Site Design And The VFR Logo
I have been receiving some questions about the site design and logo status, so I will try to answer them here.
The first question I would like to address is, why isn’t there a logo on the site? There are a number of reasons, not the least of which is when I offered my services there was a pretty big conflict about a butterfly logo iteration. However, I see my role as someone that tries to implement the vision of VFR while also using my expertise to guide the project using Web design “best practices”. I was able to get a consensus that the butterfly logo, as designed, was not a good choice, and that a logo had already been chosen and approved. I have therefore been working under the assumption that the circle logo (the original) is the jumping off point.
My design is not finished. Not close to being finished; it’s just an embryo, not even a baby. What you see now is the work I am doing to establish the architecture of the site–not how it “looks”. I am working on the “skin” of the site now. So, why put the site up in such a state? Well, were you happy with the site before? Probably not. Nobody else was either, so that is why we’re here.
I will give you a verbal preview of what I am working on, because I have established some clear design parameters. The logo as you know it will only appear on the footer of every page; I have taken elements from that logo (the type face, the lightning bolts), and used them on the header and other places on the page.
Why am I doing this? The easiest way to explain the design issue is to ask you to recall how many closed circle logos you find on the top of Web pages–not many, and hardly any on what I would consider the best Web page designs. It’s very tricky because this closed circle (like the VFR logo) doesn’t lend itself to playing nice within a Web page design–which is all about spreading out and down. Having a little ball at the top of the page when most of the other elements are linear doesn’t look balanced.
Could I still use the logo and force the issue–putting it right at the top. Most certainly. No problem. But then I wouldn’t be doing my job correctly–I’m not a stenographer. Again, I am taking the vision of others and trying to filter that through the best practices of Web design.
So, the most comforting words I can offer is that you’ll have to trust me. That’s all I have. As I have mentioned to some people, my design goal is to take your breath away when the new design loads into your browser for the first time. I am not after a “nice” design.
Thanks for your interest in the work the Web committee is doing; stay tuned to this site, as we are trying to give regular status reports.
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