We released a new visual design and want feedback from our startup peers.

To be honest, I think it is very poor. There is no consistency. It looks like the designer has tried to use every tool in the designer toolbox, from the flowery logo and drop shadowed text to the bevelled buttons and decorative borders.<p>Superficially it looks okay as there are some quite nice individual elements but they don't fit together. A case of a design being less than the sum of its parts.<p>I also counted no less than 14 different treatments of text (font size, font type, color, etc). That is way too much and perhaps explains why the design looks overly cluttered.<p>The dark borders around the main photos are too heavy for the lightness of the rest of the design. The drop shadows make this worse. Get rid of them both.<p>Sorry to be harsh but you did ask.

I would consider removing either the dropshadow and/or the beveled borders on the images. I feel like it's drawing too much visual strength in relation to the rest of the content. The images already take up a large portion of the screen, no need to emphasize them any further. Other than that it looks great.

The site had a nice look overall. The pattern in the header drop-shadow is kind of cool, but more distracting because it looks like it is being accidentally covered up and a bit busy.<p>I agree with what others have said regarding the color scheme being a bit too tan overall.<p>I also keep looking at the logo and thinking that is a bit too busy, and I don't really understand why it has the floral shapes emerging from it.<p>The beveling on the image frames also feels a bit heavy, especially with the dark drop shadow.<p>In general the imagery and the copy take a bit of analysis before getting a handle on what the company is about, and even then I am not sure why I should choose you for my vacation planning.

Nice overall. A few thoughts:<p>-More color hierarchy. (Maybe too much tan?)<p>- the 2nd photo is nice but the 1st and 3rd don't jump out at me. Invest in great photos.<p>- Uncertain about who you are and what you're selling. It says "browse our villas" but they aren't really your villas, you only find the best ones right? If that's the case you should mention somewhere on the main page the hours and hours you've spent looking for only the best deals to save me time.<p>-the word villa seems really specific. A little intimidating since I'm not 100% sure how a "villa" differs from other accommodations.<p>good luck!

I personally like it, except for the flowers under the header that seem cut off, and the logo seems to need some clean-up. Maybe just leaving the top ornament on the "d" and the ending ornament on the last "e" could do the trick.

Getting some weird artifacts in the drop shadow at the top on Lion and Chrome 13.0.782.99 beta attached a screenshot.<p><a href="http://i.minus.com/ibV6ug.png" rel="nofollow">http://i.minus.com/ibV6ug.png</a>

I know that this is terrible feedback, but I have to say it. Your site looks like a blog. As a blog, it looks nice, but as a travel site I don't know if blog is the vibe you want.<p>Also, I don't think there is a very strong call to action button on individual villas. Request a reservation is below the fold at the bottom of the right sidebar.<p>Overall, right now it seems like your site is designed for window shopping, not reservation setting.