I need some help from the artists here..

[Rich Z]

I'm in the process of redesigning my SerpenCo.com logo and it's taking more time than I have available to put into it. Since I have gotten rid of everything but the corn snakes (and leopard geckos, of course), that graphic of the milk snake is no longer appropriate for my business. But from what I remember, it took me a LONG time using Corel Draw to take a photo and make it into a 1 bit image suitable for my needs. I will also have to replace the image on the banner I need for shows, so it has to be something that will be suitable for this need.

Anyone out there willing to tackle one of my corn snake photos and do the same thing for me? Or would it just be easier to take that milk snake image and modify it to look like a corn snake?

I'm WAY late getting my 2002 price list in place and this is one thing I don't really need to be spending a lot of time on right now. But if I don't get it done before the babies begin hatching, this may be a year that I don't have a current price list up.

Any takers? If so, just tell me what you need from me to get started.

<IMG SRC="http://www.serpenco.com/pics/serpenco.gif">

 

[Ares]

Hey Rich!

I'd like to tackle this project, I do freelance graphic design so this is right
up my alley. If you like, write me an e-mail with any specs your looking for and we'll work out the business aspect of it.

[email protected]

 

[nova]

I would also like to, just give me a picture of possibly one of your anery's on a bright blue or bright green, or bright yellow paper

 

[Bippy]

So, something like this...?

So, are you looking for something like this? (This is the test pic I did based on one of your images back when I emailed you.) I can make it as large as you want, in .gif, .jpg, .bmp, or .TIFF file format.


Or are you looking for an entirely different SerpenCo logo?

 

[Rich Z]

Nova - positioning is rather important for the logo image. Notice the one I am now using. The head points towards my company name and the line underneath is pretty much lined up with the tail. There is a flow there that the eye follows. Finding a photo of an Anerythristic that will closely match that would be a nearly impossible task, not to mention that the time involved to search through all of my photos would be way too time consuming.

It is not crucial that the body positioning be identical, but it needs to have eye flow towards the left or lower left hand corner of the image. Perhaps a large head-only image will work OK. But I really don't want to have to throw away my show banner and buy a new one if I can help it.

Oh yeah, I am looking for a white on blue image to match what my show banner looks like as well. I am making a global color change to my site with blue backgrounds and white text.

Bippy - yes that is close to what I am looking for. Nothing fancy as this has to replace what is on my banner I use for shows, and if it is too complex, they won't be able to do it. But the positioning of the animal is fairly important for the flow to work right between the image, my business name, and the rest of the page on my site. I am a real stickler about that.

Anyway, thanks for the offers of help. Hopefully someone can pull me out of a bind so I can move on with things.

 

[SilverTongue]

here is my attempt

 

[Ares]

Whatcha think?

Here is what I came up with Rich. I used the milksnake u had as a template
and then did the rest from my head, I decided to go for a more abstract look
Do ya like it?

 

[CornsnakeKeeper]

Good job all of you! I think your work is fantastic!

 

[kris (UK)]

im sure willing to have a go, one thing, do you know the html "hex" code of the blue colour on your banner ? ? ? ? If i had the colour code then the colours would match and the page would look better in my opinion . . . can we use any of your photographs to work from, and lastly, would you like the text to be the same font and colour ? ? ?thanks,

KRIS

 

[Rich Z]

I think Ares has hit the nail right on the head! That's what I was looking for!

Now do you have the separate graphic for the snake image itself for me? If I should decide to move things around with the logo, I need to have the separate images to play with. Besides I need to make the entire logo white to go with the rest of the site (white on blue). I do this in Corel Draw so I can manipulate the separate elements easily. At least I think so. Been a while since I used that program. So many software packages and so little time......

If you could send me the graphics file as a TIFF (IBM format) file, I would appreciate it.

Gulp! You didn't name your fee before you started! What's the damages..............

Thanks for everyone being willing to jump in and help me out here. I have my 2002 price list up now (finally!) and added a bunch of photos to most of the cultivar pages. Still have more photos to add later on, but at least the bulk of it is finished. NOW I can try to get my taxes finished up before the babies overwhelm me.

Kris - just as a note, I just use the text coding of 'BLUE' for the background. But since the graphics image needs to be a GIF file with a transparent background, it shouldn't matter what color the page is.

THANK YOU!

 

[CornsnakeKeeper]

Yippee...I can finally go see the pricelist....

Congratulations Ares! Hope maybe you get a few nice snakes? Some of you sure are talented with these programs...

Hope you get caught up on everything Rich..

 

[Bippy]

Feedback on new pricelist look...

