Hi. My Ning network is www.tradconnect.com  The work done to date is by myself.  I want to smarten up the design and make it look really professional.  This may require a new logo/header.  However I think the right theme, fonts, background colors, etc could make a big difference.

The present design has served well so far but at this stage I feel it looks unprofessional in light of other sites around. The goal is to make it sleek, cool and more presentable. I have no specific guidelines and would hope that a designer will be able to come up with a design that suits.

While it is an Irish traditional music site the design should not go down a "lepreauhan" Irish theme. It needs to be modern and  in the same kinda space as the other sites detailed below.

Present Layout

The present layout can look a little cluttered and I am open to suggestions on how to deal with this. In addition the navigation bar has a lot of tabs on it and I may look at rationalising this as well, based on your advice. However because of the nature of the site there is a lot of information that is relevant to this genre of music.


Other Sites
It is difficult to find sites that adhere to the ning three column design. However detailed below are a few sites that I like with some notes added.

Nialler9 http://www.nialler9.com/
I like the look of this because it it clean and not to awash with different colors

Crossroads http://crossroadshob.ning.com/page/menu
I like the use of fonts on this site as I feel the fonts on my present site are quiet limited. Also the header is nice with the right hand side having the "Welcome" and the Facebook and Twitter links ( I assume these are links)

The way the page scroll over the fixed background is cool. However most of the other sites don't do this. Not sure which is best.
The use of textured paper with undefined edges


Toms Campus http://www.tomscampusprograms.com/

Again its similar to the others. Again the backround is nice.

Additional features, tricks, ideas, css design etc

I dont as such want to get into detailed css etc that may cause problem.  Anything suggested must be tried and tested with no knock on effects on the operation of the site.

Design Process

I have a second ning network that I have recently taken down as i did not have time to manage two. For now I have recreated a replica site to tradconnect.com and I would propose that the designer will develop this second site as a "mock up" Once the design is agreed I will copy over the design data onto my network.

Contact

If you are interested please email me at tradconnect at gmail dot com giving links to other sites you have done as well as your proposals with associated costs