Archive for Blog Header Makeover
Blog Header Design Makeover- Blogger Header Design
Posted by: | CommentsYou know how when you're surfing the net and you come across a blog header where you say.."hey, a little tweak and I could make this site look great."
Really? You don't do that? Oh.
Well, sometimes I can't help myself. 
Blog Header Guy Makeover- Curly Girl's Crochet etc.
It's time for another of my guerrilla blog header makeovers. Since I don't I don't really have much to say, I'll keep this one short and sweet.
Stumbling my way around blogcatalog.com I visited a site where the owner does some really cool crocheting. I'm not into crochet, not that it isn't manly to do it, but I love seeing creative people do what they love to do. And Sonya clearly loves to crochet.
She actually crochets little dolls using a Japanese technique known as amigurumi. It's really cool to see what she can do with some yarn.
I can appreciate the minimalist style of the Minima blogger template and have written about it before. I just thought I could make an improvement by adding some personality.
I got the idea for this blog header redesign from this button Sonya has on her site. I wanted to maintain some design continuity using the Curlz typeface and floral elements.
Well, there it is. I think it brings her blog header to life, but what do you think?
I just sent her a message and can't wait to hear what she thinks, but I've learned that sometimes the response is not always what I imagine.
Your comments are appreciated.
Roy
Blog Header Design Makeover #7- Jean Levert Hood
Posted by: | CommentsI haven’t done too many Blogger headers and so when I visited artist Jean Levert Hood’s site this morning, I had a really good idea for a header design makeover using a Blogger theme.
Anyway, having spent several years in Texas, (in fact, technically, Ohio is really just northeast Texas) I was interested in seeing some Hill Country art. Jean has some pretty neat insights and an interesting painting style and I really liked a watercolor iris she is selling on Etsy.
Isn’t this nice?
I immediately thought it would be sweet as a header element.
So I grabbed a copy from Etsy. She is using a modified Minima template. This Blogger template has quirky thing with the margin padding, so you have to make the image 10px smaller than the 660px the html says is the header width.
Of course, you could change the margin, but I like it.
I grunged up a background that to my eye complimented the watercolor image.
I used a really cool font from my LetterheadFonts collection Brien, by font designer Gary Godby, for her name. I love Letterhead fonts.
I tried to match the color background, but its not perfect. With a little tweaking to the curves, I’m sure I could make it better. So what do you think of this one? Roy .jpg)
Postscript:
I heard from Jean and though I’m pretty sure she likes the design for art’s sake, she said it was too "sweet" for her. I can see that.
Not that Jean isn’t sweet. She seemed that way to me.
Blog Header Makeover#6- Change that Font!
Posted by: | CommentsTime for Blog Header Makeover #6…It’s hard to tell if these are even being read, but I figure I’ll keep posting them until I get too bored with it.
Today features a former client of mine that has a lot of different irons in the fire. She just had me produce a header for one of her clients and when I visited her site I thought I could improve it by fixing up some things.
The first thing I noticed on this header was the peculiar use of typestyle for the copy. The use of the white glow surrounding this font is way overdone, although it does make the copy legible on that background. It simply overpowers the design and takes away from Gina’s face and the sunset. To my eye there are three competing(instead of complimenting each other) elements in this header.
In my opinion, too many "web designers" don’t know the basic fundamentals of the proper use of typestyles. And think they can add a style and a blend and it’s a design.
The use of type in the blog header is very important as the characters project feelings and can change how you perceive the website.
One thing the orginal design did do correctly was to use the upper and lower case variants, contrary to popular belief in ALL CAPS HEADLINES, the use of lower case does make it easier to read.
A couple of other things about this header that bothered me were: If you look at the sunset scene under the "n" in "Makin’" you will see a definite line that stood out plain as day to me. A couple of seconds with the healing brush could have helped immensely.
The other thing was the money. I mean she wants to teach people how to make money…and they use $1 bills? I’m sure that’s not the impression she wanted to make.
I made a change to the color scheme (which she didn’t like at all) and used a real Hawaiian sunset for the background. I used a block typeface to try and not deviate from the original too far. I used a $100 money stack I used on a header before, but couldn’t find the original which is why its kind of pixelated.
Hey, this is a demonstration not the real thing.
Here’s my rendering…
As you can see the copy no longer takes away or fights for attention with Gina’s face. Okay, maybe a little bit.
I added a tag line from her about me page (which she didn’t like either) to introduce them to what the site is about.
Anyway, you can see I mentioned a few times that she didn’t like any of the changes I made to her header, but that doesn’t mean I’m wrong, it just means she didn’t like them…and it’s her header.
Until next time.
Roy
Blog Header Design Makeover#5-Knoxville Marketing Coach
Posted by: | CommentsAwhile ago, I was a member of an offline niche forum where I contributed by giving away my design services to beginning online marketers. One such marketer was Knoxville Marketing Coach.
After the forum ownership and direction changed, I left and lost contact with Rachel until today when I was freeing up precious hard drive space and came across her original header.
