I am a church planter. I do not have time to design a cool blog page. The truth is, church planter or not, I have NO IDEA HOW to design a cool blog page. But I am frustrated that my page is so lame. So I have been trying to make it better. As you can see, I have ZERO skill in making a cool blog page. My old page was cool, but I hate blue. So I really wanted to get rid of the blue, so I tried to do something different. I have the idea in my head, but I really do not know how to create a cool banner. Oh well. It is what it is. Hopefully you are checking my blog for the cute pictures of my kids and not for the banner. No, actually, I hope you are checking the blog to follow God's story of reaching people far from Him through church planting.
Ignore the design. It is under construction until futher notice, or until I get some really creative person (Tommy) to help me.
I think your page is "cool". Not for the design, but for the message. Glad to see things are going so well!! (Not surprised)
Posted by: Patton | October 17, 2007 at 02:31 AM
Personally, I think this is cool. Your outside white type color matches your inside inside panel color pretty close.
This pulls the viewers eye into the inside panel, while making the type on the outside "pop" out more.
The color scheme is very clean, very high contrast--this makes for really easy reading.
And contrary to some people's opinions, using white in your blog display *doesn't* waste energy in computer screens modern technology. Most computer monitors aren't the old CRT technology anymore.
The moral of that is: keep your color scheme however you want it.
If you want to add other colors--play around with that top space next to that WAY COOL picture of the sun you already have.
Believe it or not, if you hadn't said anything--I would have thought this layout finished.
You know what you like in colors. And what you did works from a display and readability standpoint.
Don't naysay yourself or let anyone else do it. This looks great!!
Posted by: bonnie | October 17, 2007 at 05:36 AM
Wow Janet! I want Bonnie as a friend! What an encourager! I agree with her too, it looks great - the message is always better anyway so don't sweat it.
Posted by: Sheri Burrell | October 17, 2007 at 08:38 AM
Janet, mostly I pick you up on my reader... so I don't pay attention to the actual design until I go to click and make a comment.
Its your words that matter, your story that you share.
Please keep sharing. I love it.
Posted by: Shelley | October 17, 2007 at 10:36 AM
God's great joke on me was send me to art school in the dark years after 9-11
Before I went, I never thought I had any artistic ability.
Understanding what works is what art school did.
Actually, I think your first instincts here are right on. --and you really actually do know what you are doing...
Your graphics frame and emphasize your message--not distract from it
Personally, maybe I'd tile the fantastic picture of the sun across the top of the screen--or just add a few of the oranges and yellows in some kind of simple pattern.
But really, less IS more. I think this looks very finished as is.
Posted by: bonnie | October 17, 2007 at 10:36 AM
When your page opend, I thought oh what a nice banner. I like it. My page is nothing special either and I have no idea how to make it better. I'm like you and hope that people pay more attention to the message than the layout :) I like to read your posts, so keep it up and also try to keep Luke in-line ;)
Posted by: Kristen (Kendall) Levitt | October 24, 2007 at 07:33 AM