see it’s an iconator account you are referring to. Perhaps mention ‘old iconator account’ in the icons. Just stating that My iconator account is: the-six-mix doesn’t say anything – why are you displaying it? So people can view your other avatars or something? Or for requests? Maybe something like ‘If you would like to see my other avatars, my Iconator account is the-six-mix’ (or something similar), and provide a link.
Though I wouldn’t really use any of your avatars or icons, they are really quite nice and well animated (the icons). I just am not interested in celebrities. Try to take into account that not all your visitors will like these, so I suggest making avatars of different things as well.
On your avatars page, your first two animated avatars and second celebrity avatar is 96 by 96 pixels whereas everything else is 100 by 100.
You have rules on your icon backgrounds page – why not on your avatars and icons? Or on your advanced pictures? On your advanced pictures you only mentioned briefly. Here there are more rules. It seems really inconsistent. And why are these only allowed to be used for Iconator? It’s really a shame – I mean, I would have liked to use a few if I could. If people can give you proper credit, I don’t see why they can’t use them. Nevertheless, I really do like these backgrounds and the textures are nice.
Your blends are okay. Some of them have your old site URL on them and I have to admit they don’t look as snazzy as your newer ones. I’m not sure if these could be used for layouts – if that’s what they are even for – some of them are quite small. If you’re intending to use them for layouts, perhaps make them bigger. For example, the Hannah Beth one is quite small. I also suggest showing thumbnails of the entire blend, or at least a bigger section, because from your thumbnails I have no option but to open all of them because I can’t see exactly what it looks like as a whole.
The icon light textures aren’t as good as your ‘icon backgrounds’ – and I don’t see why these would be under their own category when they would really fit under the backgrounds – because there isn’t much here.
Your photography is really nice, especially the heart! I think that you should offer these as stock images or at least make them bigger. These are too small to really be used for anything.
Your textures are nice. I like the blue and pink ones. You don’t have a note like ‘click to view full image’, even though you did with your blends.
Your wallpapers are really amazing. I think they show your talent better than your other graphics. A lot of these show me that you can also make some really good layouts. The blending is also much better in these wallpapers than in your blends section.
A lot of your blends and textures and things would be better off opened in a new window.
When I click your downloads link, I am again taken to a page of links. It would be a lot easier and save more space if you tried to avoid so many subpages.
The brushes look alright. However, you should have an imagepack so people can view all the brushes without having to download the zip file. Also, you should specify what these brushes are for! Paint Shop? Photoshop? Anything other than that?
It’s nice that you offer fonts for download, but you should make sure that they are able to be distributed. Some people don’t allow their fonts to be redistributed without permission; but at least you did note that you didn’t make them. The dashes after the font names are not necessary.
Now I am even more annoyed that I click on ‘Myspace content’ and find only one link. You should really remove all these unecessary subpages.
In your tutorials, HTML should be capitalised. And AIM should also be capitalised under your HTML help section. Text with lines through them is better known as striked-out text. It’s nice that you show examples but some of them don’t have any, and it would be great to show examples. And ‘change Scrollbar’ – what does that mean? Change the colours, or where it’s located?
The special characters are a smart idea. Adding more would be great!
On your saving as .PNG tutorial:
This tutorial is for those who aren’t so experience with graphic designing and is struggling.
would be better rephrased as:
This tutorial is for those who aren’t so experienced with graphic designing and are struggling.
In your advanced picture tutorial 1, raster layout should be raster layer. You have this twice in your tutorial. And why is the text so big compared to your other pages? Your text seems to be inconsistent everywhere and it’s not a good look.
I notice you have a ‘new’ pixel next to your second advanced tutorial. The colour doesn’t match your layout and it’s too bright – but it’s a nice idea to have added it.
Also, in your advanced picture tutorial 2, raster layout should be raster layer – you have also done this a few times.
Site
Your ‘affiliation rules’ link should be renamed to ‘affiliation rules and form’ because that’s what it actually says on the page. You never stole should be ‘You should never steal’. Buttons should be ‘link’ – you don’t appear to use buttons, and it’s more accurate to say link.
On your credits page you should really actually link to the websites rather than display their link. If people want to view the site they have to copy their address. And linking to the site is only right to give proper credit.
