Manos Lentas wrote:I think the color scheme is fine, but try one with a green tone and also the resolution looks good, but try one with higher to compare. I am sure Bob can fix up any minor details to make it perfect for the foro.

Will do. Should have some free time on Friday. I'll also try to fully-fit the current banner size unless you have plans to adjust it.

I'll also provide some of the universal color codes that I used in case those might be helpful in adjusting the color schemes.

Maybe I'll even put together some color palettes. I'm guessing that vBulletin uses four customizable colors:

• Background (currently green)
• Toolbar (currently a dark green)
• Highlighted text background (pale green)
• Text background (paler green)

Anyone who has created images for banners, logos, icons and other stylistic elements of web pages will know that projects like that can consume tremendous amounts time. That is especially true where a large number of people are involved in the decision-making process. One company I did some software development work for several years ago must have spent absolute fortune to simply decide which shades of orange and brown to use for their company logo, because they had seemingly endless meetings attended by company executives, department heads, marketing staff, sales staff, and outside consultants.

It took me a couple weeks to create the Old School Flamenco Foro after a week or so of discussion about what it should be like. I knew creating a nice banner could take hours, days, or weeks, depending the number of versions I created and how nice I wanted the end-result to be, and that even after going through a process like that others may not like what I created. So, to be able to get the site up more quickly, I spent about two minutes creating the current banner in Photoshop with the intention to let the OS Foro members decide what they would rather have.

GuitarVlog wrote:Will do. Should have some free time on Friday. I'll also try to fully-fit the current banner size unless you have plans to adjust it.

The current banner is 860 x 80 pixels. I have no plans to change those dimensions, but the height would be easy to change if a different height would be better for your design. Changing the width would be a major project.

GuitarVlog wrote:I'll also provide some of the universal color codes that I used in case those might be helpful in adjusting the color schemes.

Maybe I'll even put together some color palettes. I'm guessing that vBulletin uses four customizable colors:

• Background (currently green)
• Toolbar (currently a dark green)
• Highlighted text background (pale green)
• Text background (paler green)

The site doesn't use vBulletin and colors aren't specified in a simple way like that. A large array of HTML colors are specified in various Cascading Styles Sheet (CSS) files. Other colors are determined by the colors of a set of approximately 100 small graphic images, some of which are used as building blocks to create complex shapes. Others are used as buttons for users to click. Others are free-standing images used to create various stylistic effects. There is a complete set of images like that for each supported language, because some of the images include text. Individual colors can be changed easily, but changing the overall color scheme would be a huge project. vBulletin is easier to configure, but doesn't have the flexibility or range of options that we have.

The green beyond the shadows on each side of web pages is HTML #3BA237.

The pale green background in green post text areas is HTML #F2F8EA.

The light gray background in alternate post text areas is HTML #EBEBEE.

Swapping banners is a one-minute project. If you want to create alternative images I will cycle through them a day or two each to help members decide which they prefer.

-Bob

Okay, I lied. I had some time today for a quick hack.

Here's a GIF and a JPEG at 860x100 (just 20 pixels higher). It balances the width of the text and provides a little more of the image. For now, I just used the darker shade of green from the menu icon panel.

The GIF is about 50% the size of the JPEG. I think it looks just fine. You can click on either image to view it at its full size.


GIF version.


JPEG version.

I've saved the PSD files. We can edit further as we go along and as the foro evolves.

Actually, it looks like the header should be 960x80. Let me go back to the drawing board.

Okay, ... 960 x 90. GIF only. It's smaller and looks better.



Let me know if you want any changes.

I like the color with green. Awesome. I vote yes....

GuitarVlog wrote:Okay, ... 960 x 90. GIF only. It's smaller and looks better.

It looks good to me. However, the forum software resizes images as necessary to make them fit within post text space, so the image you posted isn't usable. If you will send it to me by e-mail I will copy it to the server.

-Bob

GuitarVlog wrote::)

Do we want to stick with green as the color scheme? I can create a few more versions with slightly different shades that might better complement the forum's current colors. Just let me know.

As mentioned, the graphic that I uploaded is in medium resolution (it was intended as a test and suggestion). I can also upload one of better resolution which should give the text and image a little more "snap".

We definitely want to stay with the green color scheme. To work out some complimentary shades and develop better resolution is a great idea. I very much agree with the others that found your image choice to be pleasing.

Doog