Big Picture Design Update
Ok, the next version of TBP (3.5?) is coming along. We made a few tweaks, and I need an art suggestion.
First tweak, if you go to the home page of the old site — bigpicture.typepad.com — well, you cant, cause you get bounced over here. Numerous people told me this was impossible with Typepad, but, weellll, try it yourself. Even cooler, go to an interior page at the old site, and you have a 100 seconds before you get kicked over here. Neat trick!
Second,the header will taken down in size about 25%. And, the dreaded Flash home page header goes to an interior page (Cafe). That’s right, the people have spoken, and there will no more flash on the home page (and there was much rejoicing). This means I need some art work for the new and soon-to-be-smaller header on the home page. Any ideas for art or artists? I am all ears.
The Nav bar will be under the now static header, and the tabs will be reduced from 6 to 4, and decolorized.
Next, we shall move the RSS feed, Google Search, and Email subscription to the right column. Its all part of our “the mob demands smaller header summer camp.” Categories and calendar based archives also get added.
Lastly, I am adding “Macro notes” to the right column — short, near real-time economic commentary about the latest economic releases. Should be way cool.
Calling all talented artists! I need some ideas, concepts or better, actual artwork for the new header.
March 4th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
and…
a more functional calendar function
and …
better searchability for your posts and for commenters’ comments
hope-a, hope-a, hope-a
~~~
BR: Archives will be by month or year.
Search is a function of some more Google spidering — I’ll find out what (besides time) can help that.
March 4th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
BR – Always been a big fan of Essays and Effluvia, hope that doesn’t get lost or left out – in fact, I’m not exactly exactly sure where to find it on the new BP…
March 4th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
Apparently an “edit” function for comments would be useful too… guessing I’m not ‘exactly’ the 1st to discover that.
~~~
BR: There are several plugins for that, but none are ideal. Its on the ongoing wish list
March 4th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
I like the old BP, from last year.
March 4th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
Well you are in New York right- why don’t you go down to chelsea and find an artist who you like and get them to do some art. Mellisa Brown (an artist I like over there) did a dollar bill thing a few years ago and it might be right up your alley. But I would go with something super communist. Thats always fun.
March 4th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
Because I don’t understand what you try to tell me with your header right now I suggest halfnude women. Or men. Or both.
Has nothing to do with your blog or your issue but would look nice in these hard times of crisis
March 4th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
As a matter of fact, I’ve got an idea for you fo the picture or graphic to replace the flash thing:
A couple of fat felines surrounded by several alley cats with bone ornaments.
Caption: Fat Cat says, “Have you got a problem?”.
March 4th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
Please, no nudity. My wife will severely curtail my visits.
March 4th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
As an art director, I think it would be a nice opportunity to feature some illustration. Why not commission some illustrations from talented illustrators and have them randomly load on each visit, or just set them up to change periodically. You could commission more from time to time to address more topical themes or just to keep it fresh. It wouldn’t cost all that much and you’d get an interesting and unique look and the privilege of knowing you are supporting the arts in difficult times.
March 4th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
Any names (and email addresses) you want to suggest ?
March 4th, 2009 at 10:36 pm
Just one request. Separate RSS feeds for the different sections/tabs.
March 4th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
I am adding 2 RSS feeds — one for the main page, and one that is for mobile/iPhone
March 4th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
hey BR, pls comment about the java charting engine you had mentioned earlier and were interested in putting up.. keep up the great work !! loves the puppies.
March 4th, 2009 at 11:00 pm
Sounds like you’re on the right track.. seems like I heard many of those ideas somewhere…
voices in my head were they?
And as for the logo…
How about a bunch of Rolling Heads ??
Heads rolling down Wall Street..
March 4th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
John Steward’s CNBC piece is a classic!!!
March 4th, 2009 at 11:16 pm
Here’s a nice graphic which is definitely fitting for the current environment…
http://bainbridge.pmhclients.com/images/uploads/one_dollar_bill.jpg
March 5th, 2009 at 12:19 am
Mich@TBP is correct. I can’t get past the DVR rewinds…Ed Murrow with jokes.
March 5th, 2009 at 12:41 am
If you can’t think of a header, it’s possible that you don’t need one? Design says that everything should serve a purpose, and if you’re thinking about having a header for the sake of having a header, perhaps you should reconsider?
