Blogger Dad » children’s quotes

More Art & Coming Soon

David — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 02:02:27 +0000

Next week, I’m going to introduce a new feature here at Blogger Dad – where I cook. If you think you know where I’m going with this, think again.

Here’s some more art from the upcoming site, Things My Child Says, a site devoted to children’s quotes. Thank you to everybody who has emailed me quotes and commented on the site premise. For those who missed the prior posts, you can check them out here.

See you tomorrow with more art.

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Designing a New Blog

David — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 07:38:33 +0000

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m developing a new site devoted to things that children say. Thank you to all the readers and bloggers who have commented and sent me quotes. There are some great ones in the mix and I can already tell that this site is going to be lots of fun.

Seeing as the new site launch is still 6 days away, I figured I’d give you a sneak peek at the art for the site and talk a bit about what goes into my site design process, for those who are interested in the behind-the-scenes of it all.

Who is the site for?

Whenever I approach a new site design, whether it be mine or a client’s, I try to get a feel for both what the site is offering and who the ideal site viewers are.

For this site, geared mostly towards parents, I want the site to be fun and whimsical. I drew a few mockup headers and some art. To be honest, I don’t like what I initially came up with. Sometimes a design is an instant hit. Other times, it takes a while to figure out exactly what I want to do with it.

Usually, I don’t share my test sites while in progress, but I figure some of you might be interested in the early stages of the process.

Color

A website’s color immediately sets the mood of the visitor. One might argue that it’s the single most important thing in forming first impressions with new readers.

Clean, dark, bold and flashy, earth tones, pastels, soft colors – all of these choices say something different about a website and your brand. It’s not about picking what your favorite color is, but rather the color which presents the message you are trying to convey. Check out this video for some more details on color and branding.

However, don’t be afraid to experiment with web design colors. After all, how boring would it be if all sites of a specific topic looked the same?

There are tons of good websites out there devoted to color. Here is one of my favorites color scheme generators. You plug in a color’s RGB code and it whips up a few different schemes. Sometimes they look nice. Other times, not so much. More often than not, I use it as a reference, but use my own judgment to determine the final colors.

I played with a few different color schemes and am trying to pick between green, blue or just plain white.

My first design (still in progress) is a bit on the green side. Literally and figuratively. Click on the image below.

The header is not what I originally came up, but it’s not bad. I’ve got playful lettering and some swirly tree lines and a nice word balloon. All in all, it looks okay. Maybe even good. However, the more I thought about it, it’s not perfect for what I want.

Going with your strengths

For all my site design work, it only now occurs to me that I don’t often use my biggest asset, what makes me unique from some of the other designers out there, the fact that I’m a cartoonist.

For my children’s quotes design, I need to add some of my personal flair. So I am changing the header, and likely a bit more of the site design, before it launches next Monday.

Here is the first illustration which I will be utilizing in the new header. I’d like to tell you how it will be used, but I’m more interested in making it a surprise.

Thanks for reading my little behind-the-design-process post. I’m really looking forward to this site launch. I think it’s going to be lots of fun. I’ll post a bit more each day this week, leading up to the site launch on Monday! Remember, I’m looking for some more quotes, so email them to me (see this post for details).

If you have any comments or questions regarding either the design or the site in general, feel free to post a comment or email me.

As always, thank you for reading,

David

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Do You Have Good Quotes?

David — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:38:06 +0000

Ever since my two year old son, E, started talking, my wife and I have kept notes of the things he’s said. We started by dutifully keeping track the first time he said words.

Pretty soon, we were detailing entire phrases. Now that he’s a chatty (and boy, is he chatty!) toddler, it seems that not a day goes by that he doesn’t say something which either makes us laugh, go “awww” or… sometimes, just cringe. (note to self: Family Guy is not meant for two year olds).

I grabbed a note pad one day to write down something he said and a light bulb went off.

Why not start a website to both record and share some of the things he says? Yeah, it might be the sort of thing that has minimal appeal to mostly just parents and maybe even just my parents, but why not give it a shot?

I was halfway into designing the site when another thought followed.

Why just limit the site to what my son says?

I bet a lot of parents, grandparents, teachers, and babysitters would like to send in things the kids in their lives say too! Together, we can probably build quite a fun little site.

That’s where you come in.

Does your child say funny, interesting, sweet or just plain silly things that you’d like to see featured?

All you need to do is send the quote, your name and your child’s name (you can use abbreviations or nicknames) and age. If you have a blog, include the link and as long as its not some spammy blog or website, I’ll link back to you in the post.

If you’d like, you can also send along a photo of your child to include in the post.

Submissions should be something like this:

Your relation to the child
Your child’s name (or nickname) and age
Your name. If you prefer to remain anonymous, let us know.
Your blog or website if you have one
Setup (if there is one)
The quote
Include a photo if you’d like to see it included. If you have a photo related to the quote, all the better.

Example:

Relation: My son

Name: E

Age: 2.5

My Name: David Wright

blog: www.bloggerdad.com

setup: We were at a restaurant recently, when my wife was asking E what the name of the place was called. He said the name and then, as the waitress was walking nearby said the following:

Quote: “This place is crap.”

It’s that easy!

Send your quote(s) to us at thingsmychildsays (at) gmail.com Please put ‘quote’ in your title.

Note: By submitting an entry, you grant Things My Child Says the right to publish your child’s quote on the website and possibly in other forms, such as a book or e-book in the future. Your child will be credited in whatever format we publish in. We will not use photos anywhere other than the website without your permission, though.

The site will launch next Monday (Jan. 25). I can’t wait to see what you send in.

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