It was shocking to visit SDD and look at the designer list and realize that I've only ever purchased/received anything from 2 people on the list. I remember when SDD was more than just a tiny little blip on the digi radar... it was never a top site by any means, but it's gone way, way downhill in recent months, from what I can tell. Because I am not a SDD customer and don't have access to any of these products, I can't comment on the quality for anything discussed here... but based on previews alone, here are my reviews of the first 10 designers on their list (not including guests):
Alegna: Her shop makes very little sense to me. First thing: she has multiple products that are listed more than once, sometimes on the same page of results. ??? It's almost as though she's re-releasing things every 4-6 months just to fill her shop. Also, about a third of her products are templates, another third seem to be targeted to paper-style digiscrappers, and the last third seems to fall into the fantasy/realistic realm. Personally I think that designers should choose one general style and stick to it, but that's just an opinion. I like her templates the best; they're simple and suit my scrapping style. Not as big a fan of the paper-style kits, though, as the color palettes are iffy at best (some are just BAD) and the elements are very, very basic and unoriginal. I see lots of CU, mainly recolored & with a texture slapped on it. As for the fantasy/realistic-realm products, I'll refrain from commenting b/c they're not my style (so I'd be negative) and I can't comment on quality without purchasing, which I won't be. Bottom-line: I would look at her templates during big sale weekends like NSD, but would ignore the rest of her products.
Bekah E Designs: Lots of word art/stamp packs, most of which are so basic I find it hard to believe that people pay money for them (you could re-create most of them in any scrapping program with very basic fonts). It looks like she started in word art, and moved into kit-making more recently. The color palettes seem to be improving, in general; early palettes are pretty bad. Most of her previews are blurry/grainy, which irritated me while I was trying to look through her shop. Then I noticed that many/most of the CT layouts were, as well, so maybe it's not her fault, but something to do with SDD's site. Either way, it's not earning her any business. My biggest complaint is that her previews are flat. If you include realistic elements in your kits (real flowers like the lily in "One Happy Spring", etc.) you need to adjust your preview shadows accordingly. Those items don't lay flat on a page like a cardstock flower, and the shadow needs to show that (she needs some serious work in that area).
Crystal's Creations: Much like Bekah E's products, Crystal's early color palettes are generally hideous, but more recently she seems to have developed a better grasp of the basics of color, and the palettes have improved. Also like Bekah E's products, Crystal's previews are flat and boring. I have the same complaint... shadows need to be a representation of the depth/height of an element in a preview. See "8 Days a Week - Calm Monday Blues" for an example (cute kit, BAAD preview). Nothing really unique here, and nothing that would stand out in my memory a day later.
Designs by Sweet Mesquite: First thing I saw when I clicked on her shop (added 9/1/11) are templates... and her template colors are BAD. I wish designers would either A. pick one palette and use it for all of their templates, or B. use neutral grays with a little dash of color to match a coordinating kit or what have you. Anything else makes a shop look mish-mashy, and makes it hard for a customer to want to keep scrolling (especially at a site like SDD, where each designer's shop is displayed vertically). After all of the smacking she's received lately at the main blog, I was interested to look at her kits and I have to say, they're not that bad. Not really my taste, but they seem generally cohesive in style, coloring, and texture. Previews are decent.
Diddley Scrap: Skipping this one, as it's all CU and the shop doesn't look to have been updated since late last year anyway.
Digi Overdose: I was annoyed right off by the animated-GIF header image on her shop. Gag. Ironically, on the last page of her shop, she offers a banner-making service for $25, with the tag-line "does animation make you want to rip your hair out?" Um, yes. Yes it does. Back to the review: she offers everything from kits, to CU tools, to actions, to Lightroom Presets. Most of it is... meh. I had a hard time finding a kit/product with a color palette pleasing enough to make me want to click on the preview to view it larger. I did check out a few of her more recent "Quick Fix" products on page 1, which I thought were clever and not something you see in every shop in the digi world. I'd give her kits/papers a D+/C-, and her scrapping "extras" (accessories like the Quick Fix line, the actions, etc.) a B/B+.
Dylabel Designs: Generally pleasant color palettes and cohesive kits. The CT LOs do a good job of showing that the kits are scrapable. Overall the previews are put together nicely and the shadowing is realistic. Nothing too unique about any of her products, and there is a good amount of CU used, but in general they seem to be thought through and well-done. Compared to everything else available industry-wide, I wouldn't go to SDD just to get any of these kits... but I am sure they're selling well here at SDD, in relation to everything else surrounding them. So far, this is hands-down the best designer I've reviewed at SDD; I've only done 7, though, so let's not get too excited yet.
