lnoelstorr said:
My god! Why are you people encouraging him to use tables for layout? Is it still the 90s or something??!
Here's how to do multi-column layouts:
http://www.thenoodleincident.com/tutorials/box_lesson/boxes.html
Also, not meaning to sound rude, but why the hell is your text only page heading done in Flash??
While I agree, I also have to disagree.
Tables is a great way for novice webdesigners to learn basic layout. I mean, think about it - when people begin webdesign, they tend to start out with the most basic code - Centered. Inline images. Background color/image.
When tables enter the picture, new layouts are possible, opening the level of creativity for designers.
In the long run, I'm sure he/she will learn CSS (along with the headaches and understanding why designers DESPISE Internet Explorer and their lack of non-compliance for standards)
It's a means of progression and learning more advance HTML (eventually XHTML) and design fundamentals (multi-colored tiled backgrounds are BAD as well as pointless flash files)
BTW - checking out three sites, Yahoo.com, Google.com, and Apple.com - all three use tables one way or another.
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My tips to the original poster (some which have already been posted)
Definitely check out other sites - maybe even other art sites, as to get an idea of what works and what doesn't work. Check out their source, but don't steal. Be "inspired"
One thing I would work on is layout - centered pages with no sense of "layout" (images here, there) feels amateurish.
Another thing that would go a long way is a set color scheme.
Read up on colors and check out some color schemes you like (for instance, say you wanted to work with that cream colored background - you could use a color for the text that compliments it. A great piece of software is ColorDesigner at:
http://macosx.narcissisme.dk
Finally, you need to fix your images on your collectables page.They take much too long to load. I'm suspecting your linking to a high-resolution image but changing the height/width in HTML.