An interesting tweak on your TVs idea would be to have possibly have top Cafe/Video/etc. links with either photos of the writer or a screenshot of the video along with text describing it (this would require some Wordpress/PHP hackery, though). Another nice option, would be to have a well-composed scene with your face as a part of it (after all, this is your blog..).
Considering you’re getting pretty substantial content coming through here, maybe include today’s top commented articles in the sidebar?
Consider setting normal body text to #000000 (black) instead of #333333 (gray), gray text doesn’t work as well on serifed fonts. (reversing the title color with the color of the bar below it would be nice too, but that’s a little nitpicky). Also consider increasing the size of the author name “By…” at least in the Cafe, otherwise some random visitors might get confused that you wrote it.
Also, as a side comment, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, kindly suggest to some of your guest writers in the cafe to keep the writing to a manageable size, if it’s bigger than I can fit on my 21″ screen, then I will simply scroll and mutter to myself the internet colloquialism: “TL;DR” (too long; did not read).
March 5th, 2009 at 1:09 am
@haileris
You’re joking – right?
Recommendation: Ritalin
March 5th, 2009 at 1:19 am
Barry,
Off topic but this is hot stuff:
UBS allegedly staged training sessions so that “client advisers” could travel frequently to the U.S. — on average 30 days a year each — to consult with secret U.S. customers without attracting the attention of tax agents or law enforcement officials. The advisers were told to rotate the hotels they stayed in and to “protect the banking secrecy” if they were questioned by any authorities, according to excerpts of UBS internal documents filed in the IRS suit and provided by the subcommittee.
Right. No-n0-no, this isn’t criminal, mafia, tax dodging, traitorous behavior, it’s just UBS trying to abide by Swiss law. I guess our laws don’t count. The rats are running!
March 5th, 2009 at 3:00 am
Contact Aviv Hadar – aviv (at) thinkbrilliant.com
http://www.thinkbrilliant.com
Super talented, does very good, professional work. He is designing a wordpress based website for my company now and one of my clients whom I referred them to. Him and his partner have insane graphic design, illustration, and digital art abilities. They are building a site for Rainn Wilson that should launch this weekend. They will also charge much less than a big ad firm.
Good luck and I can’t wait for that flash header to be gone!
March 5th, 2009 at 8:00 am
BR,
I must be in the minority here but I always thought the flash was sort of cool. Doesn’t seem like too many people agree with me. Oh well, to be honest I don’t care at all how you make the site look, I just want to read the information on it!
March 5th, 2009 at 9:41 am
Another thought, what if you had a script that searched image results for key words like ‘economy’ and ‘investing’ and they dynamically populated containers in the header?
March 5th, 2009 at 10:36 am
I’m thinking something along the lines of the big ‘W’
http://tinyurl.com/cntty4
People of a certain vintage would understand what I’m talking about. And it would kinda fit the site too. In so many ways. You have people coming in here all the time looking for ‘The Big Picture’ and like Johnny Winters above some people scramble all around the stories looking for it but never quite grasp it until someone points it out
Add to that you have all these zany characters around here in a mad dash searching for cash. You have the banking system ‘kicking the bucket’ and I suppose Barry is that cop chasing everybody down. It is a perfect metaphor for the big picture
And I am just kidding. Don’t use the big W for your header even though the premise would fit to a big T
March 5th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Please add a WAP friendly mobile version too .
March 5th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
I think you spend way too much time worrying about the way you look. Yes, your ass is too big in that, but get over it.
March 5th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
bogwad_seigneur:
I’m OK with long expository writing when it cannot be described in a shorter form, in all other cases, it is important to be succinct. Reading through all the content on this through my RSS reader is often too much because of the Cafe, and I suspect many others would agree. The frustrating thing is, many of those posts are often very VERY informative, however it feels like some editing work could make it read by a lot more people. I’m sure I’m not the only one that went “Oh man..” when I saw a 10page post and just saved it for later.
March 5th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
Barry, good day.
To paraphrase George Washington Carver: If they want your clothing, give them a suit. If they want your ideas, give them yourself. Personally, i will deal with whatever incarnation the site takes in order to get the ideas and information therein.
Best regards,
RF
March 5th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
Total nepotism: http://www.hitchcocksatterlee.com
March 5th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
Barry : I have a collage in jpeg form for you to check out- how would i send that? thanks