Author Archive
Custom Blog Header for a Million Dollar Diva
Posted by: | CommentsI've been extremely busy with an offline project and have had to turn away several blog header design requests.
I did get the opportunity to help an internet and network marketing coach with her blog header. She had just paid a pretty penny for this design and was really desperate to get my opinion and asked me to call her on the phone.
I told her that it looked like she was the "Dollar Diva" and that she should have it done over. I had every intention of passing on the project, but one thing led to another and I found myself working on her header.
What can I say, she needed my help and I think it must be my strong protection instinct, because I can't say no to helping someone that really needs me.
I had just been messing with photoshop and I accidently created an effect that I loved and wanted to use someday and this was just the opportunity. I thought I could use it to dress up her design to look like a million dollars.
Well, she was ecstatic. Really.
I LOOOOOVVVEE IITTT! I think this is awesome!
Well, how would you describe that reaction?
It was a nice diversion from my other project and I made a very nice woman happy. Thats when I love what I do.
Roy
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PS The winner of the February free blog header drawing never got me the info I needed, so I'm going to have to reschedule now that its March.
Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.
-Groucho Marx
Does the Blog Header Guy Still Do Other Design Work?
Posted by: | CommentsBeing a design guy for thirty years, I sometimes get asked by my header clients to design logo's, business cards, brochures, etc.
I'm normally so up to my elbows just doing blog header designs that I usually decline. But I wasn't too busy and this husband and wife team are just nice folks to work with, so I made an exception for them.
Plus, I had just done the web design concept drawing as a pattern for their other designer that I thought I'd just be able to knock this one out. Boy was I wrong.
So what was the design for? A half-page SuperPages ad.
You talk about a nightmare. 
Lisa had a vision for a very interesting design that was nothing like a typical YP ad and I wanted to do it.
Coming up with just the right photographs to please their client was test of endurance. And fitting everything into the ad made me reach into my bag of tricks and pull out my earliest sign design training.
I had the honor of taking some classes back in the eighties, with Mike Stevens and John Knox, that taught me about prioritizing copy.
Well, here's the before and the after designs…what do you think?
BEFORE:
AFTER:
So there you have it.
The Blog Header Guy does all kinds of designs and other neat stuff. It can't hurt to ask.
Roy
Custom Blog Header Design for January’s Winner
Posted by: | CommentsJanuary's Blog Header Winner
I was beginning to think Dave didn't want his blog header that he won in last month's free blog header drawing. He seemed excited to win, but then I didn't hear back from him. Turns out he was working on something and wanted to have all his ducks in a row.
Problem for me was that he had something in his head, but I just couldn't do it. He sent me a clip from the Stephen Colbert show, with his new flying eagle intro, and said he wanted something like that.
Even though I come across as an artist, I'm just not that good. I just have alot of stock artwork in my files.
So, I pulled out some pictures I took of bald eagles at the zoo last year and tried to put an american flag overlay on them. Thing is, none of them looked that great and I was getting discouraged. And since it was free I couldn't even refund his money.
He told me to forget the Colbert eagle and see what I came up with. I shot this one over to him.
He didn't care for the eagle, but he liked the phone graphic. I asked him if he had tagline he'd like to put under the copy. He returned my email with a graphic of an eagle soaring in the mountains and a tagline.
I put them on this header.
He didn't like the mountains or sky. He was afraid he was being a PITA and to be honest, I was starting to get frazzled. I didn't really like the header either, it felt forced, which often happens with too much input from a client. Not always.
So, I didn't hear from him for awhile after almost constant communication and in the quiet of my office, I started fidgeting around with removing the background on the eagle. It was a small image, so I went to my favorite online image resizer, ReShade.com and blew up his picture.
After awhile, I sent him this revision.
He sent me this reply…
Roy! That's F***ing beautiful! Thanx for seeing my vision and making it real.
Your welcome Dave.
And not too bad for a free header.
Roy
Sometimes Stock Photos Just Don’t Work…Then What?
