Ed Needs a New Banner
We’re getting ready to roll out the new design for the network and the color scheme is a really bad match for my banner. I’ll post the picture below of what it looks like. As I have no talent at all for such things, I’m asking for help in making a banner that suits the new layout. It needs to be 728×120. The current banner would probably be fine if the background color were made a light shade of grey instead of the tan it has now, or feel free to come up with your own design. Whoever makes the best banner wins a prize: A t-shirt with the new logo on it (or, if you prefer, one of the other shirts I have made). Please email your entries. And thanks!
Trebuchet:
November 26th, 2012 at 2:05 pm
In all honesty, I think I like the old page design better than the new one!
jnorris:
November 26th, 2012 at 2:09 pm
I like the new FTB logo. Put a red border on your banner and it will be fine.
flatlander100:
November 26th, 2012 at 2:15 pm
Like the old one.
New one squishes blog banners under a lot if wasted grey space. Why?
And I don’t see the “F”. Looks like the logo for a tuberculosis site.
Old adage comes to mind: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Reginald Selkirk:
November 26th, 2012 at 2:16 pm
Did you know that the pansy is the long-established and enduring symbol of freethought? Neither did I.
jnorris:
November 26th, 2012 at 2:19 pm
Snicker: Reginald said pansy.
eric:
November 26th, 2012 at 2:33 pm
How about using one of the Supreme Court Friezes? Might be too busy, but it seems very in keeping with the legal focus of many of your posts. Also, next time some troll comes around blathering about this being a christian nation, you can just post: “look up.”
peterh:
November 26th, 2012 at 2:35 pm
I see no compelling reason to change wither the banner or the pansies.
Ed Brayton:
November 26th, 2012 at 2:35 pm
The space above the banner won’t be wasted. That’s where the network-wide and blogger-created pages will go (privacy policy, advertising page, etc). They just aren’t there yet. I think the new design is a huge improvement over the old one. I suspect the vast majority of our readers will too.
d.c.wilson:
November 26th, 2012 at 2:46 pm
For the number of times the banner ad for the ironically named Liberty University pops up on this blog, it’d be a hoot if you just stole their design.
Raging Bee:
November 26th, 2012 at 3:03 pm
Keep the Bruno statue, but put a more metallic-looking background behind it. IMHO, it’s the beige stone wall background that clashes most with the more modernistic scheme. You need something more shiny-looking, like maybe a nondescript row of servers (reminiscent of the AI in “Person of Interest”), or something with bolder colors, like one of the more awesome photos from the Hubble telescope.
Another possibility is to juxtapose Bruno against that famous “Screaming Pope” painting.
Raging Bee:
November 26th, 2012 at 3:07 pm
Can anyone here write Arabic well enough to provide a really cool-looking graphic that says “Freethought Blogs” in Arabic? That on one side, with one of the Supreme Court friezes (per eric) in the background, might look pretty cool.
Gretchen:
November 26th, 2012 at 3:15 pm
Fond of: The new FtB logo. Looks sharp.
Not fond of: How tiny your banner is comparatively. There’s a lot of white (okay, light grey) space around it that could be filled with banner, while leaving the menu bar as is.
StevoR:
November 26th, 2012 at 5:08 pm
@3.flatlander100 says:
Seconded. Especially about the ‘F’ disappearing in the logo, just looks like a ‘T’ inside a ‘B’ and can imagine our critics making lost of cheap shots about the “free” part apparently being dropped. Think you have to make the ‘F’ clearer!
Agree also on the old adage too. Current one is fine – why change?
StevoR:
November 26th, 2012 at 5:15 pm
@11. & #10 Raging Bee :
Why would we want to use Arabic? Why not Hebrew or Sanskrit or Chinese or, I know, how about just English sinc ethat’s the main language used here? I don’t see what the point of that would be.
Seconded on keeping the Giordano Bruno statute however you end up doing it!
Rip Steakface:
November 26th, 2012 at 5:32 pm
How hard would it be to switch the font to a serif font? Sans serif works fine on some sites, but I like the serif style (specifically Georgia) here.
abb3w:
November 26th, 2012 at 5:49 pm
The source for the Giordano Bruno statue picture seems to be here.
davem:
November 26th, 2012 at 7:35 pm
Just remove the beige/tan colour background, and replace with transparent, so it merges. That’ll do nicely.
F:
November 26th, 2012 at 9:57 pm
Reginald Selkirk
Pensée.
Avicenna:
November 26th, 2012 at 10:07 pm
Raging bee. Why Arabic? I can write Arabic like that.
pHred:
November 28th, 2012 at 8:51 am
Well I have tried to submit a nicer version of a banner with a gray background but the email bounces with an undeliverable error message. Any hints on what I need to do to be able to email in a banner ?
John Phillips, FCD:
December 1st, 2012 at 3:27 am
What’s FT3 stand for, or is it R around T? However I squint, I can’t see FTB in the new logo.