Faynar's Wings: I was interested to review this one, given all of the (bad) press time she's gotten recently on the main blog. Her shop wasn't as awful as I expected it to be. Very hit or miss, though, especially with respect to color palettes. About half are pleasant, and the other half are awful. It's hard to tell from previews alone, but it seems that she doesn't apply overlays to her papers correctly... something seems off about the textures on some of the papers (hard to tell, though, since I'm realizing that the images at SDD are really low-res and many are blurry; the more I see it, the more I realize it's a site-wide problem, and not necessarily the fault of each designer). I'd love to hear someone else's opinion on this: take a look at the papers in the "Cinnamon and Cider" preview & let me know what you think. Blending problem, or site/preview problem? She also seems to have trouble with recoloring elements (a great example of this: the red rose in the "Summer in the Back Yard" preview). All in all, it's not a horrible shop... but I give it a C+/B- at best.
Gabs-Art: Lots and lots (and lots) of VERY basic products like packs of word art strips where it's just the same paper strip w/ 20 different words/phrases on it. I have no problem w/ a designer putting something like this into their shop now and then (or as an add-on to a kit), but almost the entire first page of her shop is made up of just this type of product. Normally I wouldn't even click to page 2, but doing a review required it. Got to page 2 and it was the same. products. again. Over and over. I got bored and didn't click on to page 3.
Jellebellke's Designs: 11 of the 13 products in her shop are template sets. Every single one uses a different color palette/scheme; we already know how I feel about this. Mish-mash! As for the templates themselves, they're not horrible but there's nothing unique about them. More problematic, half of the products have zero CT layouts shown in additional images. I happen to believe that if you're a template designer (or just trying to sell templates), you need to show example layouts. Why else would I buy your templates? I want to see what can be created with them, and have it inspire me. For those products that do show layouts in additional images, it's very hit-or-miss; some layouts are well-done and the others are just, well, done by scrappers who are not very good. Does SDD have a site CT? If so, they may need to have another call to fill-in some gaps.
It was shocking to visit SDD and look at the designer list and realize that I've only ever purchased/received anything from 2 people on the list. I remember when SDD was more than just a tiny little blip on the digi radar... it was never a top site by any means, but it's gone way, way downhill in recent months, from what I can tell. Because I am not a SDD customer and don't have access to any of these products, I can't comment on the quality for anything discussed here... but based on previews alone, here are my reviews of the first 10 designers on their list (not including guests):
ReplyDeleteAlegna: Her shop makes very little sense to me. First thing: she has multiple products that are listed more than once, sometimes on the same page of results. ??? It's almost as though she's re-releasing things every 4-6 months just to fill her shop. Also, about a third of her products are templates, another third seem to be targeted to paper-style digiscrappers, and the last third seems to fall into the fantasy/realistic realm. Personally I think that designers should choose one general style and stick to it, but that's just an opinion. I like her templates the best; they're simple and suit my scrapping style. Not as big a fan of the paper-style kits, though, as the color palettes are iffy at best (some are just BAD) and the elements are very, very basic and unoriginal. I see lots of CU, mainly recolored & with a texture slapped on it. As for the fantasy/realistic-realm products, I'll refrain from commenting b/c they're not my style (so I'd be negative) and I can't comment on quality without purchasing, which I won't be. Bottom-line: I would look at her templates during big sale weekends like NSD, but would ignore the rest of her products.
Bekah E Designs: Lots of word art/stamp packs, most of which are so basic I find it hard to believe that people pay money for them (you could re-create most of them in any scrapping program with very basic fonts). It looks like she started in word art, and moved into kit-making more recently. The color palettes seem to be improving, in general; early palettes are pretty bad. Most of her previews are blurry/grainy, which irritated me while I was trying to look through her shop. Then I noticed that many/most of the CT layouts were, as well, so maybe it's not her fault, but something to do with SDD's site. Either way, it's not earning her any business. My biggest complaint is that her previews are flat. If you include realistic elements in your kits (real flowers like the lily in "One Happy Spring", etc.) you need to adjust your preview shadows accordingly. Those items don't lay flat on a page like a cardstock flower, and the shadow needs to show that (she needs some serious work in that area).
