I have a theme that I need to make a header for, and I've been kind of stuck on this one for a while. I am fairly new to graphic design in general, but I have some good theoretical knowledge of Photoshop (tools, menus, layers), color theory (Kuler etc), and overall design process (like choosing layout, navigation, content etc). Can you tell me if there are any good sources on the net that would help me move this one forward? (I tried some artistic text websites so far, but this is just an example of what I am thingking about) And also, what steps would I need to take to improve my knowledge of graphic design in general, and make it easier for me to work on things like that in the futire? I never really worked on graphics part, so this is all a little abstract for me at this ponint etc.... Thank you in advance for any info / advice. Here is a photo of the website that I am trying to make the header for: http://www.belerosemedia.com/foto.jpg (I just cant get anything that would look and match the overall look of the website)
Hi, First you will need to understand the layout size of the header. If he width of the site is 960px and height is known, you could start by creating a new photoshop document with above width and height. Then you could color pick the background color of website and fill it. If you do not have a logo in mind, you could just use the first letter of the websites in a circle filled with a complementary color of the background. Then type in the website name to the right of the logo and a tag line below the logo. If it is a niche website, an image or clip art depicting the niche on the right most side will add a uniqueness. Hope it helped you.
For design inspirations for blog designs you could try technorati and browse through the blog directory, for websites check out cssmania and google up the design inspirations. For logo design try logo pond or just google logo design inspirations
After I wrote this post I took a screenshot of the page and I just started experimenting with it in Photoshop. I made the header larger (to like 250 pixels), and I've been adding some default Photoshop shapes (like playing card symbols etc). It is good, cause I have everything on a separate layer and I can get rid of it easily if it doesnt match etc. I dont know, it just seems like this website is like that, or I need to change something in the way it looks to get it to work. For whatever reason, no matter what I do, it doesnt look good (maybe it is that white stripe on the top and the website on the bottom is divided into separate parts etc, I dont know....). I guess I just have to keep experimenting.... Thanks.
I have a cool software for creating header, banner with a simple step, just a few clicks, with hundreds of predesigned template category you can choose from, just pm me if you're interested.