Which design do you like the best, which one the least, and why? The design is for Boscardin.org
Post below and I’ll randomly pick one of the commentors tomorrow night and add your site to my blogroll for a month.
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Of these four, the bottom left is my favorit. My reasons:
1. Maybe it’s just me, but what is the picture on the right? I can’t tell. If I can’t tell what it is, why would I click the link? Or maybe I’m not suppose to know what it is, so I click it out of curiousity.
2. The brown background on the rose is too plain, IMHO.
3. I like the matching colors on the pink rose with the pink flames. Also, with the black backgroud, the rose jumps out at you.
Of these four, the best would be the bottom left picture with the font in the upper right. It’s a classer font and suits the picture better.
trying again…hope this doesn’t duplicate….
I like the bottom left. The black brings the rose out to the front and makes it stand out. The distressing on the bottom again picks up the pink. I would add a drop shadow to the lettering though.
Iowa Admin: I agree with everything you said. The picture on the bottom right was the original picture. I used a bigger font and reposted it just in case the site owner is determined to use the same design.
The brown cloudy picture (top left) was an accident that I thought looked interesting. I chose the wrong filter, but thought it was unique enough to post.
The bottom left picture is my favorite. The reds balance it out. At least you recognized it as a flower.
This is what happens when you open your mouth in the entrecard forums. I said I’d make a new card, thinking I would just go to the person’s website and choose another image. I went to boscardin.org, and the only picture was the one on the entrecard, 20x bigger.
(OK, I added a 5th picture switching fonts and adding a drop shadow based on the previous suggestions)
From her site, it seems that the rose was meant to construe a metaphorical beauty with a dark side (this is conjecture, I could be wrong, she would know better). Anyway, the only one that comes close is the top right, IMO. But even that one, the image is vague and doesn’t pop. I’m not crazy about any of them. I suck. Don’t hate me.
Stan always stirring up trouble. That’s why his card is shades of gray. The original artwork is here http://www.flickr.com/photos/pilou/366765867/
Yes, beauty with a dark side, but everyone’s imagination differs. That’s why I tried to keep the flower imagery and colors.
I do find the rose icons quite lovely and I see you were trying to keep the whole flower metaphor thing going on. Though honestly, the reasons I chose that photo are
1) It is an absolutely lovely photo and since I lack in the creativity department, I showcase the photographic work of others.
and 2) It is red and dark.
The brown one isn’t really all that sparkling but the other two rose ones are nice. I like the italic font better because to me at least, italics seem just a little fancier.
Maria said she’s waiting and watching your comments. Glad you are such a good sport about people criticising your card. I’ve added you to my bookmarks as well. People can still comment and have a chance to get on the blogroll. Even submit your own design if you want.
See, that’s the thing. I’m bad at creating. When making the layout, I had a hard time with that too! And the reason why I choose photographers is because I don’t have to worry about choosing/creating an image. However, I’ve noticed more and more lately that there are a lot of blogs that don’t have a nice header image so perhaps my next layout (whenever I get off my lazy ass) won’t have one and will just be colors and whatnot.
(I may also be subtly hinting that perhaps with your creativity and my direction, we could come up with a bomb ass picture. =P)
I like the first one the best. I think there is an elegance in simplicity that draws the eye. And the softness of the background is more pleasing. I think there is something about it that draws you in and makes you feel comfortable resting your eyes on it for more than a brief glimpse.
The second is the best, because:
1. The writing is big enough to see without straining your eyes and is easily read without giving too much thought.
2. It’s cooler
3. It matches with the design on the original site, so readers will be familiar
The trick with nice header images is they take a long time to load. All the images on this site are small squares that repeat themselves. When you need a site redesign, well come up with a new contest. Let’s start with just the entrecard first.
You named your site after yourself. But nobody knows that. “card” has it’s own meaning in entrecard. So the words on your card kind of mean “Boss Carding” to those first reading it. Now your original image was odd, but not mysterious enough to draw interest, not romantic enough for the lovebirds, and not sexy enough for those kind of guys. In fact, I doubt anyone recognized it a a drop of water on a flower. I think you need an identifable image to represent your site. After all, entrecard isn’t about advertising, it’s about branding. You want people to see your card and say “Hey there’s the boscardin logo!”
I prefer the bottom right one. The flames (?) don’t upstage the rose, they just complement it – and the slightly italic font looks a little more elegant.
