Big Ch-Ch-Changes Coming to Graphically Designing!

Graphically Designing will soon have a new set of terms. Why I am making these changes?

When I started designing blogs, it started as a hobby. I didn’t charge my friends, rather, I was begging them to let me practice on their spaces. I’ve learned a few tricks since then and I’ve been designing blogs for over a year. I now get about 10 emails a day – even when my queue is closed – asking to be put on the waiting list. When the queue opens I can get anywhere from 50-100 emails in 4 days’ time.

I wanted to keep a donation format. Some of my absolute favorite bloggers come from humble homes. I really wanted my designs to be affordable at every budget. Many great writers and so many funny, beautiful bloggers live on a budget. I respect that very much.

But … I’ve now been forced to change that policy. It is discouraging to spend hours and hours of my time redoing someone’s space for absolutely nothing in return. If it were my own time, it would be one thing… but every hour that I am here, I am dividing my attention away from my boys. I take that very seriously. It’s true that I love, love, love blog makeovers! I am tickled with each and every email you all send about my designs. But I cannot spend my children’s childhoods, watching those hours go by... as they seem to grow under my nose, if I am not compensated even a little bit for my time. My beautiful boys are growing up too fast; I cannot afford to work for free. I am very proud to be able to fund our homeschool expenses, and many of Trouble’s hours of therapy because you choose me to make your blog pretty. Thank you, most sincerely, for allowing me to be part of your makeover!

Please note that most of my clients (love you guys!) have been generous and gracious and wonderful to work with! This policy change is the result of only a small minority of non-payers.

So, it is with mixed emotion that I announce that Graphically Designing will soon be operating on a fixed-price scale. I have pricing set up for every budget: a la carte items starting at $5, all the way up to a blogger’s absolute dream makeover at $150 and a Professional Makeover at $180. (Commercial Terms coming soon - commercial blogs starting at $250!)

Thank you to all my clients, former and future, for understanding this policy change. A warm thanks to those of you who have been emailing me and rooting me on through this process. I have the best job in the world!

**The current terms will remain in effect until I finish all the projects in my queue. The new terms and pricing will launch when the queue reopens with the next batch of projects. **

Scrapbook Designers Wanted!

I need a few good men... eerrrr, scrappers. There is a growing demand for blog-friendly digital scrapbook kits for blog makeovers.

I am trying to collect a list of scrapbook designers - those who make digital papers, elements and kits - who would like to be part of a growing list of resources here at Graphically Designing. Scrapbook designers would be listed and linked, so clients can easily find and browse your work. Your kits, papers or elements would be used in blog makeovers.

The clients receive flattened, finished products in .png, .gif or .jpg. All finished products are externally hosted, and installed (as finished products) coded in the bloggers' templates.

If you are a digital scrapbook designer and you're interested in being a resource for bloggers (and shoppers) and have blog-friendly terms of use, please contact me!

These Two Wear Tiaras!

In a house of 3 wild and crazy boys, it's not often I get my hands on pink, purple, fairies and tiaras! This blog screams little girl - and this busy momma has pink where I have blue, fairy wings where I have Legos, and tiaras where I have Jedi costumes. And just to give it some rock-star personality, she wanted a girly guitar as a nod to her future all-girl rock band members! I present, Sprinklings of Fairy Dust:

Before:



After:

3 Column Blogger Blog for Joye - Typepad Graphics for Sarah

Oops! I totally forgot to get a screen cap of Joye's blog before I installed it. But I promise I'm going to be better about it from here on out. But here it is, in its finality. She loves warm, autumn colors - golds, browns, burnt oranges and sunflowers. Didn't it turn out sweet? I present... My Happy Place.



Sarah blogs over at TypePad. I haven't quite figured out the nuts and bolts installing behind the scenes there (but I'm working on it!). I made Sarah some graphics - a header and buttons. She's got the header up already. Her blog is entitled Blue Castle, after a favorite book.

Just for you!

Ta-daaaaaaaa!

A before and after! I finally remembered to take a screen cap of Alane's before project just for you guys. Isn't it quite a transformation? Alane wanted a wide, clean, boxed off space - but without the look of a bar graph boxing off those elements can bring. So her main posting area is blocked off, but the sidebars mesh into the background. It's the first of it's kind I've done like that. You can visit Alane's blog live, here at Reaping a Harvest.

Before:


After:

Business As Usual!

I've been tinkering around with more business card design. Most people who have an online presence want their business cards to match their websites or blogs. It helps establish your brand if all your images have a fluid coordinating design.

So I decided to practice with my own blogs. Here are the headers for my blogs - the colors, fonts, and graphics are part of my brand or image. So I wanted to tie them into the business cards.




My purpose for having business cards for my personal blog is for online social networking - so I didn't include a full name, phone number or address. I just wanted a way to get my name and my blog's web URL out there. This is what the final cut would look like - it would be designed with extra space around it, meant to provide a print cushion and cut off.

For my Graphically Designing card, the parameters didn't change much. I wanted it to look like my blog, so it would be recognizable. I wanted the url to be easy to find. Unlike my personal business card, I needed it to state what I do here at Graphically Designing. I design blogs. So I made sure to say so. This one has white space around it to show the 'bleed space'. The actual card, once cut at the printer, would be flush with the color lines.

