Topic: Ripper Report - Graphics (Page 2 of 3)

Looks great. I agree with Emps, the second one is the better of the two. The third one seems like it is about to fall over.

[edit] a little side about the golden ratio; you cannot use the exact value of it since it does not exist, you can always add one more decimal similair to what is possible with pi

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Anyone who has lost track of time when using a computer knows the propensity to dream, the urge to make dreams come true and the tendency to miss lunch.
- copied from the wall of cell 408 -



[This message has been edited by Veneficuz (edited 07-03-2002).]

Time for me to poke mah ugly head in and stir up the bee's nest a little. =)

I haven't been to the asylum for about a month but I've just spend the past 3 hours reading over all of the ripper report threads and well... um...

"The color scheme is hereby *finalized* (yay!)"

Really? Why?

No offense to any of the wonderful ideas thrown down so far but I'm only really seeing two ideas. The initial idea of the red text with the rips and the play on typography that DG put forward.

My experience with logo development and well, visual brainstorming is never so umm... clearly progressive. It looks like you've all decided to stick with one base idea and to play with it a little. Which is good and it helps to polish things off but you shouldn't be polishing anything just yet.

Has anyone tried any other color schemes? Is this one really the best or do you just think it is? Where's the research to support the use of reds? What other forms of anti-theft organizations used red and why?

How about letting the text speak for itself and using the type treatments to play some duality into the meaning. Lets run with some shall we....

Ripping -> Stealing -> Theft -> Jail -> Thick Metal Bulk Heads -> Handcuffs -> Black and white Stripes -> the 'Big Brother is watching' concept -> Surveillance camera -> Judges hammer thingy -> blue and red flashing lights -> an eye -> education -> a graduation hat -> chalk on a blackboard -> glasses -> magnifying glass -> finger print -> blood -> claws -> rips & tears -> torn paper -> arrest warrant -> top secrete documents -> big arse metal safe -> etc etc....

More experimenting, more play; less refining, less nit picking.

As for the other elements, Smilies, Layouts, Menu buttons, dog biscuits etc... the same applies. Everyone should just be turning out as much crap as possible right now - then you'll all have something to work from and something to refine.

Although, while everyone should be throwing in ideas for this the first priority should be the layout and the colour schemes. Make sure the colours work in a full sized 1024 x 786 page before you commit a logo to it! Then make sure the layout fits in with the content and do the logo at the same time. Logos, menu buttons and smilies are the icing on the cake really. Get the composition of the whole site done and done well; then yah make it look pretty.

Anyhow, just my 2c

Dracusis: All good points but at some point one has to decide that the brainstorming period is over (even if it was a brainstorm in a teacup ) and one should move on to refining what you have and getting other jobs done. However, if you have any good ideas to get this process really going then nothing is written in stone (although such input would have been more helpful a few days ago when I was crying out for it I know things are rarely perfect) so fire in some ideas and get things heated up.

If a job is worth doing its worth doing right so if things are delayed for a few more days or a week but the end product is greatly improved then that has to be a good thing.

Some thoughts:

1. The dark colour scheme certainly seemed to fit the mood and ZOX has come up with a good selection of colours which do work on a larger canvas (see the forum colour changes).

2. About this:

quote:

---

Ripping -> Stealing -> Theft -> Jail -> Thick Metal Bulk Heads -> Handcuffs -> Black and white Stripes -> the 'Big Brother is watching' concept -> Surveillance camera -> Judges hammer thingy -> blue and red flashing lights -> an eye -> education -> a graduation hat -> chalk on a blackboard -> glasses -> magnifying glass -> finger print -> blood -> claws -> rips & tears -> torn paper -> arrest warrant -> top secrete documents -> big arse metal safe -> etc etc....

---

As things have got out of hand here ebfore we are trying for a cooler, calmer appraoch and avoiding emotive imagery.

3. DG is our resident logo guru and it feels right but any other ideas or variations or anything would be gratefully received.

Anyway fire away - lets see what you've got

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Emps

FAQs: Emperor

To be perfectly honest, I have to agree with Dracusis. I have indicated before that I wasn't a fan really of the color scheme. Everyone else liked it however, so who am I to argue? I feel like these particular colors don't feel like "professional" to me. It all seems too dark and "bloody." When I think of professional, somehow I always get lighter colors in my head, with few contrasty dark bits used to draw the eye.

