Entry #1:
Entry #2:
Entry #3:
I’ve been toying around with the idea of getting a new header image for this blog for some time now, and I’m really liking the new look over at Ed Lau‘s blog, so I finally tossed myself into PhotoShop to see what I could concoct. I’m no graphic artist by any stretch of the imagination, so it’s probably not as professional as something that I could have paid for, but I figured it was a worth a shot.
Long story short, I’d like some feedback from readers to see what they think of the new (potential) header images? Is the banner too “busy”? Is it too dark? Too light? Should I change the font? Any kind of constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated, and you can do that through the comment form below. All three of the thumbnails at the beginning of this post are clickable. Also, although only #3 has “drop shadow” for the text, I plan on doing that to improve legibility on whatever banner I end up choosing.
For reference, here’s a screenshot of the old header.
On a side note, the base images on which the banners were based can be found on Flickr (here and here). They was taken by Naotakem and fall under certain Creative Commons restrictions. This paragraph should fulfill the “attribution” requirements of the CC license.
And here are a couple of other images that I was thinking about using: 1 and 2. One of the most important things is the ability to “stretch” the picture so that it can work as a 750×149 banner.
I like the current header that you’re using.
I second that, the current one is clean. The other ones look too busy (and the red text is kind of hard to read over the dark statues).
Maybe you could dodge the background a bit.
I also prefer the current header.
The white tagline looks difficult to read.
If I had to choose one, I would go with #1.
I’m going to join the group and say that I prefer the current header over any of those three. If I had to pick one of the new ones, I would go with #3.
The white text is hard to read on #1 and not much better on #2. The first two also look too busy.
I like the current image the best, but if I had to pick I’d say entry #3.
I like #3…but I agree, your current header does look pretty nice. Simple and clean is the way to go!
By the time he puts it up there, the old one will be a memory anyway. We’re wired not to like change. #3.
I’d do a white overlay on the new ones to fade it a bit.
The current header is better than the new ones… The new ones are too “busy”. Headers are better when they’re fairly “simple”.
Just noticed something though. The little Beyond the Rhetoric link where the header is. 😛 It shows up just above the header image to the left in IE7. Since Search bots don’t use CSS, you can put a “display: none;” on it. 😀
I’m a coding n00b. Wanna point me in the right direction? Stephen (Fung) was trying to tell me the same thing, but I couldn’t seem to fix it. Under the style.css file, what should I be looking for? I tried where it had #header, #header h1, and a couple other header-related places and none of them worked… in fact, in one place, it removed the header image altogether.
The quick and dirty way would be to simply edit your header file to change the h1 tag to the following:
On my site I have the following in my style.css:
#header h1 {display:none;
}
Hmm, the first code block didn’t display the tag but I suggested adding the “display:none” inline on the H1 tag in the header file.
The current one looks smooth and good. I doubt you should change.
I hate to say it, but why change? The current one is clean and to the point. But of course, change is not always a bad thing…