Design A Banner for WoM!

[suladan]

just as the title says, WoM is in need of a new banner.

before going any further i would like to thanks Curunir for the current banner. But with the new skin the white one doesnt suite it.

the new banner needs to be 800 x 200 pixels and must be better than the current one. The winner will recieve a total of 50 coins and a special rank. the 2 runners up will recieve 25 coins each and 15 coins will be given to everyone who enters.

entries close end of august

[dansemacabre]

Hi, i'm not very skilled with the banners but i have a request if possible: on certain forums i.e. the games workshop ones i cannot put in the signature the mini banner because it contains a non gw mini, it's possible to make a mini banner with gw minis or without minis at all to use in such forums? thx a lot

[suladan]

you decide, the banner can have teletubbies on it but as long as it looks like it belongs on the site then thats cool with me

[mattofmirkwood]

Heres my WoM banner :



I hope you like it, I do.

[endrem]

Here is my first try:



Maybe it is a little bit too busy, I'm gonna work on it some more later.

[mattofmirkwood]

I might make a better one soon

[Tim C]

Nice tries guys, I will give away a prize from my own mini stash to the one that comes up with the best design. Endrem I like yours alot you have used one of my minis in there to tie it to me though that is not nescessary it is a nice touch. Matt again a good try but Glenn is very touchy about white backgrounds.
I think we will turn this into a proper comp with the winner like I say getting something from my mini stash, so I will think of a date to close the contest and then the entries can be put into a thread of their own and then a pole submitted.

How does that sound?

[endrem]

I had some time, I spiced mine up a bit:



Yes, Tim, I used, I hope it's ok . I also used others' picture, I was lookin in the galleries. Hopefully noone has anything against it.

Competition is a good idea, although I participate to help, no matter if I get something for it, or not .

[Tim C]

It is cool with me me mate, I thought that making a little contest out of it might generate a little interest, with a physical mystery prize as well as the virtual coins. So far of the two I like yours the best.

[endrem]

Sure, Tim, I thought that this was behind the idea. Actually I can't say I mind if my collection of minis grows...

I thought I change the background to the world at night. How about this one:

[Tim C]

Very nice mate the blue is much better more moody I think.

[rlangner]

I like that last one alot... I wish I still had photoshop and I would be all over this one. I'll have to see what I can come up with without any decent programs...

[suladan]

wow these are looking decent

[dogfacedboyuk1]

I have an idea (falls over with shock). When the final banner is chosen and should it contain pictures of cut out mini's, then why not use mini's from the various artists on the forum on some kind of rotation scheme. This could be either be to effect a bit of variety and keep it fresh every so often or as some kind of reward - ie for posting some really cool tutorial or starting a real good thread etc.

[Tim C]

That is a very good idea dogface, I think we should definately go with that. Cheers mate.

[endrem]

rlangner said:

I like that last one alot... I wish I still had photoshop and I would be all over this one. I'll have to see what I can come up with without any decent programs...

You could also go for GIMP, that one is free and can do a whole lot of things.

[suladan]

endrem said:

rlangner said:

I like that last one alot... I wish I still had photoshop and I would be all over this one. I'll have to see what I can come up with without any decent programs...

You could also go for GIMP, that one is free and can do a whole lot of things.

GIMP is free yes, but it is extremly complex i dont how to change the colour of the brush

[endrem]

admin said:

That is a very good idea dogface, I think we should definately go with that. Cheers mate.

I agree, but then the chosen banner's creator has to create numerous other versions with different minis on it. That can be a lot of work.

Starting from this... Another idea would be some 'featured artist' section somewhere where the pictures of those selected could be shown randomly. This would be easier to make.

[endrem]

suladan said:

GIMP is free yes, but it is extremly complex i dont how to change the colour of the brush

Yeah, I've heard that from several sources... I'm sure though, that there are tutorials over the internet how to do things in it. On the GIMP site for example: www.gimp.org/tutorials/

[Tim C]

I like the featured artist idea, and agree that it would be easier and more practical than changing the banner. Thanks Endre I hadn't thought of that.

[dogfacedboyuk1]

Well, the chosen artist could always do the cut out work themselves, if they don't want to do it, then their mini doesn't go on the banner!!! Or somebody could volunteer - I don't mind doing some cutout work now and then. It doesn't take 5 minutes to change the banner once this is done (if using photoshop it's just drag it into position and hide the layers with the previous mini's on, resave it and it's job done)

[endrem]

dogfacedboyuk1 said:

Well, the chosen artist could always do the cut out work themselves, if they don't want to do it, then their mini doesn't go on the banner!!! Or somebody could volunteer - I don't mind doing some cutout work now and then. It doesn't take 5 minutes to change the banner once this is done (if using photoshop it's just drag it into position and hide the layers with the previous mini's on, resave it and it's job done)

I thought it would be some kind of a randomizer behind, so every time the page is refreshed, a different banner would appear with the different figures from the featured artists.

Either way, technically it's not difficult to do, but then we have to keep it in mind when designing the banner, that its composition should be able to accept any kind of figures.

For example, I think in my banner's case it shouldn't be a big problem, although I chose the figures so, that the right one looks left, and the left one looks right, this way sort of emphasising the text. Still, it wouldn't be too bad to have different figures in there, I think.

Hope it's understandable what I mean

[dogfacedboyuk1]

A featured artist randomiser would be cool, not sure how much effort that would be to maintain. I guess it depends on the amount of free time you guys get to play around on the site. Maybe an artist of the week would be easier in some kind of seperate box.

Your banner would be easy to change figures on endrem and I do like the newer one you did, gets my vote so far.

I suppose we could all contribute if it's a time issue on arranging and cutting out the mini's. The banner could be designed in such a way as to allow "themes" and be occasionally changed to refresh the site as well. For example take a look at a quick mock up example below. It has a central area ("theme" area) which can be changed if required and has been faded out to allow any minis on top of the background to be the focus. The logo text which should stay the same to be the "identity" of the site for lack of a better way of putting it, and two uncluttered areas either side for the main mini's to be clearly displayed on. The foreground has enough area to add additional minis, text or whatever. Well, that's a little idea anyway for anyone who wants to play around with it.

[Tim C]

my time is sometimes an issue, work cna get very overpowering as I guess it can for most people, I work 24 hour shifts which in itself can make things difficult. It doesn't help that I am not IT friendly which is why I have been dragging my heals over setting up a whole new site as a sister site to this one as I can't transfer the forums with pro-boards.

[racssirt]

What do you think? It was a quick attempt, and could be made better.