Sorry Rich, but I have to say the pricelist is VERY hard to look at now... the blue makes my eyes water after a few moments... and the neony links are very hard to read. Maybe I'm the only one, but I liked the old look better. I could look at the old pricelist without my eyes starting to water.

 

[Ares]

Ya me too!

But for me its not the colour that makes it hard to look at,
its the fact that my wallet is empty!!

And also the fact that I dont live in the states!

 

[Rich Z]

I didn't really want to change my color scheme, but I did change the font to one that is a bit more solid looking. The font seems readable in the cultivar pages, so I am trying that on for size. I have a 21 inch monitor, so things may look differently on a smaller screen.

Does that help any?

BTW, I've been toying around with putting a forum section in here strictly for concerns dealing with SerpenCo. Since I discontinued my own forum on my SerpenCo site, maybe I can put one in here. Or would that seem too much like a plug for my own company? I've had a bunch of PMs as well as threads started by people whom had questions for me directly, so maybe that would be more appropriate for such a discussion.

If you all can wrangle Don and Kathy (and others) into coming here and they would be interested in their own forums, I would be glad to set those up as well.

Any thoughts?

 

[SilverTongue]

Well #1 you own a buisiness ands frokm what I hear..a pretty good one.

#2 you are paying for this forum

#3 Plug away!! (just try to answer some of the questionsd ya get)

 

[pewter]

Re: Feedback on new pricelist look...

Sorry Rich, but I have to say the pricelist is VERY hard to look at now... the blue makes my eyes water after a few moments... and the neony links are very hard to read. Maybe I'm the only one, but I liked the old look better. I could look at the old pricelist without my eyes starting to water.

oh yes, after leaving the site and looking at a white site my eyes started hurting!!! I thought it might be the reason that I was sitting in the dark???
I don´t think this will be a problem if you are using light in your room

Oh and Rich...if you find the time - please ad some pewter pic´s to your pricelist. I just saw 2 pewters from you. both hatchlings and now I would like to know if your adulds look different from other pewters I saw. I think most of them we see are from kathy and I think you made your own so who knows how they look???

 

[Bippy]

Better...

Well, the larger font helps, although the colors still bother me, atleast I can read it now... I have a 17" monitor, just FYI.

As for doing a SerpenCo questions forum, go ahead. It's your site.

 

[Alicia]

Serpenco Forum

I think that is a great idea.

Alicia

 

[Rich Z]

I guess it goes back to the old days when I used to use WordPerfect all of the time. The default color scheme was white lettering on a blue background and I always felt it was soothing to my eyes. I guess everyone's eyes are going to respond differently to colors. Some people don't like stark black on white pages either because the contrast is too great. I guess if I wanted to get fancy I would try to work up a user selectable color scheme. Maybe I'll have that kind of time in my next life....


If I get a LOT of comments about the color scheme not working for most people viewing it, then I'll change it. But I doubt I could find ONE that will be pleasing to everyone. I try to use what pleases ME first, then go from there as needs dictate.

Even though, yes, this is my site, I try not to flaunt it and be overbrearing with what I do with it. Just because something might sound reasonable to me, I'm willing to believe that might not be the case with everyone. I needed to get rid of that message board I had on my SerpenCo site because a certain someone was beginning to post inappropriate messages there and it was a real bear deleting them. I had to copy the entire file down from my server, edit the file, then copy it back up to the server. This format is MUCH easier to maintain. But I have to pay for each license for this message board, and can't see the reason to pay for another one when in many instances it will be a subset of what is posted here. It would be much more logical to just insert my own forum. At least I think so.

You all do realize, I think, that I put up this message board to try to take the pressure off of me from all of the questions I get via email. I just can't possibly keep up with the volume I get every day and get anything else done. So I hoped that having this outlet where other people can pitch in to help answer questions that I can't get to will help out everyone. Again, that's another supposedly *reasonable* assumption on my part. Heck, I have a FAQ page I started over a year ago and have never had time to complete.

 

[Hurley]

Site colors

Sorry Rich, but I have to say the pricelist is VERY hard to look at now... the blue makes my eyes water after a few moments... and the neony links are very hard to read. Maybe I'm the only one, but I liked the old look better. I could look at the old pricelist without my eyes starting to water.

Rich, your site is yours to do with as you want, so go with whatever makes you happy!

That being said, I agree, the blue is painful to look at. It's just SOOOO blue. The yellow especially kills my retinas against the blue background. I think I just get retinal overload; I tend to be ultrasensitive to that stuff. I do think it's more difficult to look at than, say, white on this site's background color.

That's just my eyes talking, you go with what makes you happy. Awesome site...and I really like the new font on the buttons. They are easier to read with the black shadowing behind them than the plain white font on the available page.

j.m.-ever-so-h.o.