Of Websites and Graphics

[pameladlloyd]

I've been working on a website for our local science fiction convention, TusCon. The old site had become outdated, so my goal is to bring the site up-to date, make it more user-friendly, and add some spiffy new graphics.

I've already designed a new logo for the group that organizes and runs the con, BASFA, the Baja Arizona Science Fiction Association, but I haven't figured out what I'd like for the logo design for the con itself. I may update one of the old logos, as one of our local artists did a number of them--I'm not sure, but there may actually be one for each year. For the website graphics, I want to combine images that reflect fantasy, science fiction, and horror themes, then wrap it all up with a little bit of Steampunk sensibility. Whether my artistic skills are really up to this is just a bit questionable.

I've also been trying to keep up my writing, although that's going a bit more slowly than I'd like. I have one story that's almost ready to send off, but I need to figure out if any of the feedback I recently recieved will have an impact on the story. (Ian dragged me off to meet with his writing group last weekend. Unfortunately, I found them far more interested in sitting around and talking about world-building and things they'd written from any time during their lives than the recent past. I enjoyed hanging out with them, but was a bit frustrated with the lack of focus.)

All of this has kept me pretty busy, especially since I have a few loose ends I want to tie up for some other projects, so I haven't been posting much, nor have I been keeping up with my flist as I'd like to. My apologies to anyone who has posted important news that I've missed.

Comments

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

Our local convention is called TusCon and is run by BASFA, the Baja Arizona Science Fiction Association. Here's the old logo for BASFA:
(http://pics.livejournal.com/pdlloyd/pic/00090f4t/)

In developing a logo for BASFA, I didn't so much come up with an entirely new logo, as spiff up the one they alread had. Here's my version:
(http://pics.livejournal.com/pdlloyd/pic/0008zwc7/)

Here's an incomplete version of the artwork for the home page (and possibly a very dim and muddy version, as I'm having trouble with my computer's color management, so what I see when I'm working on the image is not, apparently, what the image looks like elsewhere):
(http://pics.livejournal.com/pdlloyd/pic/0008eex0/)

In this image, I'm trying to incorporate a number of images related to science fiction, fantasy, and horror. What I'd like is to add a young woman standing in the prow of a ship (preferably an airship with a Steampunk aesthetic) which is located in the foreground in the left, lower corner, heading toward the castle (which either needs to be spookier, or glowing with light and looking like a big party is taking place there. I also still need to work a horror element in. I've considered having skeletons swimming in the water near the ship, although tentacles reaching up out of the water might be as good or better and would probably be easier to achieve. Oh, and the planet or moon in the background is missing a ring, which I must have put in after I uploaded this image.

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

I should mention that the image includes both drawn elements--the moons, in particular, especially in this early version--and manipulated photographs, such as the castle, which I cropped out of a picture I took in Scotland many years ago.

The Steampunk ship and the girl in the prow are the most difficult, because I don't have a good reference among my photographs and I have yet found anything in the public domain that gives the right effect.

[core-opsis.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, I like the picture, even now (it looks much nicer blown up bigger), and I can imagine what you describe as additions. Keep us posted.

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Thanks very, very much. :-)

I'm not sure I'll post many interim pics, but for sure when the site goes live (which I hope to do before the end of the month), I will post a link. At which point, I'll want plenty of feedback, not just for what people like (although I love getting that kind of feedback), but to find out if the site is truly user friendly. :)