Archive for Custom Blog Headers
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
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
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.
Dressing up a logo for a new custom blog header design.
Posted by: | CommentsA friend from the Local Biz Builders forum has used me to do several blog headers this past year for her clients. Because I've had some real fun with her projects and she's a joy to work with, I asked her if I could showcase this project.
Last week she asked me to do a header that had what I thought was a pretty tired logo with boring clipart and some crazy font that was probably trendy when it was done.
As an old signguy, I lived and breathed lettering and the illumination of the letters for almost thirty years and I have strong opinions on what looks right, but I was also a little hesitant to say anything.
I mean why rock the boat, just do the header and go on to the next one.
I did a quick layout and decided I could freshen up the logo with some new graphics and type face changes. I needed something to write about, so I suggested that I tweak the artwork and offered to do the logo changes for the header for free.
I liked the overall layout, I just didn't care for the treatment of the typefaces or the clipart. This is the before image.
I wanted to keep the logo kind of the same so I started with the sun.
I liked the radial gradient for the yellow, but thought I should do something with the red.
Next I wanted to mess with the "easy day" copy. I kinda like welding letters together that overlap unless it makes them less legible. In this case I used a Bodoni clone and gave the letters a little dimension.
Now it was time to tackle the clipart. I have several GB of vector art that I've collected over the years and spent a few hours sorting through them looking for something I could use. The dolphin was easy, the marlin was a little elusive. Kind of like fishing for them.
Now we're talking. I chose a bold serif font for the rest of the copy and this is what I came up with.
Well, that does it for this article. What do you think of the changes I made to this?
Till next time.
Roy
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
A Christmas Blog Header Tutorial Complete with Free Christmas Headers
Posted by: | CommentsChristmas Blog Headers?? Before Thanksgiving? I know, right?
One thing about getting older is you can remember things like when Thanksgiving wasn't just the day before the start of the Christmas shopping season. So, I realize this post about Christmas blog headers is probably way ahead of the curve.
But I did a little research and I found there are people out there searching for some headers for the holiday season already, so I thought I'd put together a little tutorial so you can make your own, if you are so inclined.
Lets get started.
I know red and gold are pretty standard colors for Christmas and this design might look good in red too. (I'll check it out after I finish writing this.) But, I'm going to go with a blue blend to start my blog header.
I need some snow speckles in the background, so I took a scan of white paint splatter that I flicked onto a black background using an old toothbrush.
I inverted the image and made a photoshop brush of the speckles and randomly painted snow on the background.
That looked pretty cool and I thought that making photoshop brushes of snowflakes might be a cool thing to waste an afternoon playing around with. After several hours and only one or two that I really liked, I set out trying to find some already done.
I found a whole collection of them on webresourcesdepot.com site.
Now its snowing like crazy, so we'd be outside building a snowman right? And of course, since it's Christmas and all, we'd stack presents around him? …What? …We don't do that? I call Artistic License!
And how about a Happy Holidays or something?
Okay, there you go a Christmas Blog Header.
Just so you know, I think Thanksgiving is a way better holiday than Christmas, not the whole pilgrim thing, but remembering to be thankful is something we seem to have lost.
Free Christmas Blog Headers
And so, following the the whole holiday theme, what better way to show my Thankfulness than to give away some free Christmas Header designs. Just click on them and it should open in a new window and then you can right click to save them to your computer.
Christmas Header Special
If you want me to customize one of these headers for you, I'll put your info in any of the three header styles for $17.
I get lots of compliments about that hat.
Roy
Use of Fractal Background on World of Warcraft Blog Header
Posted by: | CommentsI love what I do cause I get to work on the coolest stuff sometimes. This week I had an order for a World of Warcraft blog header.
I was in the middle of working on a new project for BlogHeaderGuy.com where I'm going to be putting together inexpensive blog header packs that focus on specific niche markets for internet marketers.
It gave me the idea to put together a niche market blog header package for the World of Warcraft game. Only problem is that I never played WOW or even wanted to. So, this was gonna be a challenge.
A few years ago, I was collecting grizzly bear artwork for a sculpture I was doing for a theme park ride. I know I had one of the world of warcraft bears in my morgue file, which I could modify for this header project.
I used a a dark blotch green and brown base for the background, but I planned on using an overlay from my new fractal header package.
I am writing another article showing these headers off that I'll be posting soon.
Very subtle, but very cool background effect. What do you think?
I next took the World of Warcraft logo and applied it to the image with a luminosity blend. Notice the fractal background peeking through the logo. I really like these fractal headers.
I like it, but I don't care too much for the way the logo goes off the edge on the right side. So I grabbed a screaming eagle I had in that same morgue file to put there.
There you have it. Another happy client, okay he was ecstatic and wanted me contact him when I finish my blog header package for the World of Warcraft niche.
Until next time.
Roy
