Great Wall Forum Banner

[Bryan]

Please vote on your favorite banner and/or comment on what you do and don’t like about these banners.
You can vote for more than one banner if you like more than one.
Feel free to make any suggestions about changes or ideas on a new banner.

Thanks!



Banner A



Banner B



Banner C



Banner D



Banner E



Banner F



Banner G



Banner H



Banner I



Banner J

[Bryan]

I like banner A because it's clean and simple.

I like banner I because it's interesting and eye-catching.

Generally, I like the white text with the black outline and the drop shadow.

[sophie]

I agree with what you said about the white letters with the black outlines and the shadow look best. I like the bricks on B but I think it would look better with white text. I like H but the bricks look faded. I like I but the bricks don't look like bricks so they don't look like the great wall. Not to me anyway. If you could take banner B and use the white letters from banner H that would be my favorite. Do we have to pick just one favorite? Or can you switch between a few of the best ones?

[Kim]

I like banner C, however I think the edges of the letters are a bit too rough. Would it be possible to make them more smooth like banner D and I?

In general I don't think the banners show enough Great Wall because all of the photos are close-up. Do you have some pictures where it possible to see more of the wall? I know it's a bit difficult to make a banner like that especially if it has to be more than 1300 px in length, but is that really necessary?

[Bryan]

Originally Posted by sophie

I agree with what you said about the white letters with the black outlines and the shadow look best. I like the bricks on B but I think it would look better with white text. I like H but the bricks look faded. I like I but the bricks don't look like bricks so they don't look like the great wall. Not to me anyway. If you could take banner B and use the white letters from banner H that would be my favorite. Do we have to pick just one favorite? Or can you switch between a few of the best ones?

I would like to settle on one banner if possible. It wouldn't be
a problem to switch between more than one, but I think for
consistency it would be best to have just one.

How is this one?



Kim: I will put some thought and experimentation into your suggestion
of a wider shot of the Great Wall. But I'm sure I can smooth the
edges of the text using anti-aliasing or font smoothing or whatever.

[Bryan]

Originally Posted by Kim

I like banner C, however I think the edges of the letters are a bit too rough. Would it be possible to make them more smooth like banner D and I?

In general I don't think the banners show enough Great Wall because all of the photos are close-up. Do you have some pictures where it possible to see more of the wall? I know it's a bit difficult to make a banner like that especially if it has to be more than 1300 px in length, but is that really necessary?

How is this?



If the banner isn't wide, it needs to have a logical right edge like banner A or blend into the background
like banner C, otherwise it looks cut off when viewed on a large or high-resolution monitor.

[Kim]

Originally Posted by greatwallforum

How is this?



If the banner isn't wide, it needs to have a logical right edge like banner A or blend into the background
like banner C, otherwise it looks cut off when viewed on a large or high-resolution monitor.

No offence but I don't like the picture.

I think the best solution would be to find a picture that can fade with the background in the left or right side and show a fairly detailed picture of the Great Wall. Another possibility is to crop different pictures together, but it's difficult to find pictures of different area that can be croped together without looking too fake.

What size do you want the banner to be?

[lecter]

Keep it simple.
The Existing one, or the same one, slightly more blue saturation.
Rob

[Bryan]

I tried another banner. This is banner L. This one is wider angle but less wide than K. It has a definite right edge so it doesn't have to fit very high resolution monitors. I'm not sure I like it because I prefer a blue sky, but making the sky white does allow it to terminate cleanly. I put this one on the main banner so you can see what it looks like in place.



But I think I agree with lecter about keeping it simple. Complexity can just be distracting. However, I prefer an original Great Wall to a rebuilt one. And banner D, while it's original, is just not representative of what most people picture when they think of the Great Wall.

[Kim]

If you want to keep it simple, who not make a simple line drawing to represent the Great Wall. You can make that as big as you like and leaving out any photos.