More art suggestions needed

Tom · Post by **Tom** » 2012-04-21, 0:32:03

Now that we have new custom forum icons for the Homebrew section and the Submissions section thanks to Sik, let's focus to something else that can use a redesign: the forum logo and the favicon. They, too, were meant to be placeholders and I came up with them in literally 5 minutes.

The forum logo, right now, is this pixelated music note:

Its size is 100×120 pixels, and I obtained it by resizing a simple 10×12 icon by 10 times.
It was a random idea to visually portray the concept of "pixelated music" such as 8-bit music or chiptunes, but the truth is that I did it just to put some kind of logo in the upper left corner.
If you can come up with a better idea, be my guest. 120×120 is an acceptable size, but I don't mind to go as up as 150×150 if you suggest a good picture. It can be in any format, even 24-bit PNG or JPEG if needed, but of course 4-bit or 8-bit PNG is preferred. Animated GIFs would be acceptable, but I don't recommend to use one there.

The favicon, right now, is this letter "V":

Again, generic placeholder at its best. I opened Paint Shop Pro and I typed "V" in a random font in a random color. I wouldn't mind to keep it as it is, but once again I'm always open to good suggestions. This one must be 16×16 pixels in size, and it *can* be animated, even though only Firefox can properly display animated GIFs as favicons (Chrome accepts favicons in GIF format but it displays them as static, while that pile of crap that is Internet Explorer doesn't even accept favicons in GIF format, but I already wrote some custom php code to display an alternate favicon in ICO format if the "MSIE" string is detected in your user_agent).

Discuss.

RichterEX2 · Post by **RichterEX2** » 2012-04-21, 6:06:23

How about something like this?

Sik · Post by **Sik** » 2012-04-21, 7:00:56

I suppose it would be a good idea if the forum logo had "vgmrips" in it (you know, the name of the site).

Sonic of 8! · Post by **Sonic of 8!** » 2012-04-21, 7:32:09

This one can substitute the slogan?

RichterEX2 · Post by **RichterEX2** » 2012-04-21, 8:19:06

Sik wrote:I suppose it would be a good idea if the forum logo had "vgmrips" in it (you know, the name of the site).

Done!

Alternative Font

Tom · Post by **Tom** » 2012-04-21, 15:01:27

RichterEX2 wrote:

I like this one

Also, by cropping the "V" in a 16×16 canvas we can also have a Favicon similar to the original idea, but consistent with the logo. (don't do it, I already did it).

You know what, I'll go ahead an implement these changes later today if there are no objections. Right now the image uses 284 colors, so I'll edit it slightly to make it an 8-bit (256 colors) PNG, but the difference won't be noticeable.

Sonic of 8: it's better if the slogan stays as text; however we can use a better slogan if someone can come up with a better idea. "The forum about vgm files" was yet another placeholder invented in 30 seconds or so.

Tom · Post by **Tom** » 2012-04-21, 22:29:47

Ok so, I applied the new logo and the new favicon (you might need a hard refresh to load the new favicon). I have to say that they look really good, thanks for your contribute, RichterEX2. We finally got rid of most of the placeholders, which is definitely good. This is starting to look more professional, at last.

Sonic of 8! · Post by **Sonic of 8!** » 2012-04-21, 23:13:33

RSS feed icon was not replaced yet.

Tom · Post by **Tom** » 2012-04-21, 23:22:41

What do you mean? The RSS feed doesn't even have an associated image as of now. For example, the code I get if I generate a feed for myself is this:

Code: Select all

<rss version="2.0">
<!--
	This feed generated for Tom
-->
<channel>
<title>vgmrips</title>
<link>http://vgm.mdscene.net/forum/</link>
<description>The forum about vgm files</description>
<managingEditor>vgmrips@mdscene.net</managingEditor>
<docs>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</docs>
<generator>RSS Feed 2.2.4</generator>
<lastBuildDate>Sat, 21 Apr 2012 21:21:05 GMT</lastBuildDate>
</channel>
</rss>

Sonic of 8! · Post by **Sonic of 8!** » 2012-04-21, 23:59:49

For me, appears the red "V". But I was un and subscribed again and no changes.

Tom · Post by **Tom** » 2012-04-22, 0:07:16

I didn't know that the rss feed could display the favicon, it probably depends on the rss reader you're using, then again I'm not an expert of rss feeds.
However, you probably just need to clear your cache and do a hard refresh (not sure how to do it on a mobile phone, though), as the favicon is properly replaced.
Try accessing the favicon itself directly at this URL: http://vgm.mdscene.net/forum/images/favicon.gif

Post by **ValleyBell** » 2012-04-22, 0:15:58

Tom wrote:
RichterEX2 wrote:
I like this one

That's also the one I would have voted for. The VGMRIPS text is a lot cleaner and more readable than in the other picture.
It looks really good.

btw: Doing a hard refresh of a page on the forums didn't refresh the favicon (for me with Firefox), but accessing it directly and then doing a hard refresh on the image did the trick.

Sonic of 8! · Post by **Sonic of 8!** » 2012-04-22, 2:46:25

Tom wrote:I didn't know that the rss feed could display the favicon, it probably depends on the rss reader you're using, then again I'm not an expert of rss feeds.
However, you probably just need to clear your cache and do a hard refresh (not sure how to do it on a mobile phone, though), as the favicon is properly replaced.
Try accessing the favicon itself.

Hmmmm... It dosen't change.

Tom · Post by **Tom** » 2012-04-23, 10:55:34

RichterEX2: can you please fix the gap between the second and the third blue line, making it consistent with the other gaps? It is currently 6 pixels, while the other ones are 7 pixels.
Don't worry if the picture becomes 120×121 in the process.

RichterEX2 · Post by **RichterEX2** » 2012-04-23, 13:10:51

Easy enough.