I’m sure you can see why I jumped at the chance to help her. You should treat your image as extremely important in your marketing materials. You need to be careful with every piece that you put into the marketplace to insure you are projecting the right impression. Because you only have a split second before someone makes a judgment about who and what you are about.
I took a few minutes and researched Knoxviille and learned of the Sunsphere as a local landmark. Using a portion of an image I found, I placed it on a new header using a more stylized typeface. The blue was chosen because it matched her theme color scheme.
Anyway, I went by her site, KnoxvilleMarketingCoach.com and I see she is starting over again using a very nice wordpress theme, Swift. I like the controls it gives you in the theme options.
I put together this header for her this morning. She doesn’t know about it yet.
What do you think?
Roy
Just goes to show you that at least one person reads my posts. Nice catch.
Blog Header Makeover#4-For A No-Brainer This Is The Most Controversial One Yet.
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Last week, I ventured over to the Warrior Forum to see if I could offer any advice on something I know about. Okay, we both know that’s not much.
Anyway, there was a woman there asking fellow Warriors for a critique of her landing page. So, knowing a thing or two about design, I went over and took a look and found an awesome candidate for my next installment of blog header makeover.
The site is No Brainer Niche Blogs. (I’m going to wait to hear from her to see if she would like me to link to her site). From what I gathered she has a monthly niche blog package that contains two or four ready -made blogs with articles, and PLR content. It’s a sort of "business in a box" arrangement from what I gathered.
Here’s her current site header:
The first thing I noticed was the busy diagonal blue background conflicting with the blue horizontal stripes in the header. Not enough contrast for my liking.
An old sign design lesson that I learned a long time ago is that the background should be just that…in the background. Because if you notice it, it’s not in the background. And it will conflict with the rest of your design.
In my design rework, I subtly lightened the background stripes to scale it back from having equal tonal value with the rest of the page.
The horizontal stripes in the header (also blue) make the header copy harder to read.
When you use a typeface like Curlz, you don’t want to make it any more difficult to read than it already is by distracting your eyes with stripes.
Also, this typeface demands size. The smaller it gets, the more illegible it is. The text height could be twice the size that it is and would go a long way to making this more legible. The kerning on the “o” needed to be brought closer to the “N” but that’s a common error.
I thought the menu bar needed more contrast, but this is personal preference I think. Also, it was suggested that the menu should be under the header graphic. I don’t mind it on top, so I left it there.
The page had some samples graphics in the sidebar, and it was mentioned by other Warriors that the positioning actually took away from the impact of the sales letter. I agreed and thought I could include them in the header.
Here’s my quick blog header design makeover along with some changes to her sign up form…
If I had more time, I would spend more of it trying out some different color combinations.
Well, that’s it. I would appreciate hearing your comments.
Roy
Postscript:
It turns out she didn’t like my treatment of her design.
I want to be clear to explain that these makeover segments are strictly for educational purposes. My makeover suggestions represent my interpretation and just that, my viewpoint.
If you don’t like my suggestions, I’m fine with that. But, I stand by the fact, that I know what I’m talking about. 
Blog Header Makeover#3- Weight Loss Grail
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Like most of us, I receive a lot of junk email. I was cleaning out my inbox and came across a JV partner request for a product not yet released. Curious I went by and checked out the site and saw this header.
Now, I can appreciate a minimalist layout as much as the next guy, but at first glance the measuring tape is the only thing suggesting weight loss. And I didn’t get the whole Indiana Jones theme either.
Hey, I love the attempt to use the Indiana Jones theme idea, but to me, it doesn’t really go with plain. (I’m not all that convinced it goes with weight loss either, but that’s a whole other can of worms). When I imagine finding the holy grail of weight loss products it suggests a medieval theme rich with tapestries and ornamental lettering, but that’s just me.
Anyway, using the same items I dressed it up a bit here.
Just changing the background color and fixing the lettering makes a big difference.
What do you think? I’d appreciate your comments.
Roy
Blog Header Makeover#2- Joe-Marsh.com
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This morning I chose another Twitter friend, Joe Marsh from my followers, to do a blog header makeover for.
His site is at joe-marsh.com. And the wordpress theme he is using is Mandigo.
I took some liberties to show that a blog header doesn’t have to be cold and lifeless but can reveal a little of your personality.
I noticed in his twitter picture(also featured on his about page) that he went out of his way to show the beach behind him, and being a beach bum myself, I understand why.
I put a breaking wave photo in luminosity blend mode and used a very small image of Joe that I found on his site. I was able resize about 500% without losing too much detail and getting all pixelated on this cool site I found…Reshade.com
I think Joe could use a custom twitter background too. But that’s a project for another day.
I haven’t sent this to him as yet, but will as soon as I finish this post.
So what do you think?
Roy
Postscript: Joe finally saw my design and he really liked it. So, I traded him some twitter tweets for the design. My kind of deal.
