Banner : Thoughts from Kansas

Search

Profile

Joshua Rosenau spends his days defending the teaching of evolution at the National Center for Science Education. He is also a graduate student at the University of Kansas, completing a doctorate in the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. When not modeling species distributions or battling creationists, he writes about developments in progressive politics and the sciences.

The opinions expressed here are his own, do not reflect the official position of the NCSE. Indeed, older posts may no longer reflect his own official position.

Sb/DonorsChoose Drive

Thanks!

Accolades

Good posts from history

The Birth of Intelligent Falling

A failure of Intelligent Design

Why it's called Intelligent Design Creationism

Write a letter to the editor

My photo albums.

Support TfK

Affiliate programs: buy through the links, and TfK will get a percentage.

Buying some music for your friends?

Or maybe some gift certificates?

Buy me things from my Amazon.com wishlist.

Buy yourself things!

Good government

Find your state legislators

Help elect sensible leaders

Re-Elect Nancy Boyda!

Internet neighbors

Add yourself to the Frappr map!

Check out our Frappr or add yourself to it!

Banner

Category: Chatter
Posted on: July 20, 2007 8:07 AM, by Josh Rosenau

So what do you think of the snazzy new banner?

Share this: Facebook Twitter Stumbleupon Reddit Email + More

TrackBacks

TrackBack URL for this entry: http://scienceblogs.com/mt/pings/46124

Comments

Seems a bit busy. If the the thought bubble was not translucent that would help. Make the back drop design translucent a and the bubble more solid and I think it would be good to go. The back drop is taking attention away from the foreground. Otherwise, good job.

Posted by: SmedRock | July 20, 2007 8:51 AM

*Love* the cow/mouse/wombat thing peeking in from the corner...

Posted by: Ginny | July 20, 2007 9:20 AM

Looks sharp, I'd lose the opacity on the bubble though

Posted by: btr | July 20, 2007 9:26 AM

Tree kangaroo.

I agree that it's too busy. I wanted to work in the Twain quotation, but that just adds to the busyness.

Posted by: Josh Rosenau | July 20, 2007 9:26 AM

Too busy.

Greenish background with blue type is hard to read (and may be unreadable for folks with color blindness)

Ditto for the map at left.

hope this helps!

Posted by: Albatrossity | July 20, 2007 11:25 AM

I hadn't thought about the color blindness issue. Red-green colorblind people will still be able to read the map, but blue-yellow color blindness could make other things tricky.

Posted by: Josh Rosenau | July 20, 2007 12:02 PM

I like, on the whole. But that thought-balloon: the way it's rendered now, it looks more to me like a gust of wind emanating from Douglas County. "Hot air," in other words.

Are you able to render the emanating part with gradually-larger circles, as thought-balloons usually get rendered?

Posted by: John B. | July 20, 2007 12:12 PM

The satellite photo of the irrigation circles is my current desktop image.

Posted by: Adam | July 20, 2007 4:07 PM

Two big reasons it looks busy are the irrigation circles (well, that's what it looks like to me) background, which you should replace with something bland and boring, and the glaring red pixels of the Kansas state, which you should replace with state filled with (again) something bland and boring. The viewer's interest would be better drawn to (a) the quote and (b) the relationship between the various elements, rather than any individual element. Finally I suggest you reduce the transparency of the thought bubble, possibly to zero.

Posted by: llewelly | July 21, 2007 7:14 PM

By popular demand, I've reduced the opacity on the bubble, turned it into a thought bubble rather than a hybrid thought/speech bubble, and tweaked the colors to (hopefully) improve readability. I left the county blue/red map, but pushed some of the state out of sight, reducing the clutter without undermining the message. That also freed up space to make the quotation a little bigger, which makes it more legible and less busy.

Anything else?

Posted by: Josh Rosenau | July 22, 2007 2:06 AM

I'm from Iowa. Looks okay to me.

Posted by: Dirkh | July 22, 2007 1:25 PM