The logos are looking nice, but right now it's pretty much just type in a block. There's nothing that distinguishes it, ie. no Ripper Report symbol. This may or may not be a problem, but they're just things that are running through my mind. Alot of new ideas popped in my head after reading the brainstorming that Drac came up with.

zox - you have icq?

synax: You should stick by your convictions Do a quick sketch of your thoughts with the colours you were thinking of and post them back here.

Michael: There isn't one listed and I don't have it but he is pretty easy to contact via email.

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Emps

FAQs: Emperor

Just a little quickie to turn a few gears out there....
As well as give some graphical support to the folks that would prefer something not so dark.

I believe Michael did all the work for me That's what I'm talking about - lighter colors and an identifiable symbol. Seems..."cleaner" to me. I may bang out a few ideas of my own, but Michael pretty much summed it up for me.

Michael: Nice work - as I said it introduces some broad ideas:

1. Colour - I had yellow in mind earlier (and I don't even like yellow).

2. Layout.

and other minor elements:

1. The aliteration in the logo.

2. Having the motto in that position.

Anyway I like the clean open feel and I'd like to hear what other people think (and see other ideas along these lines as a number of people have already expressed some thoughts).

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Emps

FAQs: Emperor

Oh, lots of new posts here
Sorry for not coming here earlier. I was not able to access the asylum from work during my lunch, for some reason, and since I got home it has been thundery.

Dracusis, those are some valid points you bring up.
As far as the color scheme goes, I saw it like our "client" (which I assume is WebShaman in this case) was requesting a color scheme with red and dark brown in it. This is not neccessarily the colors I would have chosen personally, but I was still coming up with one idea based on that. I posted it in the beginning of this thread, and asked for more ideas. Since that was almost a week ago, and there were no other suggestions, and only people saying they liked it, I assumed that it was time to settle for one
Maybe I am pushing things to fast though, I guess when working in a group on-line like this you need to allow more time. I am used to working much faster than this (finished four different screenshots at work, only today)

So, for the colors, I feel that we should ask our "client" before we deviate from the red/dark brown. Personally I think red might not be so bad a color to include in a site of this sort, but we might want to consider something a bit lighter, as some have already suggested. White does feel more "reportish" to me.

As for ideas for logos, I would love to see many more! Again, I have probably been expecting things to happen too fast. When noone had sent anything within a few days, I assumed noone was going to send anything.
Synax, please feel free to share any ideas you might have.
Michael, I like your idea! I agree with Emperor that the motto looks good in that position. And though I am not a huge drop-shadow fan, I think this looks really good. Oh, and I do not have icq installed any more.

A week or more eh? Oops... I didn't realise this had rolling along for that long.

I've been away from the asylum for a while and it seemed like this was just a couple of days. Anyhow, since the forum's up I threw togther a couple of ideas for a layout with different colours:




Mostly just playing with the initally suggested colours.... It turned out more newspaper then the angle I was shooting for but eh.... I'll have some other layouts up later on tonight.

[This message has been edited by Dracusis (edited 07-04-2002).]

I think I was with ZOX on wanting to keep things rolling and, as he said, thee hadn't been any other ideas and what we had seemed good (although with room for improvement) so it made sense to move forward

Dracusis: Those mockups are OK - I do like the graphic across the top and the lighter blue (4) is certain a good direction but the white text on a red background screams tabloid newspaper at me (I'm not sure what it is like elsewhere but all the gutter press where have similar looking logos) and that isn't a direction I want to go down

Anyway keep the ideas coming.

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Emps

FAQs: Emperor

Wow, very nice Michael...love the RR thing in the logo...that's nice. Thanks for contributing.

Though I like the ideas in the logo, the colors are a bit too bright...to 'cheery'? However, maybe we should consider it...hmmm...I really like the placement of 'to Educate and Protect' at the Top...nice.

Yellow...not one of my favorite colors, either...but somehow it works...it is a warning color....Zox? What are your thoughts on the color scheme(s)? Can we work yellow and red into it together?

Maybe combine the two logo ideas (from Michael and DG) into one Logo? I really like the 'RR' thing...it really sticks in ones head...

