Why did we change up the blog? Well, simply for this reason: Blogger updated its templates, and the 'some things looming' blog was no longer easy to edit. I started out by making a new header to replace the ol' boring one we had had before. Having learned a new graphics skill, I needed a place to use my new-found knowledge, and of course, the blog needed a face lift. It's a challenge to create something that maintains the look and feel of the original website. For one, our website is done in a totally different template/content management system than blogger. For two, because I'm not a programmer, I'm forced to use blogger's templates. Thank goodness for them, because otherwise our blog would still look like it was created in 1995.
So as these things usually do, one thing lead to another, and I had a new header, but no matter what I did, I couldn't get it to line up correctly with the rest of the boxes on the blog. I'm not a graphic designer, but I am a little OCD, and a few pixels to the left or right bothers me to no end. There was no help for it. I had to play with the new template designer.
I selected the first template I liked. The color gradated nicely down the sides going from dark at the top, to light at the bottom, the center space was wide and open, my new blog banner lined up beautifully. I was sold. Ever excited about my progress, I emailed it out and received this feedback: "I don't like the purple. It's girly." Hmm. Well, now. That's a problem there, because see, it's the same exact purple as on the side bars of our website. I just punched in the exact hex code of that purple into the template generator, and it changed the original template colors to the business standard. Back to the drawing board, I guess.
Tossing that template out, I found another one, and another and another. Each time I plugged in the purple, I was not as happy with the effect, until I came up with the current template. The pattern, at least, tones down the purple. And hopefully no one will get sea-sick. Besides, we're all about textiles, right? And that's uh, a pattern, and textiles have patterns, and uh, so the pattern is a good think after all.
So, if you check in here often, you might have seen the template changing from time to time as we were settling on a look and feel we both can agree on. I'll add an apology for the lack of posting. There's been a lot to do for our up and coming show, 'simply irRESISTible' and the blog took a backseat in priority. That will be changing in the near future. So stay tuned as we feature artists in the show, talk about what activities we'll be hosting, and the usual general behind-the-scenes fodder we normally post.
~melanie
So as these things usually do, one thing lead to another, and I had a new header, but no matter what I did, I couldn't get it to line up correctly with the rest of the boxes on the blog. I'm not a graphic designer, but I am a little OCD, and a few pixels to the left or right bothers me to no end. There was no help for it. I had to play with the new template designer.
I selected the first template I liked. The color gradated nicely down the sides going from dark at the top, to light at the bottom, the center space was wide and open, my new blog banner lined up beautifully. I was sold. Ever excited about my progress, I emailed it out and received this feedback: "I don't like the purple. It's girly." Hmm. Well, now. That's a problem there, because see, it's the same exact purple as on the side bars of our website. I just punched in the exact hex code of that purple into the template generator, and it changed the original template colors to the business standard. Back to the drawing board, I guess.
Tossing that template out, I found another one, and another and another. Each time I plugged in the purple, I was not as happy with the effect, until I came up with the current template. The pattern, at least, tones down the purple. And hopefully no one will get sea-sick. Besides, we're all about textiles, right? And that's uh, a pattern, and textiles have patterns, and uh, so the pattern is a good think after all.
So, if you check in here often, you might have seen the template changing from time to time as we were settling on a look and feel we both can agree on. I'll add an apology for the lack of posting. There's been a lot to do for our up and coming show, 'simply irRESISTible' and the blog took a backseat in priority. That will be changing in the near future. So stay tuned as we feature artists in the show, talk about what activities we'll be hosting, and the usual general behind-the-scenes fodder we normally post.
~melanie
