Popular Educational Site Needs 3 Pages Designed

Surfnetkids.com

Surfnetkids.com is a fourteen-year old website, started by me when my kids (and I!) were still young. We're a busy educational destination for kids, teachers, and parents.

We need a fresh, fun, bright remodel. I want a bold, clean, uncluttered look, with effective use of white space.

Here is the new logo:
http://www.surfnetkids.com/images/l…10x100.jpg

Here is the existing site:
http://www.surfnetkids.com/

There will likely be additional work for the winner of this contest.

Kids 6 to 17 and grownups 25 to 60. Generally more women than men. Adults are generally college-educated. Visitors come for our educational content (to help with homework or to prepare a lesson plan for a classroom) and to play our interactive games.

Since audience includes both kids and parents, we not looking for a completely kid-centric look.

We need a fresh, fun, bright remodel. We want a bold, clean, uncluttered look, with effective use of white space.

Now, after saying "white space" and "uncluttered" I want to add that a shorter header is better for me than a taller header because I want as much of my site content to be above the fold as possible.

Please use the new logo:
http://www.surfnetkids.com/images/l…10x100.jpg

And please read the complete brief:
http://www.surfnetkids.com/site-redesign.pdf

Please design the pages to be a centered, fixed width of 975 px..

Site Goals: The site is ad-supported, so placement of the ad blocks is quite important to us. We also want visitors to sign up for the newsletter and to use the site search function.

Three Pages Needed Are:

1) Front page
This will have two directories (Games and Topics, which might include new icons), a Calendar listing, and Listing of Recent Posts..
Existing page: http://www.surfnetkids.com/

2) Game Category Page (list the entries within the category and has Top Ten Games widget)
Include two 300x250 ad spots above the fold
Existing Page: http://www.surfnetkids.com/games/Math_Games/

3) Column Page
Include two embedded 300x250 in the text, one above the fold
Include my headshot http://www.surfnetkids.com/images/b…12x110.jpg
Please include a rating graphic for 3 to 5 stars to replace the existing “green kids” rating graphics.
Existing Page: http://www.surfnetkids.com/science_…iments.htm