Friday, July 6, 2012

Yup, I "Designed" This Header in MS Paint

You know, it's really hard to be a copywriter with no graphic design skills. For years I have worked with designers. Some of them were even talented designers! I have developed a fairly decent eye for what looks good and what doesn't. And perhaps somewhat of a snootiness about things that aren't well-designed. That's why it hurts, HURTS, that I can't make things on my blog look the way I want them to because I lack the skills, knowledge, talent, and computer programs to design anything properly. Still, banishing perfectionism and giving things a try is what this blog is all about.




So it has come to this. I "designed" my new blog headers in MS Paint (the one "graphics", haha, program on my computer). I had other options. I could have paid someone to do a better job than I did. I also could have downloaded a cheap or free template from the web. The problem with option one is that I can't spend money on my lab projects right now, and I don't want to wait around with things looking as (bad as) they have been looking until I have the money. The problem with option two is that I want something to be "mine". So I'm left with that old graphic design triangle:


Pick Any Two
(and don't even get me started on free logo "contests")


I picked Fast and Cheap. But again, that triangle above looks like something I would make in Paint. (If I had a LOT more skills in Paint.) A designer might express it like this:

by Colin Harman, available for purchase at www.colinharman.com
Or like this:
by Katrina Wolfe, found on her website here

I'll likely try to redo the Lisa Loves Logan header as soon as I can take a better picture or figure out something different, but I expect you can count on the header on this blog to stay this way for a good long time. Because you know what? I kinda like how it turned out. I'm going to go ahead and consider this an official "CAN'T to CAN". I definitely still hope to take some graphic design classes and/or do some self-teaching someday to move my skills further into the CAN column, but for now I'm going to pat myself on the back and say thank you to trusty Ol' Paint.


P.S.: I freely welcome tips from any of you non-designers out there about how you do design-y stuff like this. Also, if any designers want to throw me a bone and put me in the "only if I like you" category shown in the poster immediately above, it wouldn't break my heart.

P.P.S.: Did you notice I have a real domain now? I'm moving up in the world! Just in case you want to let anyone know about my blog(s), or link to it anywhere, just remember you don't need the "blogspot" anymore.




1 comment:

  1. I'm no designer (you already know that), but it looks very attractive to me. Again I am in awe of my amazing granddaughter's skills and creativity. Love from Grandmom.

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