web site navigation design help

[lbob]

Hi

I'm trying to build a site for a holiday villa and am having design block! I've tried out various headers and don't like any of them. I want to have a rounded rectangle navigation on the left side but not sure?! Can you help. Attached is my 1st header attempt which I don't really like, so any ideas would be appreciated

lbob

 

[theKeeper]

One of the most subtle things about Web design that seems to make a site more cohesive looking... is to have your page elements all joined or merged in some way.

Instead of separating your header image from the text, try making them one object. And then try to think of how you can run the header down into the page content area a little. Then at some point, the header will stop and the main body text area can begin.

Keep in mind that you can assign images as backgrounds for your table cells if need be. That will allow you to overlap the textual content with the header image a little. Helps save space too in certain designs.

 

[Dodo]

If you want to blend text over images (in order to attain cohesion), have a look at these examples:
http://www.pegaweb.com/tutorials/contrast-font-style/contrast-font-style.htm