I am going to put my massive appropriately sized ego to the side and ask for some help. Not the kind of help that requires loved ones to sneak up on me and tell me how I am ruining their lives, that has already happened would never happen. No, the type of help I would like to receive is graphic in nature (insert easy joke here).
Since I have been at the helm here at Life of an Architect, I have cobbled together various graphics to suit my needs without spending any real time or deep, thoughtful consideration on how they looked. My only objectives were:
- Can I do it with limited time, and
- Can I do it with limited software knowledge
The proof of the pudding is in the eating and you can see for yourself the type of end product I have created with limited time and knowledge; not terrible but not very good either. I would love to take the time to develop really amazing graphics for my site – my needs are simple enough. The breakdown:
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Considerations – the 960 needs to be maintained, I really do want the banner to stretch across the entire width of the site. The 250 is flexible but if you go much taller, it will push the current post content off the screen. It should also incorporate the site title (Life of an Architect) and the tag line (what it’s like to work with and be an architect)
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This logo came into existent because I did some sketches and these were the characters I drew into the sketch. I had a lot of people comment that they should take a more prominent role on my site – so viola! This is the logo that I use on my Facebook Fan page and it is the logo that I would use for smart phone icons, the login page for my site and anything else I felt appropriate. If you look at the top banner of my site, you can see that it is present there as well.
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This entire post has come into existence from this sketch – sad really. I am about to start doing book reviews and I wanted a graphic to introduce the theme of book reviews. So I generated this sketch during one of the presentations I was enjoying at the convention I just attended. The concept was to have the site title along the top, I’m calling this feature – you can probably guess it… that’s right – ‘Book Report’. The title was going to be in block letters with book text below but since I didn’t want the text to actually be something you read, it was either going to be something that represented text or I was going to graphically cut up and jumble slots of text so it would be recognizable as book text but wasn’t actually anything legible. Genius! (not really). But I drew this up and then I had this conversation:
Me: Look at that …. Whoooeee! that could be something!
Inner Me: It’s not that great really AND it was your first attempt, you never get anything right on the first attempt.
Me: Yes I do, how would you know anyways?
Inner Me: Really?! Are we going to have this conversation again. See, I am your conscious and I am not ruled by emotions or external stimuli. In short, I protect you from you. I want a raise…
Me: There will be no raise and if you don’t play ball, I’ll start talking to my subconscious because I am 1/4 Cherokee Indian and we can do that type of thing. And you know our subconscious is down for whatever – he likes to party!
Inner Me: Okay … but you don’t have the software knowledge to do this … or the software for that matter. When do you think you are going to find the time? Please … ask for help
Me: I can totally do this – I drive to work and I can put the laptop on the passenger seat, that’s like 8 minutes each way …
Inner Me:
Me: …Hmmm ……… wass that?
Inner Me:
Me: … whatever
I have never been able to defeat myself in a battle of wits – I’m too damn clever! I know every move I’m going to make so, I need some help and here is what’s in it for you (get ready … it’s totally awesome)
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A big ‘Thank You‘!! Yeah! Totally awesome prize fo sho’. Okay, so uhm, .. yeah, that would actually suck if that was it. So despite this site getting like a trazillion readers a week, I’m not made of money. So in addition to that super-awesome ‘Thank You’, I would also include: a spotlight post on my site featuring none other than you, and I will give you one of these –
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Ta-Dahhh! Sweet!
The Lytegem Lamp was designed by Michael Lax in 1965 has recently been reintroduced by Lightolier. The lamp is simple, elegant and classic in its design – or in other words, awesome. The base is weighted for tabletop use or it can be wall mounted with a included bracket. The telescopic rod extends from 6.5″ to 15″and the head swivels 360 degrees. The lamps brightness can be adjusted easily with a switch on the base. I have one of these in my possession and while I’m not giving it away, I’ll get one for you as a token of my appreciation. I know it’s not much but you also get my thanks – don’t forget about that…
Hopefully someone will feel compelled to come to my aid and during the process, I will post the initial designs from everyone who submits anything that’s not vulgar (take a pass on that thank you) and we’ll see what everyone thinks. I wrote a post a while back on the power of effective graphics and included some examples that an AIA Dallas Associate member generated. (I hope he still reads this blog…)
Thanks for everyone’s continued support, I really do appreciate it – even if you don’t want to help me out on this and become famous – knowing that I’ll slide into a funk and write depressing posts on linoleum and grab bars.
Your call.
Cheers.
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