Banners

I know that I've spent more time obsessing over this than the topic is worth, but I like playing with fonts and images sometimes, and I've been trying to decide on a "final" banner image that I can keep up there for some time, now that I've switched the name and URL of the blog.

Here's the final cut, out of the many that I posted earlier. I doubt I'll make more than this, although I may mess around with a few minor elements, like which decorative runescript to use, and which font in the bottom tagline. Either way, I'll using elements in these banners, not new ones that aren't in these banners.

Let's go through them real quick.

First off, these three main fonts are the leaders. I think the bottom one is the leading contender (which is the current banner, actually). Although I really like the fonts of the first and second one, both have one of the letters in the title that look kind of funky; the r in the first one and the k in the second. It's not completely a slam dunk, but that's where I'm leading. I could find a replacement from another font for the r in the top one easily enough, I think, but I'm not sure that it's worth the trouble. Maybe I'll try it out just to see what I can do with it for the next round of eliminations before I give up on a different font and just settle on the one that I'm already using.

The big orange X is actually the same font in the first and the third, although the third has a fatter outline. The X in the second one was me trying to remember which font I'd used and trying out one that was similar. I like the thinner approach of the top one, although I think I didn't leave myself enough space for it; I like it better how it looks on the top, but how it's spaced on the bottom.

For the "fantasy + horror + madness" routine, I think that the top one is my favorite. I've got more options, I mostly want a weak, spidery and maybe splattery even script, but not so brushy and calligraphy-looking that it doesn't have the "scrawled in desperation on the walls in blood" look to it. In the end, I don't care quite as much about that font, but I think that the top one is probably the best.

And for the decorative runes, I'm actually leaning towards the middle one. Strictly speaking, those aren't runes, they're letters, but given how distorted they are, they are almost impossible to read or even make out as letters, and the high level look of them jammed together is probably my favorite.

So, that would make my likely favorite a combination; the main font of the third one, the big X of the first one, the small font of the first one and the decorative runic element of the second one. But I'm going to attempt to salvage the lower case r and the spacing of the first one before I decide for sure. I just want to see how it looks. So, the three will be down to two in the next post, and we'll see if the favorite going in remains so once they're reassembled.

EDIT: I made the changes more quickly than I thought. Rather than a new post, I decided to add them here. They both turned out quite well. I'd be happy with either. Looking to decide in the next few days which one to attach to the blog top.