Optimus Prime wrote: I'd still like to see what kind of ideas any members of the site who work as professional graphics/web designers would propose.
Most people who work as designers in the professional capacity, don't really have the time to go about coming up with a design that may or may not get used. You know? Giving some advice to a willing party is something that I might do if asked. I've done pro bono branding projects for non-profits while I was doing my Masters and I swear, never again. The last one only started to appreciate the effort and became more co-operative when I started charging them.
There's no point in posting up a "proposal" like that to the untrained eye. When you say "see what they come up with" people are actually expecting a finished design and that's not going to happen right off the bat. A design of that importance may take a few weeks to actually get right, through working out a layout, figuring out navigation and content. you can't just sit behind the computer and throw things onto the page like what I think happened first time around. You have to research other sites and see what looks good, get a pen and paper and draw out what you want to do with it, working out content and navigation, and only when satisfied, take it to the computer.
It does look much better, but it's still an unfinished project imo.