Crystal's Creations: Much like Bekah E's products, Crystal's early color palettes are generally hideous, but more recently she seems to have developed a better grasp of the basics of color, and the palettes have improved. Also like Bekah E's products, Crystal's previews are flat and boring. I have the same complaint... shadows need to be a representation of the depth/height of an element in a preview. See "8 Days a Week - Calm Monday Blues" for an example (cute kit, BAAD preview). Nothing really unique here, and nothing that would stand out in my memory a day later.
ReplyDeleteDesigns by Sweet Mesquite: First thing I saw when I clicked on her shop (added 9/1/11) are templates... and her template colors are BAD. I wish designers would either A. pick one palette and use it for all of their templates, or B. use neutral grays with a little dash of color to match a coordinating kit or what have you. Anything else makes a shop look mish-mashy, and makes it hard for a customer to want to keep scrolling (especially at a site like SDD, where each designer's shop is displayed vertically). After all of the smacking she's received lately at the main blog, I was interested to look at her kits and I have to say, they're not that bad. Not really my taste, but they seem generally cohesive in style, coloring, and texture. Previews are decent.
Diddley Scrap: Skipping this one, as it's all CU and the shop doesn't look to have been updated since late last year anyway.
Digi Overdose: I was annoyed right off by the animated-GIF header image on her shop. Gag. Ironically, on the last page of her shop, she offers a banner-making service for $25, with the tag-line "does animation make you want to rip your hair out?" Um, yes. Yes it does. Back to the review: she offers everything from kits, to CU tools, to actions, to Lightroom Presets. Most of it is... meh. I had a hard time finding a kit/product with a color palette pleasing enough to make me want to click on the preview to view it larger. I did check out a few of her more recent "Quick Fix" products on page 1, which I thought were clever and not something you see in every shop in the digi world. I'd give her kits/papers a D+/C-, and her scrapping "extras" (accessories like the Quick Fix line, the actions, etc.) a B/B+.
Dylabel Designs: Generally pleasant color palettes and cohesive kits. The CT LOs do a good job of showing that the kits are scrapable. Overall the previews are put together nicely and the shadowing is realistic. Nothing too unique about any of her products, and there is a good amount of CU used, but in general they seem to be thought through and well-done. Compared to everything else available industry-wide, I wouldn't go to SDD just to get any of these kits... but I am sure they're selling well here at SDD, in relation to everything else surrounding them. So far, this is hands-down the best designer I've reviewed at SDD; I've only done 7, though, so let's not get too excited yet.
ReplyDeleteFaynar's Wings: I was interested to review this one, given all of the (bad) press time she's gotten recently on the main blog. Her shop wasn't as awful as I expected it to be. Very hit or miss, though, especially with respect to color palettes. About half are pleasant, and the other half are awful. It's hard to tell from previews alone, but it seems that she doesn't apply overlays to her papers correctly... something seems off about the textures on some of the papers (hard to tell, though, since I'm realizing that the images at SDD are really low-res and many are blurry; the more I see it, the more I realize it's a site-wide problem, and not necessarily the fault of each designer). I'd love to hear someone else's opinion on this: take a look at the papers in the "Cinnamon and Cider" preview & let me know what you think. Blending problem, or site/preview problem? She also seems to have trouble with recoloring elements (a great example of this: the red rose in the "Summer in the Back Yard" preview). All in all, it's not a horrible shop... but I give it a C+/B- at best.
Gabs-Art: Lots and lots (and lots) of VERY basic products like packs of word art strips where it's just the same paper strip w/ 20 different words/phrases on it. I have no problem w/ a designer putting something like this into their shop now and then (or as an add-on to a kit), but almost the entire first page of her shop is made up of just this type of product. Normally I wouldn't even click to page 2, but doing a review required it. Got to page 2 and it was the same. products. again. Over and over. I got bored and didn't click on to page 3.
Jellebellke's Designs: 11 of the 13 products in her shop are template sets. Every single one uses a different color palette/scheme; we already know how I feel about this. Mish-mash! As for the templates themselves, they're not horrible but there's nothing unique about them. More problematic, half of the products have zero CT layouts shown in additional images. I happen to believe that if you're a template designer (or just trying to sell templates), you need to show example layouts. Why else would I buy your templates? I want to see what can be created with them, and have it inspire me. For those products that do show layouts in additional images, it's very hit-or-miss; some layouts are well-done and the others are just, well, done by scrappers who are not very good. Does SDD have a site CT? If so, they may need to have another call to fill-in some gaps.
I'll be back at some point (hopefully sooner than later) with the rest.
ReplyDelete