layout review not SEO review

Ok guys I am redoing my personal forum and I wanted to know what you guys think of hte layout, you can see a jpg of it here http://www.seo-guy.com/forum-pic.html

Thanks for your comments good or bad

I don't like the colors at all... brown has always been an ugly color for me... maybe a blue or light grey would be better?

colours look fine to me, but then again, i dont mind browns....
Brown is a bit of a dull colour though....

Youd do well to do a web search, and look for an article describing colours and the moods that different combinations of colours will leave your visitors with....

it might help you make a decision on your colour scheme.

heres an article i found...
http://www.weprintcolor.com/colourmoodtest.htm

Fairly good find.

However, i dont entirely agree with what all is said, i suppose this changes slightly when talking about websites, but apart from that it is a fairly good guide.

@SEO-Guy: Overall not a bad design. Like fryman + deregular, brown is a nasty dull color, apart from the colour its a nice design, a while back i done a book guide on using colours sort of like what was on the above site, but in this case with hexs codes and description. If people at SEOChat would find this useful i will make it in a web based version. Basically, light blue creates a tranquility feel, good for forums and chatrooms where you want people to chill and relax, bright yellow (not the brightest yellow though), creates a huge welcoming feel etc. I could go on all day there is so many colours!!!

Dan

Thanks guys, I guess I should have said the color isnt staying lol, its just the color my designer put it in for the layout she knows Im a fan of mozilla but I already stole their colors for www.mod-rewrite.com/forum lol It will likely end up being a range of greys blues whites and blacks similar to the colors of the car etc on my site www.seo-guy.com

But the layout looks ok?

Wait till you see what I do to the seo of it hehe BIG PLANS

i actually love the layout....
specially the bevelled sections....
i did an artwork like this a while ago for my desktop, where i had sections that were bevelled and i could organise my icons so at a quick glance its easy to find the right program...

I think your layout makes a lot of sense especially for a forum!
its a breathe of fresh air as a lot of forums just use the default layouts

alternatively you could buy a forum skin like i did from http://www.extremepixels.com/ there skins are really proffessional

I actually like the browns - I don't think you see that a lot with forums. mostly "cool" colors not earthy. I don't like the rivets on the side - they seem tacked on.

Because it's brown, everything seems a little heavy up top; I wouldn't bold "SEO Forum: Search Engine Optimization Forum" For variety, you could have the darkest brown you use on the "Forum, last post, etc" row on one of the top two bars: "register, members, etc " or "welcome to..." of course, that might be a roll-over color, I can't tell.

I like it though.

-Greg

Kind of defeats the purpose of being original dont you think mike?