# New website



## Ian Livingstone (Jan 12, 2010)

Please let me know what you guys think!

http://www.ianlivingstone.net

Do the movies stream ok?

Cheers,
Ian


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## theheresy (Jan 12, 2010)

holy crap that is professional and good..how much did that sucker run you like 5-10k $$?


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## schatzus (Jan 12, 2010)

Agreed...Awesome...
Of course, the music has to back it up.Yours does. Love your compositions!


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## Ian Livingstone (Jan 13, 2010)

thanks - I get mates rates as I do sound for the web designer so not as expensive as it should have been...


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## Stephen Baysted (Jan 13, 2010)

All working well on the lappie here (MB Pro).


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## germancomponist (Jan 13, 2010)

Very cool! I like it.


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## Jaap (Jan 13, 2010)

Very nice website and working like a charm here (vista 64, firefox 3.5). I love the console menu on the games website :mrgreen:


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## noiseboyuk (Jan 13, 2010)

I kinda got sidetracked by the guy who FLIES INTO MOUNTAIN WALLS.

Then I remembered to listen to the music - it sounds fantastic. Great site!


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## José Herring (Jan 13, 2010)

This goes into my favorite composer's site category. I really think it's a lot of fun.

And who knew you were such a dashing chap at that?

Good job.

Jose


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## re-peat (Jan 13, 2010)

Ian,

Works quite well here too (in as far as websites such as these may be said to "work well", that is), but ... I really don't like it. Truly sorry, but that's how it is. And my guess is — it's more than a guess, actually — that people who have to visit the site regularly will soon be completely bored, if not annoyed, with it, possibly even within the space of just a few days. That's the inevitable fate of websites which rely too much on graphic gimmicks and irrelevant design choices, like this one does. (I'd really love to know your own feelings about the site in a few weeks. I fear that whatever enthusiasm you might have today, will have shrunk considerably by that time. But let's hope it hasn't, of course.)

Anyway. Taste is a subjective thing I suppose, but even so, if I may, here's a few points which bother me:
- Inconsistent choice of typography (too many fonts and some of them stylistically incompatible).
- Incompatibility between various graphic styles as well (some of the graphic elements have a funky seventies influence, while other elements are very much rooted in the graphic design styles of the past two decades ... doesn't really work, this mix, in my opinion).
- Way too much wasted space. And I mean: wasted in a graphically uninteresting way.
- Too many frames and 'graphic containers' (the frame of the internet browser, the frame of the window, the frame-in-a-frame of the window lay-out, ...).
- Unnecessarily 'clever'. Its biggest problem, I believe. This 'cleverness' may seem spectacular at first (to some people anyway), but it becomes increasingly frustrating with every subsequent visit (the way the main menu is implemented, for instance, is a good example of this, I think).
- The website seems to focus more on the webdesigner than on its subject matter: the composer and his music. To me, it looks more like a webdesigner's egotrip than a functional, classy home for a serious and 1st division musician which you obviously are. 

All things considered, the whole thing looks and behaves a bit toy-ish, unprofessional and cheap, in my opinion (the poor 3D rendering of the virtual monitor is not going to win any awards either, if I may say so). As such, it certainly doesn't reflect the unquestionnable quality of the music which it presents, and that is a real shame.
You see, if you were to translate/compare the level and the quality of this webdesign to a music production, you'd end up somewhere in GPO or SoundCanvas territory, no higher. There simply isn't any qualitative connection whatsoever between you — exceptional musician and seasoned professional — and your website. Strangely sad, I think.

_


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## lux (Jan 13, 2010)

i'm not sure to agree so much with re-peat. I see the point about the fonts and the 3d screen so-so idea, both easily fixable, considering that most of the stuff in flash happens within the screen itself and the design is just a mask.

But I have to say that in general it works. Flash design is fast loading and not too complicated to understand/navigate. I was able to find the infos i needed about Ian pretty fast. Thats the first test i do on every site.

I'm usually pretty hard on flash websites but this one is expecially fast loading and easy enough to navigate.


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## Colin O'Malley (Jan 13, 2010)

Ian, 

I really like it a lot. It's very slick and is all loading really fast here. I also love your studio. When I come to the UK I'm going to sleep on the floor. 

Colin


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## Ian Livingstone (Jan 13, 2010)

thanks for the feedback chaps glad you like it.

Re-peat - you can't please everyone and thanks for your honest opinion. Good job it's aimed at hip young video game developers, tv production companies, and not us boring composer types!
Can't say I agree with "unprofessional and cheap" bit, and also regarding my own feelings after a few weeks - this was actually designed in October I've only had chance to implement the content, convert videos etc until now, so yes I've lived with it for months personally I love it. Was my design and concept not the web designers - I've gone through 5 similar sites over the last 10 years and this is by far the slickest interface we've come up with.

Jose - heh yeah you can tell how unconfortable I was in that mugshot! I'm really not very photogenic - not like our cover model Colin.

Talking of which...Colin anytime m8 but you really don't need to sleep on the floor big boy 

Ian


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