Sunday 29 July 2012

A long overdue rebrand

I've been meaning to give this blog an overhaul for ages, as I started out with one of the blander templates. I've added a bit more colour with the background and some definition to the gadgets.

You may also notice the new Title, 'Diary of a Gaming Magpie'. I was never really happy with my blog name, 'Infrequent Wargamer' felt more an acknowledgement of circumstance than a anything else. So I thought I'd 'rebrand' with a new Title. I pondered this for a while and decided:
-To keep 'Diary of' - this very much feels like my diary and project notes (in fact, I wouldn't claim it was anything else!)
-A slight tweak to 'Gaming' rather than 'Wargaming', given my interests aren't purely Wargaming, on occasion I also touch on board games, computer games and other things.
-To be a Magpie. Why? I'm sure my longer-term followers will have already noticed my merry-go-round of projects, so it should come as no surprise that I like shiny things. Particularly new projects, new miniatures, new board or computer games or anything a bit shiny.  A bit like a Magpie, in fact. 

Caw!

I've kept the same URL - purely because I've no idea what would happen if I changed it! I'm struck by a fear that my followers disappear into the ether!

Let me know what you think. Personally, I'm not sure on the Title and Intro text - too much?

9 comments:

  1. Looking good, maybe a picture in the header?

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  2. Background really does not make anything happen compared to content. So keep it interesting and you will befine

    Ian

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  3. I like it, looks snazzy. I think you need a picture for your banner though, maybe just something you've painted that you like?

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  4. You chose wisely not to change the url. Unfortunately, followers don't carry over for some reason, so you would have lost them all.

    If you ever plan on changing the url, the best thing to do would be to create a new blog, transfer all the posts and whatnot over to it, then leave a message for people to go over to the new one.

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  5. looks fine to me, as Fran said maybe a header pic would be cool.

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  6. Sorry bro but it doesn't do it for me. It displays poorly on mobile and distract from yer content. The scrawly kids writing at the top isn't hitting the spot either, smacks of using comic sans to make it look funkier.

    I also preferred the old title but perhaps a change to infrequent gamer if you want to be more inclusive.

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    1. Interesting bro... What doesn't display on mobile? The background or colours? The layout is broadly the same so that shouldn't be the cause.

      See what you mean about the title font. But I was trying to avoid using Arial for everything. Easily fixed though!

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  7. The coloured background appears to take over too much from the central gray panel, I'm guessing it's something to do with the scaling of the background image. Just don't look great.

    As for Ariel alternatives try verdana, tahoma or calibri I've used all of them previously and they are nice clear fonts.

    What about lightening it up a little? moving away from the gray on black colour scheme a lot of blogs (including my old one) use.

    Too much lead, lord ashrams house of war, greenstuff and guts blogs (on your blog list) all make good use of white or light space in the center which makes them really easy on the eye. Modern web design focuses heavily on white space rather than filling everything with colour or pattern. Some of the best websites out there are mostly white.

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