Garage Of Design

Graphics:
- Theme: The first thing that catched my eyes when I scrolled over your forum for the first time was the big "GOD" text on the bottom. That shortie from the actual "Garage Of Design" is pretty creative. Now for the theme itself... My personal opinion is that grey and that kind of blue is not really a match. At least I don`t like it. The width is ok, but the background looks a little bit empty on a 1920x1080 resolution. Maybe a more exciting background can give a more shocking experience for your visitors. Also I see some problems with the use of those hover effects and a minor problem concerning the "bolding" of the names of the categories. But I will mention them later. As for the theme, it seems clean and organized which is a good thing. But I miss some border around the background of the category names. With a border that big below of them (around the "Last Post", "Posts", "Topics" etc.) it almost looks like that has no importance at all. But the overall is good so it`s (7/10).
- Banner: A nice and creative banner, I must say. That fonttype is just cool and stylish without being overcomplicated with unnecessary lines all over. So the text is nice... along with the background of it. A nice, old (I`m not sure how could I put that two word in one sentence... ) wooden plate which is actually hanging on the top "row" of the forum. Again, that is creative. Well, I have a somewhat personal grudge against your mascot but I hope it wont get in my way of saying things nicely. So I don`t like that, but that is just me. But the little backlight of it is nice. I like that. And I like how you inserted a navigation bar inside of it. So with the creativity and simplicity of it, I can say that this is an Awesome banner. (9/10)
- Navigation Bar: I am always complaining about forums which doesn`t have a navigation bar... And here I got three at once. Maybe a bit too much if you ask me. But the bigger problem is our hover effect here. You seem to change the opacity of the images in the opposite way. You make the pictures more transparent when people move their cursor over them. Why is that? And you do that on every three bar. Maybe you just mistyped something and copy-pasted after? Either way, I guess that is not good like that. It should be the opposite of that. Aside from that, the shape and concept of the most upper bar is my favourite (the one inside the banner... kinda). The other two is too empty and "boring" for me. Maybe try changing that fonttype on those two. And I noticed the difference in the height of the text in the most bottom navigation bar. The height of the "Upload" text is much bigger than the height of the text "Web Search". Don`t tell me you were lazy to create a little bit wider background for the longer texts. Just joking of course, but you should correct that so the height of the text is even for every button. Now your score will go down because of the reversed opacity effect and the two simplier navigation bars. But the first bar is nice as it is. (6/10)
- Icons: Since I am using Photoshop myself too, these icons for the notifications for new replies or topics are matching nicely your forums main subject. Although I think that the font color on the "Hot/Popular Topics" is not too visible on that background color. I would change that color to a darker one. The pictures for making a reply or a new topic were invisible for me at the first time, but thank god, after a refresh it displayed how it should. So those two buttons are almost the same. I mean the little note on them. Is that a "+" on the "New Topic" button? If it is, than it is too small. You`ve got enough space for a bigger "+", so why don`t you use it? Aside from that, those are not bad either. As you miss a who is online image, only the rank images are left... Which I don`t like too much. The text "GOD" in them are too pixelized and also small. Again, there is around 25-30 pixel extra space between the end of the rank image and the actual message you posted. So you can use that space too. Even with just resizing it to that width and keeping the aspect ratio how it is will get you a better result on these. I suggest you try it out. Also I`m not a big fan of those basic fonts on a picture. That`s all about your icons. (6/10)
The sum of all is 28/40. Just change the things I mentioned up here, and it will be even better.

Categories & Forums:
I`m not sure I can see every forum you have. I can only see three of them which are "Start", "Help" and "Activities". But I have a strong feeling that I can`t see the more interesting parts of your forum. But I can only comment the visible ones for me. First of all, I don`t know why you named the "Help" category like that. It seems to me that the "Garage of PNG`s" is not counting as any help in that form. It will help only those who will use them. The other thing is that "bolding" I mentioned before. So, your category names are simly disappearing from the screen if you keep them like that. Use a bold text instead of the regular one. Some spelling errors too, both in English and Serbian. "Welcome" is with only one "l", and I`m sure you were in a hurry while you typed "Rekalmni baneri". You wanted "Reklamni Baneri", right? Keep an eye on these things cause a visitor can take it the wrong way, like you are not watching over the forum as you should. Since I can only see these 3 minor category, I can`t say much here. And I thought I will see some nice tutorials for Photoshop... So my suggestion for you here would be to make some more forums visible to guests. Maybe they will like what they will find. (13/20).
Edit: Now that I saw the forums themselves, it seems like my predictions were good. I saw some tutorials for Photoshop, GIMP and even some HTML help is there. Although I still don`t know why was the category "Help" named like that. Maybe you should try to change that for "All about Graphics" or something like that. Anyway... You cover pretty much everything that is needed for a forum like yours. There are contests, show-off section, tutorials and a regular "chill-off place". But my suggestion is still intact. Show more of your forum to guests. It makes the decision whether to join or not into a community a lot easier. (14/20)

