Current Design I'm Working On...

I just designed a new layout for the El Patio Motel website. This project is half for fun and the other half for my first freelance work.

The El Patio Motel is located in Key West, Florida and is decorated in art deco style with a lovely garden and roof sun deck.

Here's why their site looks like now: www.elpatiomotel.com.
Here's my design:


I got inspiration from Komodomedia's website. I'm still working out how I want the Rooms and Rates section box to display and I left off the "s" on Room in the design. Oops. I also still want to add a web badge for the Make a Reservation link and maybe some graphic "hanging" down from the top of the page to display a comment area for people to say what they think after staying at the motel.

The first step I took in this project was of course drawing the design out on copy paper with the golden ratio. (I have a template that I can print out to draw up site designs.) I already had the design in my head for about a week, but couldn't find the time to sit down and draw it out. It only took me two days, the weekend in this case, to draw my design out and then go into Photoshop and make the comp.

I still have the content page and a form page to go, then I'll start developing it using XHTML and CSS. This usually takes 3-4 days, about 2-3 hours per day.

Hopefully when the new site is completed, I can sell it to El Patio, if they like it. I would offer them a good deal, because they would be my first real client as a freelancer. If not, I think it makes a great portfolio piece!