Posted by: | CommentsI'm a subscriber to several stock photo sharing sites like iStockphoto, Shutterstock, Dreamstime, BigStockPhoto and Crestock. And every so often, I just can't find a good photo for a particular blog header.
This was one of those times. A client was developing a site for the owners of obese dogs. I searched the web for photos of fat dogs and there were some amazing images out there, just not royalty free ones.
Look at this poor dog, I couldn't find out the original source for this image as it is shared on several blogs without attribution, but this is one fat dog.
This poor guy doesn't look like he moves around too well and while he was grossly overweight, I just couldn't figure out how to use it in her blog header.
I was sent this image of an overweight pug but I couldn't figure out how to use it.
I tried several options, but I just couldn't find a typeface to carry the theme. I needed something else.
While looking through more weight loss images, I got the idea of a fat dog on a scale.
I literally spent several hours looking for just the right picture, which was clearly proving to be a very unprofitable use of my time and the only pictures I found with dogs on scales weren't fat dogs at all.
I was at my wits end and even considered refunding the client. I clearly needed to think outside the box.
Anyway, a few years ago, my family and I ventured into breeding German Shepherds. They are by far my favorite breed and I was the proud owner of a beautiful male we called Moses.
One of his offspring was a beautiful giant my daughter couldn't part with she called Wilhelm. Willie has grown to be about three inches taller than his father and probably 20lbs heavier.
He's a really big dog and a good subject being well over 100lbs, in fact, I think he weighs more than my photographer daughters boyfriend, but that's another story.
I asked my daughter, the photographer, to see if she could get Willie to cooperate and get me some pictures of his chest looking down at his feet. That proved to be quite a task, because he's not called Wilhelm von Schtupithound for nothing.
We tried to get him standing on a scale, but that was impossible. His father would have obeyed, but this guy had too much of his mothers psycho genes flowing through his veins.
Anyway, I managed to get a shot that I could crop and put on a scale, like so.
I know its not perfect, but I thought it was great. And so I put it on a header.
The client was happy and I was totally glad to be finished with this one.
So when you can't find a stock photo, just take your own.
Roy
January Free Blog Header Drawing Winner
Posted by: | CommentsI drew a winner for the Free Blog Header Drawing for January.
Dave Gricunas from the Arizona High Country is our winner. Dave has a local portal http://www.4local.org/ Online Advertising & Marketing Made EZ
I'm looking forward to helping Dave out with his next project.
I'll be posting it when I'm finished.
Congratulations Dave.
Roy
Free Blog Header Drawing Tonight!
Posted by: | CommentsTonight will be the first drawing of 2010 for my monthly Free Custom Blog Header drawing.
Every month, I give away a free blog header design to a lucky winner.
If you've signed up already you'll in the drawing, but if you haven't now's your chance to get in on the action.
Why I don’t rank on Google for Blog Headers …
Posted by: | CommentsFor whatever reason, Google dropped my PR to 1 after I thought I was doing pretty good with a PR2 after only three months. So, I had a friend do an SE optimization evaluation on the blogheaderguy.com site and you know what I learned?
He says that I say b**g he**der too often and that's probably what's keeping me on page two of Google SERP's and the lowering of my PR. Apparently, I need to have more articles that don't actually say bl*g h**d*rs, even though my site is all about bl*g he*d*r design.
It's a good thing I don't care. I was just curious about what I did wrong.
But maybe he's right, I should tone down all that chatter about bl*g h**d*rs and talk about tiger woods or angelina jolie or their love child. Yeah, you heard it first on bl*ghead**guy.com and Brad is pissed.
Back to the search engine thing, I've actually been doing what I call "dancing with the googly bear" and can find my site anywhere from #1 to #14 for the term blog header and out of 23,000,000 pages I think that's pretty darn good.
Oh well, I may have gone overboard with the asterisks and it may have a negative impact on my future page rankings if the googlebot figures out my code.
Just something to keep losing sleep over.
Watch for my new ebook "The Blog Header Guy Conspiracy".
Till next time,
Roy