Usergroups:
Administrators, Moderators, Designers and VIP. And that is enough for a forum dealing with graphics. The sorting is good too. But the colors are not too visible especially for the designers group which also misses its description. Change some colors, write the description and it will be much better. (14/20)

Activity:
The forum is about 45 days old and has 146 registered user. That is 3,24 new member each day. That`s the biggest register rate I`ve seen so far. The number of posts is 4063 at the moment. Statistically 1/4 of it was made by the forum owner himself. And the other 1/4 of the posts were made by the staff. But the 50% is pure member posts. For a new site, that is not bad at all. There were 5 registered users online when I wrote this. In the last 99 hours there were 31 members who connected. Not bad, but still a little low if we know that it is only 20% of the members. And I see that you changed the default 24 hour to 99. I was curious who was really online in a one day period but I could not find the memberlist so I will skip that now. Well, I wish you more daily active members. (13/20)

More:
Here I must mention your homepage... Very nice work on it. Not too complicated but still pretty nice and appealing to the eye (although I hate that mascot you use - well, not the mascot but the whole cartoon of it). But, back to the main subject. So here are some little details you can improve on this homepage:
1. The favicon is missing on the homepage. I mean that little icon in the tab of my browser before the name of the page I am viewing.
2. The pictures/links around the mascot are supposed to be in a circular shape, right? Well those icons are not exactly in the right places than. And it can be seen easily on the first time you visit the page. I got the courage to take a look at the coding of it and maybe you can`t place it exactly where you want because you used a table layout for it? Why not using CSS and get more out of it?
3. The picture "Online PS" at its hovering state has not enough space for the lightig effect around the text. Notice the sharp cut off before the "O" of the text when you move your cursor over it? You should correct that little glitch.
That`s all I can think of right now about the homepage. But since I really like it I will give you 5 extra points for it.

And so the sum is 74/100 this time (with your bonus). Pretty Nice rank. Keep up the good work.

Code:

[b][i]"Nothing is personal in a review"[/i][/b]

[b]My rating table: [/b]
[b][color=red]91-100[/color][/b] - Unexpectedly Awesome
[b][color=darkred]76-90[/color][/b] - Awesome
[b][color=orange]61-75[/color][/b] - Pretty Nice
[b][color=green]41-60[/color][/b] - Average
[b][color=blue]21-40[/color][/b] - Below Average
[b][color=black]0-20[/color][/b] - Fail

[justify][b]Graphics[/b]:
- [b]Theme[/b]: The first thing that catched my eyes when I scrolled over your forum for the first time was the big "GOD" text on the bottom. That shortie from the actual "Garage Of Design" is pretty creative. Now for the theme itself... My personal opinion is that grey and that kind of blue is not really a match. At least I don`t like it. The width is ok, but the background looks a little bit empty on a 1920x1080 resolution. Maybe a more exciting background can give a more shocking experience for your visitors. Also I see some problems with the use of those hover effects and a minor problem concerning the "bolding" of the names of the categories. But I will mention them later. As for the theme, it seems clean and organized which is a good thing. But I miss some border around the background of the category names. With a border that big below of them (around the "Last Post", "Posts", "Topics" etc.) it almost looks like that has no importance at all. But the overall is good so it`s  ([b][color=orange]7/10[/color][/b]).
- [b]Banner[/b]: A nice and creative banner, I must say. That fonttype is just cool and stylish without being overcomplicated with unnecessary lines all over. So the text is nice... along with the background of it. A nice, old (I`m not sure how could I put that two word in one sentence... :lol: ) wooden plate which is actually hanging on the top "row" of the forum. Again, that is creative. Well, I have a somewhat personal grudge against your mascot but I hope it wont get in my way of saying things nicely. So I don`t like that, but that is just me. But the little backlight of it is nice. I like that. And I like how you inserted a navigation bar inside of it. So with the creativity and simplicity of it, I can say that this is an [b][color=darkred]Awesome[/color][/b] banner. ([b][color=darkred]9/10[/color][/b])
- [b]Navigation Bar[/b]: I am always complaining about forums which doesn`t have a navigation bar... And here I got three at once. Maybe a bit too much if you ask me. But the bigger problem is our hover effect here. You seem to change the opacity of the images in the opposite way. You make the pictures more transparent when people move their cursor over them. Why is that? And you do that on every three bar. Maybe you just mistyped something and copy-pasted after? Either way, I guess that is not good like that. It should be the opposite of that. Aside from that, the shape and concept of the most upper bar is my favourite (the one inside the banner... kinda). The other two is too empty and "boring" for me. Maybe try changing that fonttype on those two. And I noticed the difference in the height of the text in the most bottom navigation bar. The height of the "Upload" text is much bigger than the height of the text "Web Search". Don`t tell me you were lazy to create a little bit wider background for the longer texts. Just joking of course, but you should correct that so the height of the text is even for every button. Now your score will go down because of the reversed opacity effect and the two simplier navigation bars. But the first bar is nice as it is. ([b][color=green]6/10[/color][/b])
- [b]Icons[/b]: Since I am using Photoshop myself too, these icons for the notifications for new replies or topics are matching nicely your forums main subject. Although I think that the font color on the "Hot/Popular Topics" is not too visible on that background color. I would change that color to a darker one. The pictures for making a reply or a new topic were invisible for me at the first time, but thank god, after a refresh it displayed how it should. So those two buttons are almost the same. I mean the little note on them. Is that a "+" on the "New Topic" button? If it is, than it is too small. You`ve got enough space for a bigger "+", so why don`t you use it? Aside from that, those are not bad either. As you miss a who is online image, only the rank images are left... Which I don`t like too much. The text "GOD" in them are too pixelized and also small. Again, there is around 25-30 pixel extra space between the end of the rank image and the actual message you posted. So you can use that space too. Even with just resizing it to that width and keeping the aspect ratio how it is will get you a better result on these. I suggest you try it out. Also I`m not a big fan of those basic fonts on a picture. That`s all about your icons. ([b][color=green]6/10[/color][/b])
The sum of all is [b][color=orange]28/40[/color][/b]. Just change the things I mentioned up here, and it will be even better. 