Your awards and gifts are okay, but you’ve only linked a few of them to the website you received them from. You should link them all, wherever possible. And you need to add a few more line breaks between a few of them, because a few of them are squished up.
Your site history page really is crammed up, and needs to be spaced out properly. You also need to link to the people you have mentioned. Here is an example of how you should have spaced it out, and I’ve also made bold what I have changed due to spelling or grammar errors:
Prepare yourself for a long paragraph, haha. Okay, so I started out on Iconator. I began exploring a lot of people’s profiles and noticed many of them had little background websites on Freewebs.
I decided to check out this free hosting site. I immediately fell in love with the idea of web designing. At first, I had no idea how to do anything. I didn’t know how to code or even make graphics. I’d never heard of HTML or PSP/PS. I made a lot of accounts on Freewebs, but my websites were full of stupid junk and nobody even went on them.
I then decided to create a website that provides graphics - just like a million teen-run sites out there on the web.
I needed a name. I wanted a unique yet unusual name. I stared at the bag of marshmallows in front of me and thought, Mellow! Then, Wellow. Then, Quello.
And finally, I thought of Zellow. I liked the name and that’s what I called my first website. I wasn’t so good at making graphics so my friend Kate @ When-Buttons-Invade, made me headers for my layouts. I basically read the whole LissaExplains website and the Create-Blog tutorials on coding. I looked at layouts and other coding tutorial sites. I knew enough to code my first layout.
I then decided to explore the world of making graphics. I downloaded a bunch of programs and brushes. At first, I sucked at making blends! They turned out so horrible! Even now, looking at the blends I used to make, I cringe at the sight of them. I got better over time. I kept learning and advancing. I was happy with what I had.
Cammy came to my site and told me how good it was. I was happy and I applied to get hosted. She accepted which made me super excited! I was going to be part of the Oh-Sassy family, hehe.I came to my senses… I had no idea how this hosting thing worked! A bunch of my affiliates who had experience helped me out. I learned a lot and of course went to websites that helped with CSS and FTP. I learned a lot.
And then Andrea hosted me. I was sad to leave my subdomain and Cammy, but excited because I had my own domain. It took a while for me to transfer all the files and everything!
So now, this is where I am… ZellowProductions.com – my own domain. =]
Your past layouts are good. But I don’t see why you didn’t include a screenshot of what the whole layout looked like, and why you are missing some. You should make a note of this on your page.
Comment
Self explanatory. Maybe you should try and get the cbox colours to match your layout.
Reviews
Sorry, down for the moment. What a shame. It’s not nice to give this sort of impression to visitors by making an entire section down. 
Originality
I can’t say I saw any, apart from your photography. You used a lot of celebrity images for your content, and your layout as well. This is illegal and also, it’s not original. It’s something I have, unfortunately, seen before – celebrity blends and icons.
Organisation/Errors
I thought your site was disorganised and you gave me the impression that a few things were rushed. You need to make things more user friendly for your visitors – explain what things are for and why, and state rules clearer.
The many subpages was annoying and another factor that made things not so user friendly. It’s annoying to have to be taken to a page of links time and time again.
Overall comment
You have a great site here Christina, and your layout and wallpapers really blew me away. Your graphic skill is what really stands out to me, but a lot of your content I found obvious you didn’t spend as much time on them. Work on quality, not quantity.
The celebrity images are not original and are illegal, and you should use your own photography or legal stock photography (some at Stock Xchng, for instance). Your graphic skill is great, and you need to spend more time on things like your blends.
Your wallpapers, like I said, are excellent. You also make such great layouts and it would be really nice if you offered layouts. But as your coding is not strong I suggest you just offer the images and not the coding.
Overall you need to oranigse your site a little better, and spend a bit more time on your graphics that you offer. Try to stray away from the celebrity images. You may find stock photography with people in it, who aren’t necessarily celebrities, and I’m sure you wouldn’t mind using such photographs.
Your site is great, Christina, and your graphic skills make it stand out. However you need to be more user-friendly to visitors – offer more of your better stuff like layouts, if you really want to keep the visitors coming back. Good luck!
