I've never done anything like this before, so I'd like all the input I can get. I'm still waiting on the actual content (seeing as I just started doing this Wednesday), but I'd love some experienced opinions on the layout and interface. Any comments?

[ October 22, 2001: Message edited by: Omega ]

Overall, it looks really good for a first attempt. Actually, it looks pretty good for any sort of attempt. I'm sure that the more experienced website designers here will offer better advice and commentary than I could, so listen to them more than me.

The color scheme of the site is good; I like the pale yellow hyperlinks against the teal background of the edging. Sticking to the simple black text on white background is good, too. Really pleasing to my eyes -- it's active enough without being too busy. (Damn, I thought I flushed all of my art education out my system by now!)

The interface is good. I doubt that this will cause any problems on most browsers, but, then again, Netscape does some funky stuff to my website on ocassion. Still haven't nailed down those problems. Staying fairly simple with just the text-links is a good idea, but you might also wanna consider going to small button-links in a future update (that's mainly a balance thing in my mind).

The balance of the interface could use some work, but that's a personal preference on my end. I tend to like things being symmetrical, and the two side panels with the links seem to conflict with other. I can see that there is a logical breakdown in separating those links, so take my words with this with a few grains of salt. Another personal preference of mine would be to increase the margins a bit on that center panel with black text. I do this in tables on my site because I don't like text sitting right up against a picture, line, or background change. But that's just my own personal perference again and your mileage may vary.

Overall, it's really good, and I don't really have anything to offer in terms of objective construction criticism.
 

You are so banned.

Okay, okay..... Well, I'll only be able to give any more comments when the site becomes complete.
 

You're refering to the fact that the links on the right side don't go all the way down on first loading, like the left side does? You're right, it doesn't look good, but it's not permanant. Those are just the churches I could remember off the top of my head. There are at least half a dozen more. That should take care of it.

You may have a point about increased margins on the center cell. Let me try that...
 

You can also add a "a:hover" entry to the stylesheet, for some clearer visual signals that links are indeed links, while still maintaining the clean look of the links.

Those are my views on your site. Other than that, it is a very clear and nice site you made.