[b]Categories & Forums[/b]:
I`m not sure I can see every forum you have. I can only see three of them which are "Start", "Help" and "Activities".  But I have a strong feeling that I can`t see the more interesting parts of your forum. But I can only comment the visible ones for me. First of all, I don`t know why you named the "Help" category like that. It seems to me that the "Garage of PNG`s" is not counting as any help in that form. It will help only those who will use them. The other thing is that "bolding" I mentioned before. So, your category names are simly disappearing from the screen if you keep them like that. Use a bold text instead of the regular one. Some spelling errors too, both in English and Serbian. "Welcome" is with only one "l", and I`m sure you were in a hurry while you typed "Rekalmni baneri". You wanted "Reklamni Baneri", right? Keep an eye on these things cause a visitor can take it the wrong way, like you are not watching over the forum as you should. Since I can only see these 3 minor category, I can`t say much here. And I thought I will see some nice tutorials for Photoshop... So my suggestion for you here would be to make some more forums visible to guests. Maybe they will like what they will find. ([b][color=green]13/20[/color][/b]).
[b]Edit:[/b] Now that I saw the forums themselves, it seems like my predictions were good. I saw some tutorials for Photoshop, GIMP and even some HTML help is there. Although I still don`t know why was the category "Help" named like that. Maybe you should try to change that for "All about Graphics" or something like that. Anyway... You cover pretty much everything that is needed for a forum like yours. There are contests, show-off section, tutorials and a regular "chill-off place". But my suggestion is still intact. Show more of your forum to guests. It makes the decision whether to join or not into a community a lot easier. ([b][color=orange]14/20[/color][/b])

[b]Usergroups[/b]:
Administrators, Moderators, Designers and VIP. And that is enough for a forum dealing with graphics. The sorting is good too. But the colors are not too visible especially for the designers group which also misses its description. Change some colors, write the description and it will be much better. ([b][color=orange]14/20[/color][/b])

[b]Activity[/b]:
The forum is about 45 days old and has 146 registered user. That is 3,24 new member each day. That`s the biggest register rate I`ve seen so far. The number of posts is 4063 at the moment. Statistically 1/4 of it was made by the forum owner himself. And the other 1/4 of the posts were made by the staff. But the 50% is pure member posts. For a new site, that is not bad at all. There were 5 registered users online when I wrote this. In the last 99 hours there were 31 members who connected. Not bad, but still a little low if we know that it is only 20% of the members. And I see that you changed the default 24 hour to 99. I was curious who was really online in a one day period but I could not find the memberlist so I will skip that now. Well, I wish you more daily active members. ([b][color=green]13/20[/color][/b])

[b]More[/b]:
Here I must mention your homepage... Very nice work on it. Not too complicated but still pretty nice and appealing to the eye (although I hate that mascot you use - well, not the mascot but the whole cartoon of it). But, back to the main subject. So here are some little details you can improve on this homepage:
1. The favicon is missing on the homepage. I mean that little icon in the tab of my browser before the name of the page I am viewing.
2. The pictures/links around the mascot are supposed to be in a circular shape, right? Well those icons are not exactly in the right places than. And it can be seen easily on the first time you visit the page. I got the courage to take a look at the coding of it and maybe you can`t place it exactly where you want because you used a table layout for it? Why not using CSS and get more out of it?
3. The picture "Online PS" at its hovering state has not enough space for the lightig effect around the text. Notice the sharp cut off before the "O" of the text when you move your cursor over it? You should correct that little glitch.
That`s all I can think of right now about the homepage. But since I really like it I will give you 5 extra points for it. ;)

And so the sum is [b][color=orange]74/100[/color][/b] this time (with your bonus). [b][color=orange]Pretty Nice[/color][/b] rank. Keep up the good work.[/justify]

Joel wrote:Impressive review Cafetin! GREAT WORK!

salkal32 wrote:Hey, cafetin, review i great, but, i forgot that you can't see all forums and categories, so i made a review profile. That way you can see everything. I want that you edit review and just tell me what do you think about categories and forums, please.

Username: Pregled
Password: pregled