Redesign!

Redesign!

1,286
Mega-Ultimate
1,286

    May 17, 2011#1

    Hey everyone. It's been a long time since I've been here, and I'm unlikely to ever be an active part of this community again. However, it seems the general concensus is that this place needs a makeover, and Linda seems to be forever struggling with broken images and such. So I'd like to repay my debt to this place by sorting out a new look. I've only just got myself a copy of Paint Shop Pro so I'll be having fun at the same time.

    Anyway, I've made a rough draft of a new skin, which is actually quite similar to the original one (if any of you remember that!), and have applied it to one of my long dead forums as a preview for you guys. Only the main page is done so far; the threads look a mess. For now, I've matched it with the old logo, and am undecided on whether or not I will make a new one. It depends on how good I get with the software.

    Preview

    So essentially, I'm looking for some feedback. Would you guys like me to go ahead and finish what I've started? Also, I'm curious as to what resolutions everyone is using. The preview is about 1100 pixels wide, so too wide if anyone is still using 1024 x 768, but I can't imagine any of you are that far behind the times!

    Sarahsuke
    979
    Icon
    979

      May 17, 2011#2

      It looks nice, but the banner is a wee bit too plain. Perhaps you could use some of the images ripped from Plus to fix things up a bit?

      BobTheFish
      1,286
      Mega-Ultimate
      1,286

        May 18, 2011#3

        Right, I've made a new banner and uploaded it to the preview. It's no graphical masterpiece, and possibly a little cluttered, but I think it captures SBK better than any we've had before. What do you reckon?

        nicole couch
        1,038
        Ultimate
        1,038

          May 18, 2011#4

          That's awesome! :pamelastarstrucked: I love it. I say go with this new look.
          Behold The almighty Couch Inc. Superior to all Co.s and Inc.s
          everywhere. Especially that darned Maltinie Co. Hee Hee

          My introduction page was the only one to have four pages!

          Blue Bolt
          107
          Advanced User
          107

            May 18, 2011#5

            Looks much better than the previous one you made. If we could make the "Snowboard Kids World" logo here look the same as the games, it would be perfect.

            I have Photoshop as well, so I'll give it a try.

            BobTheFish
            1,286
            Mega-Ultimate
            1,286

              May 18, 2011#6

              Right, I just need to get the button set done now. I've done all the forum markers and the "Add Reply", "New Topic" etc. buttons. I've added sprites to the latter to make them a bit more interesting. You can click on a random thread to see what they look like. I reckon I can get it up in the next day or two, and then we can iron out any creases from there, as long as everyone's happy.

              Blue Bolt
              107
              Advanced User
              107

                May 19, 2011#7

                Alright, I made the logo! It was much easier to do that I thought. The only thing that was bothering me was whether or not to make the space inside letters like "A", "O" and "D" transparent. I decided not, as I thought it would make the letters hard to see in the banner.

                http://postimage.org/image/2hatez490/full/

                Hope you like it and will use it for your banner for the forums.

                BobTheFish
                1,286
                Mega-Ultimate
                1,286

                  May 19, 2011#8

                  Yeah, you were right to make them solid. I didn't with the text I made and it was a little hard to read. I've put yours on now, and saved it as a .jpg this time cause I found it was taking a long time to load if you have a rubbish Internet connection like me.

                  Also, I'd like an opinion on some of the buttons I've made.

                  I made these first:



                  Then I thought the images and text didn't look that good at such a reduced size, so I made these:



                  What do you reckon?

                  Sarahsuke
                  979
                  Icon
                  979

                    May 19, 2011#9

                    Yeah, the new set looks more refined; love the new banner, too! By the way, do you plan to add a background to the board? Perhaps something in a light blue?

                    Blue Bolt
                    107
                    Advanced User
                    107

                      May 19, 2011#10

                      Yeah, I saved it in PNG format to keep it's optimal quality, and I hate JPGs.

                      Now the banner looks amazing, even in JPG format, and I guess saving it in this format is a better idea anyway, since as you said, not everyone has a good internet connection (I have High-speed Internet, up to 8.0 MB/s).

                      About the buttons, they look okay, but you could try with different font text.

                      There are some websites out there where you can find text fonts for free, like Urban Fonts and Dafont.

                      I'm currently searching for a text font that looks similar to the ones in the SBK2 US manual, but some (or all of them) appears that you have to pay for them unfortunately.

                      Here's some personal free text fonts suggestions :
                      http://www.urbanfonts.com/fonts/Teenage_Delinquent.htm

                      http://www.urbanfonts.com/fonts/Whimsy.htm

                      You can search through the choices on the site, you'll definitely find a good one for the buttons.

                      BobTheFish
                      1,286
                      Mega-Ultimate
                      1,286

                        May 20, 2011#11

                        Yeah, I knew the text font didn't look very good. I'll try out some other ones for sure.

                        As for a background, I will experiment with that. The central section is staying light grey, but I could put a border round it and make the rest of the page a light blue (similar to what we have now I guess).

                        Anyway, I need to do some work for a few hours but then I should have enough free time to make some good progress. One slight issue with the buttons is the folder icons on the forum view. I was hoping to create an entire button set, but I'd have no idea how to make these, so I may have to reuse them and keep the credit to the guy who made them.

                        Edit: Paintshop Pro does have an envelope as one of the preset shapes, so I might try and make some out of that.

                          May 22, 2011#12

                          Right, I think everything is in place now. There are still a few things I'm not quite happy with, such as the admin/mod icons, but I don't think it's really enough to hold up the overhaul. Like I said, we can continue to tweak things over the next few days. Anyway, I plan to implement the new design sometime today.