So here is what I considered when making business cards for bloggers:
- matching graphics
- identical hexidecimal colors
- identical fonts
- easy-to-read url
- first name only, to protect identity
- fit the parameters of standard business card sizes (including "bleed space") for ease of printing.
- saved in a file usable by any printer (PDF, png, PSD or jpg is what most printers prefer).

Would you like a business card designed? Pricing depends on your needs. Email me for pricing and details.

Contest Winner

Pam extended the contest over at her own blog, but my contest is up!

My handy-dandy random.org no-pressure-on-Darcy picker picked #23. I had to count a couple times, because I kept counting Pam. I don't think Pam wants to win her own artwork, so skipping Pam that makes #23 Katy Lin from The Great Adventure. Turns out Katy is the mind behind the widely-growing, popular "My Husband Rocks" memes. Hey Katy - my husband does rock. I so need one of your tees! Congrats.

Shoot me an email, girlfriend. I'll hook ya' up with some artwork.

If you didn't win this contest, go leave a message over at Pam's blog. You still have a chance to win. I'm totally entering!

Stepher, Pam and a CONTEST!

Okay, okay - I got the hint. You want me to go back to posting *befores* and *afters*. I am happy to announce that I did do the befores for my upcoming projects. These ones aren't included yet but I promise to make it all worth it in the end!

The first make over is for those of you who love incorporating photos into your blog's header or banner. See all those photos? Count 'em! There're 13 photos - all taken by the blogger herself - in that header. I love when bloggers use their own images or art. In definitely makes for a one-of-a-kind blog. Stepher has traveled to some pretty cool places. She picked a travel theme for her sidebar buttons. See the plane and globe and the cruise ship?



Speaking of using your own images or art, this next project uses all of Pam's own artwork. Even the background was taken from one of her paintings. Know what she used to make that texture? It's coffee! Be still my beating heart. Have I mentioned how intimidating it can be to work with a *real* artist? Pam went easy on me. To include all her pieces I had to take 3 screen shots. Look at her talent!





And because I love showcasing mom-prenuers in the blogosphere, Pam and I have teamed up for a contest. You can win one of the pieces from Pam Warden Art. Eek! It's so fabulous I want to enter my own contest (Hey, Pam, can I do that?!)

YOU can enter! How? Simple - here are the rules:

- Go to Pam's blog and etsy shop and look around at her art.
- Come back here at tell me which is your favorite piece - the one you'd love to have!
- You have until Friday at 10 pm CST to enter.
- Winner will be announced here and at Pam Warden Art.

Blogging Tip: How to Change Your Blog Font

Before changing your template, always download a backup!

Changing your blog font always comes with a Caveat -

People who visit your blog will only be able to view the fonts that are coded on their own computer. So even if you love fonts, and collect them by the dozen, you really are limited to the basic set of fonts that come standard on most computers. If you pick an obscure font and code only that font, only YOU will be able to read your blog.

It is always smart to choose several fonts. When your readers visit your blog, their computers will read your code and pick the first matching font it can find and display that font.

To change the display of your font, find the code that looks like this (your fonts listed may be different!):

<Variable name="bodyfont" description="Text Font" type="font" default="normal normal 100% Georgia, Serif" value="normal normal 109% Trebuchet, Trebuchet MS, Arial, sans-serif">

<Variable name="headerfont" description="Sidebar Title Font" type="font" default="normal normal 78% 'Trebuchet MS',Trebuchet,Arial,Verdana,Sans-serif" value="italic normal 78% Trebuchet, Trebuchet MS, Arial, sans-serif">

<Variable name="pagetitlefont" description="Blog Title Font" type="font" default="normal normal 200% Georgia, Serif" value="normal normal 200% Trebuchet, Trebuchet MS, Arial, sans-serif">

<Variable name="descriptionfont" description="Blog Description Font" type="font" default="normal normal 78% 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Arial, Verdana, Sans-serif" value="normal normal 78% Trebuchet, Trebuchet MS, Arial, sans-serif">

<Variable name="postfooterfont" description="Post Footer Font" type="font" default="normal normal 78% 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Arial, Verdana, Sans-serif" value="normal normal 78% Trebuchet, Trebuchet MS, Arial, sans-serif">

So now let's say you want your blog to display the fonts: Lucida Calligraphy, Comic Sans MS or Baskerville Old Face. And, for convenience, let's say that was your order of preference. This means, first the computer will look for Lucida Calligraphy, if it finds it, it will display... if not, it will look for Comic Sans MS, etc.

Keep the current fonts listed. They are a good back-up! Nearly every computer in the world has either Times or Georgia (serif) or Arial, Trebuchet or Verdana (Sans Serif). Above all, you want your blog readable.

Change EACH CODE you found above to include the new font names, like this (I only changed the first example, for brevity!):

<Variable name="bodyfont" description="Text Font" type="font" default="normal normal 100% Lucida Calligraphy, Comic Sans MS, Baskerville Old Face, Georgia, Serif" value="normal normal 109% Lucida Calligraphy, Comic Sans MS, Baskerville Old Face, Trebuchet, Trebuchet MS, Arial, sans-serif">

Click preview to make sure it looks the way you want. If so, save and viola'! You now have a custom font for your blog.

You can read other blogging tips like centering images or changing font size and color by clicking here.

Now go get techie with yer bad self.