Posted on by Fraser Cain

Any Graphics Folks Able to Fix the UT Header?

Hi readers, I scraped together that terrible header image with my terrible photoshop skills and hate it more and more every day. The logo is pixelated, the font is cruddy, the background nebula thingy is blurry.

Does anyone want to take a crack at making something better?

I’ve got a nice high-res version of the logo available here. Thanks to Sam Cashion for cleaning it up.

The header needs to be 1060 pixels wide, and approximately 100 pixels tall. Just email me at [email protected] and I’ll post different versions to see how they fit on the blog.

Thanks!

Update: Thanks to everyone sending in new designs, I’m going to start trying them on for size. 🙂

20 Replies to “Any Graphics Folks Able to Fix the UT Header?”

  1. better fix the crappy performance first (the first page loads in 20 seconds, and I can’t even scroll without lag). the header looks just fine.

  2. As a semi-pro / semi-amateur web guy: the hi-res logo is perfect as is. The rest of the header doesn’t quite work. Since a good logo is the hardest part, I can probably have something for you as early as tonight. Do we win anything? Maybe a lifetime’s supply of dark matter?
    As for page-loads, I’m guessing millionare is using Safari. I find that browser just crawls on some pages on any platform for no good reason. Your blog loads in full desktop-mode in seconds even on my (Android) phone.

    1. I’m not using Safari. I’m using the latest version of Chrome and have a Intel core i7, 8GB DDR3 notebook. I can’t explain why it’s so slow either, I just wish they could fix it.

      1. I also use the latest version of Google Chrome browser with ScriptNo – which is an extension like “NoScript” for a safer and faster Chrome. That should solve your problem.

  3. Can we get a vector version of the logo? The raster has some anti-aliasing in it that makes it unsuitable for use against other backgrounds.

  5. I just sent two in, which probably disqualifies me in some way, but whatever.
    Also I’m using Safari, and the UT front page loads in under 5 seconds at the very most, so I don’t think there’s any problem with it.

  9. Well, shoot. I’ll redo the whole the site for some $. Jk, but not really…. Believe it or not I earn a living by designing websites. As a design professional I have to say it is a little unfair to proposition this kind of work without proposing some form of equatable compensation. I’m sure you pull a good bit of change for all the ads on this site and that’s why you keep contributing articles to it.

    Now for some free advice?

    What I think really needs addressing is the ad that is separating me from the article content by 300 pixels (not meant to be cheeky. it is just not doing much for the user experience.)

      1. A well-designed website shouldn’t rely on plugins…. and as I’m sure you know, not every browser has adblock.

    2. I use FF with the NoScript add-on. One has only to look at the number of sites executing scripts to understand why it takes so long to load a complete page. If I limit the scripts to the bare necessities, universetoday.com, disqus.com and just recently I had to allow googleusercontent.com to see the “recent comments”, a typical article takes about a second or two at nominal net speed to load . If I allow all sites to execute their scripts, it takes ~ 15 sec.s or more.
      Not to complain as I do understand adverts are a necessary to pay the bills but, it’s amazing how long these scripts take to execute. Is it Java or server constipation?

  10. If anything… I’d like to see a separate link to your ‘Astronomy Cast’ podcasts on the top of the page – say between ‘Carnival of Space’ and ‘Forum’?

  11. I can’t help but notice the new logo has two stars that appear to be where the dark side of the moon is… surely they’re not in front of the moon 😉

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