Unused graphics and designs

Discussion of other water gun websites.
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SSCBen
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Joined: Sat Mar 22, 2003 1:00 pm

Unused graphics and designs

Post by SSCBen » Wed Jan 30, 2008 5:10 am

I thought it might be cool to post a lot of the graphics and designs that did not make the cut for the new website. A lot of this stuff is absolutely terrible, but some is pretty good. I actually made two designs for SSC since late 2006. We're using the second, superior one right now that is somewhat similar to the old one, but simpler and more colorful. It would also be cool to make a retrospective post seeing how far we've come over the last few years.

Back sometime in 2005, I tried a few designs, but wasn't satisfied with any of them. One of the more complete ones is below. Some of the logos I was experimenting with are below too. I didn't add any graphics to them because I was just testing them out.

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Due to the problems with the website and forum in 2005 (domain expiration, conversion to vB, etc.), not much was accomplished site-wise. I did a lot of planning, but right now I know whatever I made then wouldn't have been anywhere near as good as what we have now. I'd have to redo most things again.

One thing that did carry over from 2005 was developments towards a website maintenance system. I didn't know PHP too well, so I took a blog that Neo (a retired administrator here) was working on and starting modifying it to fit my needs. I actually had a system that was somewhat comparable to what we use right now. In fact, most of the coding towards sCMS (that's what Neo called his blog and I kept the name) was done back in 2005.

Later in late 2006 I had a few ideas and was experimenting with them. I made a design that we decided to get rid of because it was too bland. I liked the basic aethetics of it, but it lacked color.

http://images.sscentral.org/unused/early-screenshot.png

Above is a very early screenshot probably a few days after I started this design. You could probably notice that it's similar in a few ways, namely, it uses the same font, font sizes, etc. But we don't use the "islands" in the sea of light grey any longer.

http://images.sscentral.org/unused/Screenshot.png

Above is a screenshot I took today of one of the later versions of this design. You can see the similarity in the navigation menu.

http://images.sscentral.org/unused/screenshot.jpg

Here's a later screenshot with a homepage I was testing. You might find the featured article description funny. The navi

I tried a trillion logos at this point of the design. Below are just some of the ones I found.

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The one above was an attempt to be more colorful. It didn't work.

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This is another attempt to be more colorful that didn't work.

I was annoyed enough to make another design. So last October I redid the design with one that was simpler. I like simplicity. The design was developed quickly from an idea I had in my head based upon some websites I've seen and my older ideas. Below is a screenshot from probably the first day I developed the design.

http://images.sscentral.org/unused/ss.jpg

I then went through a bunch of test logos. Some were good in my head, but I couldn't get them quite where I wanted them. I don't know how to manipulate text very well. The one we have right now came from me thinking how to shorten the website name and then messing around for a while.

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We used this for a while just as a test graphic, but the colors seemed too strong.

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My original version of our current logo had the CPS 1500 pointing towards you. But, Drenchenator told me that it looks like a lamppost, and I agree.

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This one was a disaster from the start. This looks like something you'll find on a Geocities page.

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Something like the old design was worth a try.

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This logo was good in my head. It didn't work in reality though.

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This is another one we used for a while just because it was different. I didn't really intend to use it.

I suppose the point of this thread other than to look at what we didn't use is to not give up. You'll eventually make something you like.

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Silence
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Re: Unused graphics and designs

Post by Silence » Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:23 pm

I agree, this design is the best, especially since it's was apparently easy to integrate the forums into the skin. I only saw the latest design before this one and perhaps some of the logos for it. I actually never really considered that you had to go through so much trial and error since you only posted the final, most refined designs and logos. :cool:

Once again though, a clickable logo would make all the difference, and perhaps yellow text for some prominent links (or perhaps not).

Does anybody like the design Ben had just before this one? It's rather refined and elegant, with consistent styling, but as he suggested, not so colorful and bold.

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