Least favourite? The brown one.
@Turnip
True. I’m not exactly sure about what really says me though. I am writing under the alias and for me, I think it’s a little hard to find a nice and good enough representation. For now, I’m really into the red colors and the black. That’s probably about all I can tell you that could be made into a card.
As for the name, what if on the card, it shows “Maria” too so they know that it’s a name?
Instead of boscardin.org, it said “Maria Boscardin”? There’s plenty of precedent for that strategy. Johnchow, Dane Morgan,Joyce Babu, Kevin H davis, Arno Nel, etc. It does work, and then your brand becomes your name. But last names can work just as well too. For entrecard it doesn’t matter. Your picture just has to be recognizable. I prefer the cards without writing, but only once I learn what site they represent.
Before making up your mind, you have to decide how far you plan to take this blogging thing. You have a .org name, and you really should buy the .com version too. It’s always worth more money. If you ever became famous, someone else would buy it.
Personally, the top right one makes me want to click through the most, initially out of sheer curiosity (which I believe the first commenter alluded to). The URL is most prominent in this design. In the others, the URL text is washed out a bit by the lower “flames.”
I read today’s post at your site and the graphic above the post seems to reflect your current emotions (a small tear drop, maybe?), which really came through in the post itself. For that reason I’m confident the top right image best symbolizes your brand, and your overall theme.
Personally, I don’t like any of them 100%.
I don’t care for the fonts you’ve used at all and of them, the better of the two spreads out too far over the graphic and looks like it’s going to get chopped off. There needs to be 2-3 pixels of space between the font edges and the graphic edge IMO.
I don’t see Maria as a rose, although she certainly has thorns! \m/
The dew drop on the petal is more her “brand” at this point and her colors are definitely deep red (#660000) and not a #000000 black, but a dark background — maybe #003300. Brown is NOT her!
Try LamboHmkBold for a font.
Margaret
Top-right:
I prefer that one over the roses, and the URL is more clear compared to the bottom one. Actually in the bottom one I can hardly read what it says.
Be careful though, the top one looks more pixelated than the bottom one. Something must have happened, but I suggest you take a look at it
Did you notice it?
@Curly Brace
Yeah, it was noticed, but it’s okay. If that’s the one we go with (though not sure at the moment) I can always use the crop from the original image so it’s not so pixelated.
Good catch Curly: I think I chose “save for the web” on that one. Ok, back to photoshop and I’ll redo it and upload it. I’ll also look for Margaret’s font and take her other suggestions. Back in a few minutes…
There we go. Margaret’s suggested font, saved as jpg instead of .png, and more space between the picture edge and the font edge. I never meant to confuse anyone into thinking I’m a graphic artist. Trial and error is the best I can do.
Maria, I still see some pixelation in the jpg, the funny thing is in photoshop I dont. Even at 300% your original and my copy with the different font look the same. I’m saving them using the exact same settings, and the image size is about the same too. Once you nail down which image you like most, we can work out any bugs in that one.
EDIT: Ok, fixed the pixelation issue I think. You really used a high DPI on the original I’m guessing?
I like the one on the top left or bottom left, although it’s hard to say because I’m not sure what the site owner is trying to say…not that I have to understand it, but you know what I mean? I like the one on the top left because it speaks for the rose… and in a way, the rose stands out more with a softer more humble background. I like the font on the bottom left better because it fits the image and the title catches your eye. In any event you’re really talented~
)
Ann
That may be possible; I don’t really know what dpi it was set at. Lol.
I’m almost tempted to put on a self-portrait or something, but then… I don’t know. Maybe I’ll get a friend to take the photos and from there we’ll see. I do like the font Margaret suggested though.
Ok, 21 posts here. I said one lucky person would get added to my blogroll for a month. Using Random.org I selected post #2 Which turns out to be Linda from fifenhorn.blogspot.com. Congratulations Linda. So far Maria’s still using her original card, but we will see what happens.
I like that you made the text easier to read on the original. It helps those of us who refuse to wear their glasses.
Arg. This whole redesign business has made me want to create a new web layout altogether. I suppose that for now, I’ll keep the same design, but I’ll have a bigger font until I can figure something out.
If it still looks pixelated, you can always print-screen on photoshop, and then create a new file and save it. This way you’ll be 100% sure that what you see is what you get