Mockup critique pls... white bg or dark?

[cmart]

Hello all,

Well I'm in the beginning stages of drafting some mocks for my new portfolio site. I've been thinking long and hard about a direction and have come up with two approaches.

First of all, I've noticed that all the really big studios like pentagram that do work for potentially conservative clients (not conservative like republican but conservative like citibank) tend to shy away from dark sites and flashy design. They tend to let the work speak for itself.

I'm leaning towards this way of thinking, specially since with a white bg you can have any product shots or print work "blend" in with the whole browser window which looks really nice (LINK (http://pentagram.com/en/portfolio-packaging-5.htm)).

But i also have always loved dark backgrounds and I feel I can give a much more exciting design without the limitations of white. I am in a somewhat conservative market here, but have been getting more and more work from clients who want me to "go wild" if you will, so I think I can get away with something decent.

Attached are two screenshots of VERY ROUGH mocks. No logo, or anything yet. But please comment on which direction is more appropriate given what I've said above.

BTW, these are 100% browser window flash movies and the top bar stays at the top of the window while the content stays centered.

Thanks everyone

[cmart]

should mention... the MAIN goal here is not to impress other people who are design oriented (although that is a major goal). It's to attract work from a pretty wide spectrum of clients (although there are certainly some I don't want to attract).

[creativeFuzion]

Well, it appears that you're wanting me to 'pick' which one would work and fit better. But you are making the decision difficult because with the first pic the content is dark, so you initially want it to have a dark background. Now, if the content were to be lighter, then you'd want to keep the light background. The same with the second pic; it has the dark content, so the mind's eye thinks it fits in well with the darker background color.

Get what I'm saying? :smirk:

~Philip

[fasterthanlight™]

I like the dark background, but if you go for the dark background, youll want to add a 2px white stroke around all your content blocks to make them pop out more

[onemhunki]

I think the light one is a lot, well lighter, cleaner, but I agree with Panther, it's your choice of image that affects the background also.

[eurosickwitit]

light one is my pick