Web Hosting Talk : Other Forums : Web Hosting Lounge : Graphics monkeys (and others), I need yer opinions...

[BC]

Hi everyone,

I'm just creating new graphics for my little 'side hobby'. I'm by no means a graphics monkey (unlike Stephanie and others) so I'd like ppl's opinions on what this little banner says to them. It will be the business 'masterhead' for now....

http://www.wokadoo.com/we2.gif

Opinions? Thanks And more opinions (and the quicker), the better.

[UNIXIELHOST]

Real neat BC

I give a 4 star rating for your work

[CFoxHost]

Looks good! You might want to consider giving it a transparent color outside of the green border though, or setting the page background to white. Not everyone has a white background as a default, and if they don't then it's a white rectangle showing.

[BC]

Oops! I knew I forgot something. Thanks Chuck, much appreciated

Any other opinions?

[akashik]

Just my opinion...

those little green rounded rectangles etc
- I'd clean up the middle bit a little as it gets a bit crowded in there

the black text to the right
- might use a different font. It's clean up and down, left to right, but the angled lines seem to anti-alaise and blur a bit much for such a thin font.

yellow text
- hmm. not sure about that. Something about that color doesn't work for me. That's a personal choice of choice.

I think if the image could be tightened up and cleaned a bit (that blurring again), it would be very effective. There's a little bit of de-res in the outside lines (notice that faint echo of it above the horizontal lines?)

For banners a 256 color map is a must, but the knack is making it seem more I suppose. For a propeller-head service design can be let go a little, but for webdesign you have to pretty much nail a banner perfectly image wise. After all it's supposed to represent the height of your ability, crunched to something that fits on the head of a pin, that everyone short of a commodore 64 can see.

The 'wokadoo' font does go well with your slogan though. It's very disarming and creates a sense of friendly ease of interaction straight away. If you're aiming for 'first time' clients or small/home business then it's a good overall impression.

Umm, did that help at all? What software are you using?

Greg Moore
http://www.akashik.net

[BC]

Exactly what I was looking for - thanks Greg. To address some points raised :

Green rectangles
I must admit I got stuck here on what to do - I sorta wanted floating bubbles and rectangles, but couldn't fit everything in, so I went with a 'messy-ish' green blab instead. I should really space it out though.

Black text/font
I currently use Verdana for that section, and it is quite clean (which was the aim), but blur? Yee-ouch, must be the reduction of the colours (more in a moment).

Yellow text
Uhhhh... That's supposed to be orange! LOL The curse of different monitors strike again. Maybe I should go for a bolder purple colour?

The banner is actually a 216-color optimised GIF (8K) - I considered using JPEG format but the size blows out to 23K, so GIF's the way to go.

I use Paint Shop Pro 6 to create my banners and other graphics - I only drag in PhotoShop 5.5 when I really need the big guns and optimise the thing.

Back to the drawing board to clean it up. Thanks again.

[akashik]

Originally posted by BC

Yellow text
Uhhhh... That's supposed to be orange! LOL The curse of different monitors strike again. Maybe I should go for a bolder purple colour?

*chuckle* well ok, it IS an orangy/yellow to me and it's probably fine to most people. I'm looking at it through a 12.1 inch LCD screen so the fault is probably more me than anything

Greg Moore
http://www.akashik.net

[JustinK]

It's like mustard. Some people see it as yellow, some as orange. It's all in the tone and surrounding colors. The green by it does bring out the yellow more. I think the green may be clashing a bit with the orange. You may want to try adding something a little more solid to it since it's giving off a bit of a wireframe empty feeling.

[TheComputerGuy]

That image is pretty awesome. I have Paint Shop Pro and all, But i never seem to be able to get images anyhing like that. I mean how did you create the letters as such. I;m not a grphic person, I'm a programmer.
Chris

[Laci]

Originally posted by JustinK
It's like mustard. Some people see it as yellow, some as orange. It's all in the tone and surrounding colors. The green by it does bring out the yellow more. I think the green may be clashing a bit with the orange. You may want to try adding something a little more solid to it since it's giving off a bit of a wireframe empty feeling.

He got the text effect by using a certin font..I know thats how I do it

[TheComputerGuy]

May I ask what font? I am going to make me a banner or two

[Laci]

Originally posted by TheComputerGuy
May I ask what font? I am going to make me a banner or two

Id like to know what Font/Ding you used

[BC]

Hi guys,

To answer your questions :

Chris and Dana : the font I used to create 'Wokadoo' with the Indian faces is named 'EDB Indians' and I grabbed it from FontPool @ http://www.fontpool.com - it's a great little font and I'll be branding my Wokadoo site with it once I decide on a minimalistic design and style for the site (the fifth design I've decided on after deciding the previous one was going to take too long to load, going against my 'pure design' policies

Justin : yeah, I agree. I need something fairly solid (and green preferably to go with the border) in that lower left block - I might use a curvy block/spirally shape in there, and then float light grey bubbles down the background to finish it off.

I might change that orange to a purple colour, though if anyone has any suggestions for a light (solid yellow maybe?) colour to contrast against the blue, black and green then I'd like to hear it. Ta

[Edited by BC on 09-05-2000 at 08:15 PM]

[akashik]

Originally posted by BC
[B]
I might change that orange to a purple colour, though if anyone has any suggestions for a light (solid yellow maybe?) colour to contrast against the blue, black and green then I'd like to hear it. Ta
[B]

Grey goes with anything - it's the new black this season *chuckle*

Greg Moore
http://www.akashik.net

[BC]

*chortle*

Yeah, well, I'm already throwing in some light grey bubbles in the background.... So that doesn't really help