Nice work, Drac...I really like the lines in the BG...though it is a bit 'trendy', I think it somehow 'adds' to the professional look...just my opinion, of course...though the green areas don't appeal to me...

I think (as Drac suggested) we should kick around some ideas on the theory behind the colours:

1. Dark reds - the original colour scheme. I liked it as it give a sombre, dark feel matching the idea of ripping, etc.

2. Blue - cool, calm, professional.

3. Yellow (and black) - gives the idea of a warning (road signs, wasps, some poisonous frogs, etc.) and is the colour scheme of leading virus resource Symantec:
www.symantec.com

Other thoughts?

I'm not sure how easily DG and Michael's ideas could be integrated although they could cross-fertilise each other (we could certainly use the two Rs back to back but with capital Rs in impact in DG's and we could play with the placement, kerning, height of Michael's logo).

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Emps

FAQs: Emperor

ytes...but whatever you do don't do black and yellow striping, cause that loks unprofessional on a site, it gives it an air of 'Amateur site under construction'. Red was always chosen as the colour ot represent danger becuase it is the colour of blood, so red needs to be included somewhere. Use yellow? Maybe, I'm just not sure how well it would fit in with red. I like the grey scheme and the blue scheme drac, red would fit in. yet stand out on ither of them, as evidenced by the logo.

Anyway...I'm all out of ideas.

Koan 63, written on the wall of cell number 250:
Those who Believe
Can
Those who Try
Do
Those who Love
Live

Just dumpin some more ideas down. Feel free to pick it appart and use whatever...

Well...of the two, I like the first one better...but...in comparison to the others before, I don't like them all that much (sorry).

Dracusis: I have to agree with WS - I don't like the patchwork feel to it - it is very confusing for the eye. A few improvements:

1. Put the motto above the ripper report in between the i and t (see Micahel's example).

2. Reduce the number of colours used in the content area.

3. I'd go with the first design more as the content area is lighter in colour.

4. I'd alternate two colours - the light on in the top left, the darker one next to and below it and the lighter colour opposite it so the colours are diagonally opposite each other (a bit like a chess board).

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Emps

FAQs: Emperor

Well, here's *something* I've come up with. Nothing too fantastic, but hopefully something someone can grab a few ideas off (maybe)

synax: Some nice ideas in there. I'm not convinced about that greeny grey but I like the red and white working together.

I think we need to move this forward - we have a lot of ideas but its not really coming together. My thoughts:

1. If we aren't going for the dark colour scheme we should probably aim for something lighter (like Michael or syanx's ideas).

2. Perhaps ZOX might want to work up a few more colour pallettes - possibly working with a more red and white scheme and one working with yellow (I don't really like yellow but I think it could work well here).

[edit: Now I look at it - could we use the pallete ZOX mocked up above but switch the importance of the colours so we get a white background with the reds as highligh colours and the greys to act as backgrounds to panels or pos. a light grey background with white panels for the content and reds and some blacks for the highlighting?]

3. We might want to think about the layout/navigation (independent of the actual colours) - I like synax's ideas with tabs as it is a report of sorts. Do we need a second column for more dynamic details? How about a main content area and then a second column (on the right?) which contains e.g. links to subsections within the specific sections (e.g. you in the information area and you get links to the FAQ, articles, links to other resources, etc. in the right hand column).

Thoughts?

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Emps

FAQs: Emperor

greeny gray? Adjust your monitor man!

I like the Tabs idea, as well...an interesting way of 'organizing' the front page info...we just need to decide what needs to be on the Tabs...

That with the color scheme Emps...hmmm...could someone throw something up? I'm interested to see what it could look like...

Back from vacation, it may take me a few days to catch upon everything thoroughly, but to put in my 2 cents so far:
I liked the original color scheme for a couple of reasons. The colors are bright enough to read, but not garish enough to be tacky. They go well together and it was the closest idea to what our Client (WebShaman) originally wanted for the site. Since no one else had a strong enough opinion to make changes to it, we just went for it. But we all know that at this point in the game, nothing, as has been said, is set in stone yet.
I liked synax's interpretation, The background doesn't necessarily have to be dark, we could reverse the color scheme and put the lighter colors in the background, and therefore the main colors on the page. Use the reds and burgundys in the text areas. It works.
OK, vacation is over, and now I can get back to work. I'm not promising anything within a specific time limit, as we're still at the party in the teacup... But I'll try and submit something shortly. I'll have to spend some time reading and re-reading over the stuff that's been posted and reset my perspective on it... It appears you guys have been busy!

