Suggestions appreciated for rejected HTML template

I made my first submission of a Site Template yesterday and it was rejected with the generic sort of design quality not good enough message. I asked the reviewer for some specifics and would also appreciate feedback from more experienced ThemeForest authors. This is a template aimed at schools, preschools and child care providers.

What would you change to make it saleable?

This is a template that would be useful for a generic school, child-care, etc. type of website. Sadly, it is not up to TF standards. There is too much you would need to fix, design-wise to get it through the review.

Roughly, I can say you need to work on colors, spacing, typography and overall design elements (icons, headers, etc.).

Practice a lot and we’ll see you again soon

Unfortunately I would have to agree with Crozer. I do think you need to spend some time stripping back the design so its easier to read the and so a user can understand your information heir-achy a lot better. At the moment there is a lot going on and it feels rather cluttered. Have a browse of css gallery sites like cssremix.com and see what works in regards to colours / spacing then give it another shot.

Do not be too disheartened, It can be a steep learning curve as I am learning but I’m sure you’ll back! Till then best of luck.

[tkay] @PolySimple

Typography and contrast. These are the real main reasons.

Headings should not be colored and multiple color headings does not always work (I mean h2 orange and h3 green etc..).

Almost all page uses same font-size.

The footer has so much colors that I think I better not look at it.

Macro-spacing does not exist.

The content area and the bottom look like pasted from different templates and don’t really combine together to communicate. This imperfection can mostly distract attention.

Content is King! Break large block texts in multiple paragraphs of 3-4 lines. Most important paragraphs must lead. Makes easy eye scanning. The leading helps understand the content in the first 5 seconds.

Good luck!

Thank you everybody for your feedback. I appreciate it.