Needed Logo for Phoenix Rising Forums

[Lynn]

Hello MNC,

I went to the link you posted to learn more about GIF's. I am the person who came up with graphic at the top pf the page. I am self taught in the graphics area and you seem to be knowledgeable. I needed a transparent background so automatically went to a png file. I have the ability to save as a gif in photoshop but I guess I thought that it wouldn't be a very high quality. Could you tell me more about why a Gif would be better?

Thanks,
Lynn

 

[Cort]

I agree that <title></title> is very important. Actually based on the results here I think its extremely important.

 

[starryeyes]

We can change it to ME/CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) Forums.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is there because a) some new people might not know ME/CFS and for search engine purposes. The top of the page is the most important for search engines - and the words really do make a surprising difference.

That's great Cort. Thanks.

 

[MNC]

Hello MNC,

I went to the link you posted to learn more about GIF's. I am the person who came up with graphic at the top pf the page. I am self taught in the graphics area and you seem to be knowledgeable. I needed a transparent background so automatically went to a png file. I have the ability to save as a gif in photoshop but I guess I thought that it wouldn't be a very high quality. Could you tell me more about why a Gif would be better?

Thanks,
Lynn

This is a good explanation: http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/08/03/gif-png-jpg-which-one-to-use/

In general you are very right about what you say (as far as I know). GIF is lower quality and lower size. It is usually the choice for graphics such as banners because the quality is good enough and it is faster to download and display. But for photos JPG is the best choice. GIF doesn't display all the colors and photos in GIF will usually look deffective.

PNG is the best quality among the small-sized types, but it is also bigger in size and weight as you well say. However, as you well say too, PNG supports transparencies and the others don't.

So usually what happens is that transparencies and PNGs are not used for banners or logos or anything in web pages because usually you can get the same quality with lower weight in GIF and JPG, and trasnparencies are not usually necessary.

For instance I don't know why this site uses a transparent PNG for the title. I believe that Cort thinks that Google will find it by the written title and that is why you are doing that solution of using a semi-transparent PNG over the HTML text of the title. I can't tell for sure that I am right about this but I think it is a mistake, and that Google won't find the forum for the title text but for the internal HTML code of each page. Therefore, unless I am wrong (could be) I think that just a GIF banner of logo & text is the normal practice for a better designed banner & text.

In general:

- GIF --> graphics of any kind
- JPG --> photos
- PNG --> when you want the best quality and/or transparencies above loading speed.

One more reason to consider is that web sites owners pay for their hosting according to the traffic of MB or GB per month they have. If they have heavy images in their site they will have more traffic of GB at the end of the month, meaning paying more for more data transmission. So, both the owner and the visitor benefit from light weight images in each page.

But anyway, don't take what I say for 100% sure. I can be outdated.

 

[MNC]

 

[MEKoan]

That's really good!

 

[Dreambirdie]

Nice! I like the little ribbon. It adds a nice touch and reminder that we are looking for "the cure."

 

[Lynn]

Thank you MMC. I sent a GIF version to Cort. I don't do much with the web so any help is much appreciated.

Lynn

 

[fds66]

Nice MNC - I like that one

 

[MEKoan]

The addition of the ribbon does so much! It balances the design perfectly, tells people what colour the awareness ribbon is AND says that this is an illness with a ribbon like other illnesses. Funny how a ribbon can lend credibility to an illness!

 

[MNC]

As the title says - and I just combined some screengrabs after resizing...

Maarten.

Looks terrible in that background to be honest. But at least we have the ribbon to agree

I'll leave it here in case someone else wants to play with this.

 

[MEKoan]

What if the blue in the logo was closer to the lighter shade used on the forum skin - not that we should match the logo to a skin - but what if the blue were a little more neutral, a little steelier and less lilac.

ETA Like the colour of the bar to the left but a little more saturated.

 

[Dreambirdie]

Okay... I'm thinking the ribbon could be similar in color to the the light blue that's around the phoenix logo.
Not exactly that same color, but in the same range and a couple shades darker.
That way it could frame the right with a similar color.

ETA: Oh and you could also change the gold letters to either that same light blue or white with a tinge of the light blue in it.

 

[starryeyes]

I really like Maarten's phoenix. It's beautiful. I agree that the name color should be changed with either one. I'm not feeling the gold so much.

 

[MNC]

but altering the color of the ribbon is a bit less easy.

It is extremely easy with for instance this program called Pixbuilder. You can get it here. (No virus I uploaded it myself) Here: http://www.mediafire.com/?wdonjzdjjzu

See here. Just choose Colorize in the Colors menu,



Regards.

 

[Esther12]

The new logo's looking nice. I think it's growing on me, and the recent changes make it look more pro too.

I just went through the phoenix rising home-page, and thought that logo could do with some of the spit and polish given to the one here (maybe the 'phoenix' and 'rising' look too seperate again? - maybe it just needs to grow on me more.)

More importantly - it took me ages to find the link to the forum from the home-page. Is this a deliberate attempt to keep us hidden away in the basement? If it's not shame that's driven the way we're being promoted, I'd suggest changing 'Check out the BEST CFS FORUMS on the Internet' for bigger text that just said 'FORUMS' - it might stand out more and be clearer for browsing. Also, whenever I'm on the homepage, I instinctively assume that the ME/CFS banner will have all the main links on it, rather than the side bar. Is this just me? Thought I'd mention it anyway.

 

[cfs since 1998]

I would lose the strange circular gradient background in the upper left. The graphic also looks very low-fi, I think someone went overboard with the color palate/file size optimizations. I think you're on the right track though.

 

[Dr. Yes]

Aww shucks. Looks like I'm too late to submit Phoenix images. Oh well... they're still fun to look at, so I thought I'd share a few I just found:

<----I like this one; looks like a fireworks display!

The one above is just cool, though I guess it's rising from the water, not ashes..

<----This would make an awesome logo, eh? It's a tattoo design.. found it on a forum for who else -- the autism folks! They're already trying to steal our virus; why can't we steal their tattoo designs??

This looks very familiar; I...just ^ can't quite put my finger on it...
​

This is Joaquin Phoenix, who rose once and has been ^high ever since...



The above is from a Christian rocker, or as the catalog says:

Phoenix Bird Arising CD
"Jacks first album (released 2005) contains eleven of his often bizarre, alternative Christian and political rock songs. The lyrics include NZ republicanism, suicide prevention and blokepower themes, interlaced with colourful scriptural excerpts, meditations and chants. Ya-Ha Wa-Ha Elijah."

("Ya-Ha Wa-Ha Elijah"?)

<---This is kinda cool...
​

...And this is awesome.
Change of plan: You guys HAVE to use this one.
​

 

[Victoria]

Dr Yes,
do you want Cort to use the body or the tattoo?

 

[Dr. Yes]

I... don't understand the question, Victoria.




Oh, almost forgot.. if we ever want to turn PR into a dating site, as some have suggested, never fear.. there is a logo for everything:





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