We really need to start making decisions and moving this forward - WS is the client and so has last say on the colours so any thoughts?

I quite like the idea of using the original colour scheme but going for a lighter feel by swapping the importance of the colours.

I also like Synax's tabs as navigation (see places like Amazon, PHPBuilder, etc).

Logo - I like something based on DG's or Micheal's rs (don't say that last bit too quickly)

Title - will we have a separate one from the logo (as with Michael's layout).

Any other ideas?

Other details - should we have a search box? I say yes and we might to think if we want to roll our own or use someone like Google or Atomz (the server-side guys can grab the results and host them onsite as long as we give credit).

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Emps

FAQs: Emperor

Well, Ok to the point with the colors, Emps. Great idea...

Why can't we use both ideas? the Ripperreport with a circle (oval?) in the middle (bg), with the RR thing (one r reversed)...it could work...

WS: Could you clarify?:

quote:

---

the Ripperreport with a circle (oval?) in the middle (bg),

---

I'm not sure what you are referring to.

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Emps

FAQs: Emperor

Hey Guys, sorry for not being here in a while. Been busy, busy.

I see some good ideas here. Synax, I like the tabs. Perhaps with some other font will make it look more professional.

I have nothing against deciding on a new color scheme, but like Emperor said, it might work good to use the one we have, and switch the emphasis to make a lighter overall look.

I have worked a little on the logo thing tonight, and I came up with this. Tried to incorporate Michael's ideas with the rr and keep some of the older ideas too.

Here's a logo:



And here's a bunch of variations on it:

ZOX: Excellent - I'm really starting to get a feeling of what it might look like.

Great logos. Numbering from top left down the left column and then from top right down the right column - basically I don't think the darker grey background to the circle is working for me and I really like number 2. I'm not sure why but it evocates a 1950s newspaper style and I really like that.

I like that grey as the background and it should work nicely with the content area being white.

If we are going for tabs should we have a gradient in shade across them with the left having the brighter colours (and presumably the more important content). Would it be a good idea to have a bar of matching colour below the tabs to give the sections a more 'colour-coded' feel?

With the logo and having tabs it would suggest to me that the content area should probably be fixed in size or the page could look unbalanced. We'll have to see how things look when it is all together but the I wonder if the logo is too narrow to provide the balance (we might need a mock up to tell).

Anyway good stuff. Thoughts anyone?

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Emps

FAQs: Emperor

Man, now that is great stuff, Zox! Though a bit different than what I had envisioned, it is actually much better...I also like #2...very nice!

Wow.

That's what I meant by combining the ideas...and it works! That is really nice...

Kudos, Zox.

Soory for my absence, I work for the UNC university system and it's Fall semester billing. I'm so busy these days, I can't find my rear end with both hands! Looks like things are progressing though. I may be scarce for a few weeks, what with late nights for registration and billing going on through August... so much to do, so little time.... I assume someone will scream at me if I'm needed...

OK things seem to have gotten kinda quiet can i have a heads up please folks, Zox unfortunately i cant see any of ya iages recently for some strange reason can you put them in with the others in the images directory like you did with the others please

I would suggest, barring any better ideas (speak now or forever hold your peace), that we move ahead with the 'reversed' colour scheme. ZOX could you mock up a general page design to show us how the colours work and CPrompt would it be possible to knock up a few ideas for different tabs (as noone has saod any different it looks like we'll go with these as part of the design).

I think we need to get the colours and layout sorted so we can start farming jobs out to the rest of the team.

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Emps

FAQs: Emperor

Just peeking in for a moment.

Nice work on those logo drafts.

FWIW:
My vote is on ZOX #2 with a slight alteration.
Turn the "To educate..." to black instead.

It would make the logo calmer and emphasise it as a slogan.
When I look at #2 with the white slogan, my eyes first notices the "rr" and "RIPPER".
Then I kind of flutter between the slogan and the "report", not knowing where to focus.

