5.30.2013

summer duds & header cemetery

today was not a non-bloggy day for me. i actually spent more time working on the blog than i do normally. there's just no original post to show for all of my work (well expect for this one now).  but there is lots of other stuff to show for it...please tell me you can see it all?

whenever i redesign my header and blog layout, i am MADLY in love with the new setup...for about 3 or 4, maybe 5, months. then it looks crazy stale and i hate it. 

so today i changed it again.

what's the big deal about this change? wuhllp, i didnt use microsoft word once! 

yes, graphic designers, hold on to your lunches, ALL of my previous design undertakings have been done in microsoft word with a hearty dose of screenshots.  i know. SHUN THE NONBELIEVER

but today i did the redesign using a real, live, design program (a free one called GIMP). this program is SO counter-intuitive (to a microsoft-office based designer, at least) and sometimes it takes me ten times as long to do something than it would in my ghetto programs, but i think i am appreciating the fact that doing it right is worth the effort and delay. i think. maybe.

i still have a horrible eye for this sort of thing and it takes my miles of brain-hamster-wheel-spinning to churn out something that passes even my low standards, but i am still loving where i ended up for the summer blog redesign.


and now a trip down memory lane to view some of my greatest design hits misses and to see my love of white space and nice typography slowly devolve back to nothing:


what's up there currently (for when i take it down eventually...it needs an ebenezer)



thought this one was my one true love when i made is back in january. then EVERYONE started using the PUYD font everywhere it seemed. sketch rockwell, you are a whore.




 oh man. good times. fall 2012. i dont really even want to claim this one.


 summer 2011. this one lasted a whole year. it's my favorite of all the Word-designed headers. and the first time i used the boxing gloves. good old geo sans light.



april 2011. we had had layla for 5 months and i felt horrible to not include her on the header. a lazy swap got us here. (the original PUYD font that i used isnt this one, it's missing in action...downside of WORD)

 may 2010. barely pregnant with layla.  loving those rounded corners.

not my work. i actually won a little giveaway and told the designer what sort of style i was into. she did an accurate job based on what i said, it just turns out i had no style. this one was up a few days during judah's infancy


my earliest use of word! april 2010



i think i used our christmas card as the header for a while there in the winter of 2009


no graphics, just a pic was the header when i started out blogging for real in the fall of 2009


and before THIS the blog wasnt even "put up your dukes" yet. ten points to anyone who knows what it was (and yes, i am so embarrassed that it was named that). no peeking back in the archives...where i'm sure it is somewhere. 

and let's not forget i design for this site AND my etsy shop. oh yes.  everybody wants a piece

here's where i've been for about 2 years.  dont love it, dont hate it. until i run out of the hundreds of business cards that look like this...it stays.


oh man. this is just...just. 


hahaha and my christmas ad to remind readers to visit my etsy shop for gifts. clipart? dont mind if i do!

wow, when i look at these in this order it REALLY makes my current setup shine and sparkle. thank you, incompetent past keight, for making my hard work today pay off even more.

5 comments:

  1. I noticed your new look (which I love) on facebook today, and thought I was behind the times. (Also, love love love me some geo sans light.) I applaud your graphic design growth.

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  2. Well done, Dukes. Understated, void of all tell-tale WORD stuffs, great color scheme - best ever, for sure!

    Unrelated: I miss you!!!!

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  3. Jesse and Keight plus one!

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