This design

[a tadster]

What do you all think?

http://www.motherofwisdom.com

[petkusj]

It looks very nice, but the black background does make it look a little sinister until you notice what the site is about. Maybe you could transition from light to dark?

Also, I think that putting the watermark over the prayers just looks tacky. I would suggest finding a way to prevent downloading or going with a lower resolution preview.

Jennifer

[ajcates]

vertical rhythm (http://24ways.org/2006/compose-to-a-vertical-rhythm), get more.

[andrewfitz]

ajactes, thanks for that link, that's exactly what I was feeling too.

tad - design is much better than the last time I saw your work! Biggest crit is it feels kind of squashed, maybe the same reason as aj said. Great improvement though! :)

[excogitator]

The site is very good.
I feel the content in the entire site needs to be of a little lighter shade of same color it is right now and so do the buttons which are not active. Seriously. Even the links at the footer need to be a lighter shade of the same color. Just raise the value.
And try adding some more glow behind Mother of Wisdom on the top header. It will make the text stand out more.
:)

[a tadster]

Thanks y'all,
I can't take credit for the design however, i'm just helping with a few code/seo related things,
but everyone involved just wants some thoughts on the design.

@ excogitator - what do you mean by not active? - Thanks for the tips!

@ andrewfitz - Thanks! (my last work has changed a lot as well)

@ ajcates - Bookmarked! Thanks a lot!

@ petkusj yup, they are thinking about a flash solution for the product presentation, and it is a bit sinister at first glance, :) i think so too

[excogitator]

Hi Tad, the buttons which are not active would mean for example you are on home page, the home button is highlighted and the rest of the buttons aren't. When you click the about button and it is on the about us page the about button is highlighted while the rest aren't and so on. Its just the state of the buttons display not the interactivity in question. :)
I just thought the a lighter shade on the ones that are not highlighted and the text could use a little lighter shade for readability.

[kadaj]

The text (descriptions) are a bit hard to read. Too dim.
Adding some animation effects would be nice. The fire in the candle can be animated..
And a light rays of bliss from the mother of wisdom header..
nice ..

[ajcates]

Why do you think he needs animations?

All it really needs is some typography work done to it.

[rawnewdlz]

I agree with the other comments and also think the cross in the footer should be moved down a little so it's not cropped (gives more of a professional look imo) and also fade the edges more so it looks less like a square image.