Notice the difference between #2 and #5 where there's more harmony in #5.

Just my 0.0002 worth.

-nimraw

OK bumping this thread to get our graphics team members attention. I'm still pretty much looking for a layout and ideas on tabs from ZOX and CPrompt. This has been stalled for bit so lets see some progress so we can start giving the others work to do (they get very bored you know ).

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Emps

FAQs: Emperor

Sorry about neglecting this so terribly lately!
I have not even had time to come to the Asylum, and even less to actually acomplish some designing.

Thank you for your feedback though, about the latest logos.

I agree that #2 among the ones I posted is good, and I also agree with Nimraw's comments about the colors.
Below is that logo, but with the "to educate..." changed to black instead.

I have also uploaded that logo as a psd file here: http://www.ripperreport.com/graphics/ripperreportlogo.psd

I really have not been able to look much on page design, but here is at least one idea:
http://www.ripperreport.com/graphics/pageidea1.gif

It is very simple, and not all that good, but it is a start. I hope I will have time to work some more on this soon.

ZOX: Thats cool - I was just keeping things moving along

I love the logo there my only thought is that the top of the motto is a few pixels over the top of the circle. Hmmmm not a great explanationbut I was thinking the top of the letters should line up with a hypothetical horizontal tangent from the top of the logo. If that makes sense.

I like the page layout idea - very nice. I'm unsure about the blurred version of the logo top right - it looks a little odd.

I'm not sure about the link font although it is growing on me and did me really sit up and take notice so that is a good thing

Anyone else got any thoughts on this?

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Emps

FAQs: Emperor

Guys -
I was afraid I might have this problem. Too much to do and too little time, on top of that, my PC crashed and I have to rebuild my drives. (The bright side is that I'm upgrading to Win2000 and PS7 when I reinstall everything.) I start classes in 2 weeks, and I haven't finished my personal projects yet. I know I wasn't expected to contribute much, but I'll have to bow out completely at this point. At least you still have ZOX and C:\... I just didn't want to leave you hanging.

bodhi23: OK - these things can only be fitted in around your other commitments. If we need another hand I'm sure we could raft in someone else - synax?

If CPrompt turns up on your doorstep with a baseball bat then I didn't send him OK

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Emps

FAQs: Emperor

~cough~

I was wondering if people had any thoughts about ZOX's design?

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Emps

FAQs: Emperor

Well, shit.... it's a shame how long it's taking to pull this together....
On the same account... I still have no real intent to get involved.... so I guess I'll keep my bitching on that subject, to myself.

Anyway...
Emps wanted some other opinions of this little layout bit, and I'd hate to see that request go unanswered... soooooo....
'ere goes...

First Impression
-What in the hell is that blurry non-sense?... is that a mistake?
-I'm still not getting a good vibe from the grey background of the logo.... However... I can't tell from previous posts if you guys have moved on from the logo, and are attacking the layout now, whilst the logo is officially in a "complete" stage.
To further press on the issue of the logo, if I may....
I don't like how the "rr" has been done. There was a method to my madness when I originally did my little version of the logo.... AND here's part of it....

Observe:



I'm using lower-case R's in both the visual logo *and* the text.
In my opinion, the problem with the logo that is being used, mixes and matches the lower case R in the visual/graphical representation, while capital R's are what's being used in the text. To add to that, the lower-case R's are shifted slightly (or italicized)... while the other R's are stiff, and straight up.
I feel that these elements are all contradicting each other, harming the clarity and the overall feel of the idea of a "logo".
I might as well also throw in my vote to Emp's comment about the "to educate and protect" part being in alignment with the top of the circle. It looks silly, and "slapped on" at the moment.

-As for the "button" text... I'm not diggin' it... and it's not growing on me.
It could just be the colour scheme that's throwing me off, I'm not sure...
But this isn't fallin' into place as a good overall feel for me.

-The border... yep.. I can handle that..... mebbe go a tid-bit thinner with it...... But it holds.

I'm guessing that the grid shit is just a space filler at the moment, so there's no need for comments there.
On that note.... I'm beginning to wonder if you were planning on using the grid as a background, around the content areas.
Hmmm.

*bzzzzzzzzzzz......... whummmm.... whummmmmmm*