My friend Punky has hired me to create some original buttons for his php forum.
Here is everything I've made so far.

I'd like some critique and critism on the works.
As for the banner in the header, this was not made by me.

It was kindly made by Sibix.

Anyways...


Now for the little buttons I made.
I really don't like the first three...
  
The rest I thought were good.
Mainly because I didn't draw the little mini icons. :'[
    

Posting and Replying
 

Quote, Edit and Delete
  

Those are great Souly <3. I disagree about the outline however, the way you have them is best for a site where things are dynamic and likely to move/change. Things I don't like are the red "x", its too fat. On the first three try a wooden mailbox with icicles for the "mail" with one of those little red flags on them and a "mitten" (red,yellow/orange) for the PM, the penguin arm/paw/wing looks like a black blob now. The icicles are a bit repetitive, maybe have 2/3 diff versions.

Hmm... Better delete button?


Worked on the PM button a bit.

Edited by Souly

I just can't seem to make the PM or the E-mail look good.

i'd use a darker purple-ish grey on the enveloppes, to create colour and darkness contrast.

 

why hasnt brian replied here yet? =P

Because I don't really have any C&C.

Always remember that the icicles will always be larger on the edges of objects because thats where most of the water comes from. Try to make more of an arc with the icicles.

Also, they're too pointy, icicles look better a little rounded. ;)

~ JJ

Also, I don't know what I'me going to put behind the logo....

exactly.
ps. Nice to see you around Souly

How about making the words pop-out 3Dish by putting shadows beneath them? That might look cool.

How about on floating icebergs in the water by the text?

Is the penguin going to be the notification for pm's ? if so you should have him saying "you have a pm" fill the berg up with the links and chunks of ice

Hmmm, how's this for the links?

So once the code is together the users penguin will go onto the image...
And it should appear something like so.

Next thing is to work on the boarder...

I don't think you should have it saying "PMS" ... make it "PM" instead

Oh, and more 3dness.

oh no, I like facing front way better, the blue colors too.

The site lets the user pick the color of the penguin.
That's the black color...

All of your things so far (sign, icons, ice) have a darker color outine that the darkest shade in the object. With the penguin, I think you'll have to have the black one have a black outline with a very dark grey for the shading of the penguin then a dark grey for the highlight - likewise for the yellow: darker yellow outline, a bit darker yellow for the shade and a little brighter yellow for the highlight color and the orange too.

A suggestion (which I'm not sure if it will look right), perhaps the ice outline color for the border of the "white" part of the penguin and the light ice color for the shade color of the white then just plain white for the highlight white part.

As for the links, they stand out well right now, but that may change when you develop the ice more

The announcement icon looks good but its uneven. I notice its a 40x41, if you can widen it one more pixel on the right side, it will make the ! look more balanced

Edited by Brian the Great

Do you mean the new penguin looks too flat?

Oh, right now I have no ideas for what I could use for new post/no new posts/locked icons...
Here are the defaults... I really need to get an idea for what I should do here.

               
New Post    No new posts    Locked

Hmm?
I'm going to completly re-make them as well as the icon.
If not make them something completly different...

Hmm... Right now I've got all the forum icons squares.
I was trying to get away from the whole square thing. D:


See, square. D:

Hmm, ok so I've moved off of layout and moved back onto the penguins.
Now he wants some skins for the penguins, almost like neopets.

So I've come up with...
As well as
Now I had to keep the beak and feet default color and size.
Only because some of the beak and feet items add on a part of the beak or the foot.

So.. yeah.

i think maybe vector would be better for this project, would allow you
to resize the images without screwing them up. it also looks a bit
more professional and is less tiem consuming.

i am no way converting you from pixels, just for this project pixel art
wouldnt be my first choise. The penguins dont really match the
standard of your icons/buttons.

If you do carry on with pixels, then i suggest you redraw the
penguin. It doesnt look very penguiney and i dont like the view. i
think the eyes need work aswell. they scareme a bit. also they are
lacking in contrast and penguin texture. i would also up the
saturation.