Thursday, May 01, 2008

The new look

Notice something different? Yes, I thought you would.

The beautiful new banner above was designed by Fresh Display Studio. I wholeheartedly recommend them for Web design — they are imaginative, technically proficient, reasonably priced, and very good at client relationship (the last is something I found sorely lacking among many talented designers when I requested bids for the job).

Expect further changes from time to time. One of my aims is for Reflecting Light to be one of the best-looking blogs around.

Photobucket

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the kind words, Rick. It's been a pleasure working with you.

Cheers,
Mihai

Terry Morris said...

I like it, Rick. Nice improvement on the header.

-Terry

leadpb said...

Hmm... I rather liked the old banner better. The graphics, with a 'Glory to God' look, seemed a more intriguing signpost for the theme of politics and spirituality.

But then I was unhappy when Lysol changed their branding image.

Anonymous said...

This is what I've been debating about with VA. When she brought her blog back she decided to modify her blog template.
I was glad she brought her blog back, but the new template? Here is EXACTLY what I said to her in the VA Forum:
GAWD THAT'S UGLY!. She was nice enough to not say it was me who said that. But she took it as the constructive critsisim it was intended as.
So what do I think of your new 'banner'? In a word, COOL!
It's better looking, and themematically it fits like a glove.
I agree, I want Reflecting Light to be one of the best-looking blogs around.

Rick Darby said...

Thank you all for your feedback.

Since I'm about equally a verbal and visual person — if I'd gone in a different direction I could have been a graphic designer — it's important to me how the site looks. And while maximizing readership isn't my goal, I do want the design to draw people in and capture their attention.

You can easily see that this started out as a standard Blogger template. I did some of the tweaking, and I'm rather proud of the posting header style, but I think Fresh Display Studio's rethink of the banner is a huge step forward.

leadpb, what did Lysol do to change their image? Which reminds me … am I the only one who thinks John McCain looks like the Mr. Clean figure?

leadpb said...

Rick, I have to say now that my image of the old banner is fading out, the new one looks really good (not that I disliked it in the first place). I think I have an in-born resistance to change, though I'm usually open to being won over.

Lysol changed graphics, going from a bolder gold (notably the cap) and turquoise theme to something that bears a resemblance but seems feminized to me. Not just me being picky-- my old search image wasn't working when I went to buy some.