Design a new forum header!

[Seeker 0]

As an author of the new skin, i had to design forum header very quickly, and as i was very busy i didnt really made it so well. So.. im gonna sort of unofficially start a 'design-a-header' contest. Winner gets his header 'hung up' on the site and maybe if Admins agree some prize.

Terms are:

* Header must be rounded corners, as is the current one.

* Design wise it needs to look like the rest of the skin.

* Height of the header should be the same, small deviations will be tolerated.

* Header must be fluid, which means it has to look good on 800x 1024x and 1280x resolution. (which is not the case with the current one)

* Also bare in mind that menus will go either in 1 or 2 rows, so desing accordingly.

* To clarify what i mean resize the window and see how current header behaves. Design has to be made so it avoids this.

(Ill do the coding but design has to be made so its dooable)

The reason why im doing this is that in a week ill be having much more time to spend on this forums and ill start to fix and debug the skin.

[Mikey 0]

I personally like the header that is there now. It fits the theme of the rest of the forum and I think others like it. But if you choose to change it that is your choice but I vote to leave it the way it is.... ;)

[Seeker 0]

Your missing my point, the current header isnt 'fluid' by design. I want a header that looks good on all resolutions. Stretch your browser window to see what i mean.

[Lee 84]

Your missing my point, the current header isnt 'fluid' by design. I want a header that looks good on all resolutions. Stretch your browser window to see what i mean.

Yeah, I noticed that in an internet cafe. Hopefully some people help out. :)

[Lee 84]

Hmm, nobody interested?

[Seeker 0]

Guess so. Ahh well ill just have to do it by myself again.

[Greg 0]

* Header must be fluid, which means it has to look good on 800x 1024x and 1280x resolution.

Doesn't sound easily do-able unless you have a massive area of blank space.

[Seeker 0]

Yeah its not. If i was to choose id probably never design fluid layouts. It hinders my desing. Cant do sqwat in center can only design left and right sides.

[Satan 1]

Unfortunately I suck with grafix so I gotta opt out of this one.

[Aztek 2]

i use the 1920x1200 resolution and it doesnt look "bad", maybe a bit too white in the middle :blushing:

[Seeker 0]

lol! it cant be done to suit you and 800x600

[Greg 0]

Should target 1024*768 users in my opinion. I never go above 850-950 pixels wide when making a page though. If I'm including a banner I never bother assuming a page's width to be dynamic, only if it's a small logo. If you take into account that the higher the resolution of someones monitor, the less likely they are to maximise their browser. Having a page which dynamically adjusts its width isn't too important, Opera has the "fit to width" option for pages that are too wide.

I'll have a go at making a logo if you like, but not one for re sizable widths, a smallish logo if you like, but not a banner for different widths. You just need to decide if you want a banner or a fairly small logo. I edited the logo on the IP.Board Pro skin, if you want something that sort of size then we can make something, just unrealistic to expect a banner which looks good at multiple widths.

[Zlobomir 3]

Yes, unrealistic, but... we can include 2-3 banners, for diferent widths. Then, if not automatically, the user could be prompted and the respective banner used. This can be made even as a step into the installer, and depending on its selection entire presets to be loaded (fonts, number of rows, etc.). So the user will have to customize just a little further.

[Seeker 0]

Nice idea, Zlob.

But. IPB does not have anything like that integrated, if your thinking about dynamic slection of a proper header for a proper resolution.

One way to do it is to make 3 or more skins, each same as the other, just with different header's, so a user can select a proper one for his resolution. But which one would we make default then, and are users gonna notice the selection.

So, the proper solution to this problem would be 100% fluid design.

[Greg 0]

Is there anywhere else where someone is using a fluid design like this? Would like to see how they've designed a logo to do this.

[Aztek 2]

well... the default IP.Board theme is pretty in all sizes and shapes i think...

atleast the IP.Board Pro :)