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Hello all, and welcome to another blog. I'm Chris, Grey, Topher (pls no), or whatever you want to call me. I know it's certainly been a while since I last wrote something (over a year, dummy!), but I want to give you guys, and PMC, another chance. Hopefully this new series will spark some new inspriation into aspiring bloggers, as I know it's not the most... profitable category out there. Please give blogging a second chance, as my aim is to make submissions in the blog section more worthwhile. This is one of many submissions to come, so be prepared! I apologize in advance if this is something that has been overdone, but it is needed. Let me know if I missed anything or if I made any grammar mistakes!
Why Do I Need to Know About Design?
Fair question, young lad. Design is a very powerful tool; a tool that is used to make something, in simpler terms, pretty. If you want me to look at your submission, how would you do it? First off, you would do so with an interesting cover photo. Cover photos could span from the actual title in pretty text (although it's kinda boring/lazy, and I did that a lot...), find a picture that relates to your topic, or make your own picture relating to the topic. Either way, the cover photo is probably the most important factor in getting your attention. This should be obvious, but some people make such great quality blogs but ruin that fact by being lazy and finding a picture on Google, or using something that is low quality.
Cover Photos
If youi ever want to create a cover photo, there are plenty of free programs to help you out, for example, GIMP is a great tool to use for editing/creating pictures. It's completely free. Another free program is PaintTool SAI, good for those artists out there. For Windows users, Paint is a free program, but is pretty low quality. If you don't mind paying money for a photo editing program, Photoshop is your best bet (it's what I use!) and is easy to learn. If you get the hang of Photoshop, there's honestly an endless world of possibilites. Of course, there's plenty of other pieces of software that you can download, but those are the three that I recommend to help you get started.
Before you create your image, you must keep in mind your image size. PMC has a very specific image size; of course you can make it bigger or smaller, but that can definitely ruin the quality and it may make your wonderful image look awkward. 1920x1080 is always a good start, but you could also use 1280x720, 654x280, and so on. It's good to test out what you think looks best for your image -- remember to keep on experimenting with new things!
Finally, create your image based on your content (this one should be a given). I recommend that the cover image should be the absolute last thing you create, as you can make your image work around the wording. You will have more time and effort to make it once your article/interview/whatever is done, while all that is still fresh in your mind. Remember, this is my personal recommendation -- if you feel like you should make it in the beginning or in the middle of your blog, go for it!
Designing the Body Paragraphs
*NOTE: The designing of the body paragraphs is entirely my opinion. Of course, a lot of you have a lot more artisitc talent than me and can make something beatiful, but for the simpletons (such as myself), this is for you!
Body paragraphs are also a key element to getting readers to focus on your content. First, I'll start out with what NOT to do; these will include basic errors in colors, etc. and should be simple to follow. Let's begin!
1) Don't get too complex with colors; keep it simple (unless it matches): when and if you use colors to decorate your text, I recommend keeping colors relatively simple - dark shades, nothing that super pops out and makes me want to scrape out my eyes (bright turquois, hot pink, etc.)
2) Don't constantly use different font sizes - use three or less if you have to: when I create my body paragraphs, I usually keep my text at the default, mostly because the small-ness of the text, I think, is appealing to the eye and shows how much time and effort you made into the blog. If you have to use a different size, use it for a header (titles), for example, I only change the font in the titles of each section in my blogs. Otherwise, the text is all the same.
3) Don't abuse emoticons; this is a big problem I see with younger writers -- I know it's hard to not include the occasional smiley face, but don't over-use them. In my opinion, it turns me off when I see a post that is littered with ":) :O :P <333". The same thing applies with expressions like OMG or LMAO; keeping it to a minimum will make your work look neat and mature (and frankly, more appealing!)
Now, let's get started on what you SHOULD do with your paragraphs.
1) Do use all your tools to your advantage; thankfully, PMC allows us to edit our content in really however way that we want. PMC has some pretty cool features that include bold, italic, underline, and strikethrough, as well as horizontal rule (I use it all the time!), hyperlinks, inserting images/videos, creating tables (yey I can include my excel sheets...), and more. Be sure to familiarize yourself with them. They're pretty neat!
2) Do highlight key points in your text; this comes especially for me -- I love to write really wordy blogs, but sometimes a wall of text is very off-putting to some viewers. Bold your main ideas so people are able to skim through them. It gives them a good idea of what your talking about and gives them the option to read your opinions in detail if they please.
3) Do attempt to allign the majority of your text to the LEFT; I do see that some people align their text to the middle, or even worse, to the right. The only time that aligning your text to the middle is if you want to experiment to see if it looks good, or your adjusting your header to be in the middle exclusively. I personally keep everything to the left, for the sake of easy reading, but once again, that's a decision you'll have to make.
Design: Something We Can All Do a Little Better!
Now, I'm not saying I'm the most perfect human being in the world, I totally understand that. My goal with this submission is to imrpove the overall quality of the blogs section, or atleast let this be a base for new bloggers to start on. Everything in life really depends on how it looks, so learning early to make something pretty is an essential part to PMC, and possibly to life itself.
With time and experience, I hope that you guys can make your blogs a bit better, even by a little. I know that my blogs aren't the most artistic, and I obviously have a lot to work on, but I won't know what I have to work on until I submit something. Let me know in the comments of what I did good or what I should impove on. I always love constructive criticisim.
Expect a submission at least once a week, maybe even two. I'll try to expand this series as long as possible (expect 5), and at the same time come up with new ideas for after. Thanks for reading!
Why Do I Need to Know About Design?
Fair question, young lad. Design is a very powerful tool; a tool that is used to make something, in simpler terms, pretty. If you want me to look at your submission, how would you do it? First off, you would do so with an interesting cover photo. Cover photos could span from the actual title in pretty text (although it's kinda boring/lazy, and I did that a lot...), find a picture that relates to your topic, or make your own picture relating to the topic. Either way, the cover photo is probably the most important factor in getting your attention. This should be obvious, but some people make such great quality blogs but ruin that fact by being lazy and finding a picture on Google, or using something that is low quality.
Cover Photos
If youi ever want to create a cover photo, there are plenty of free programs to help you out, for example, GIMP is a great tool to use for editing/creating pictures. It's completely free. Another free program is PaintTool SAI, good for those artists out there. For Windows users, Paint is a free program, but is pretty low quality. If you don't mind paying money for a photo editing program, Photoshop is your best bet (it's what I use!) and is easy to learn. If you get the hang of Photoshop, there's honestly an endless world of possibilites. Of course, there's plenty of other pieces of software that you can download, but those are the three that I recommend to help you get started.
Before you create your image, you must keep in mind your image size. PMC has a very specific image size; of course you can make it bigger or smaller, but that can definitely ruin the quality and it may make your wonderful image look awkward. 1920x1080 is always a good start, but you could also use 1280x720, 654x280, and so on. It's good to test out what you think looks best for your image -- remember to keep on experimenting with new things!
Finally, create your image based on your content (this one should be a given). I recommend that the cover image should be the absolute last thing you create, as you can make your image work around the wording. You will have more time and effort to make it once your article/interview/whatever is done, while all that is still fresh in your mind. Remember, this is my personal recommendation -- if you feel like you should make it in the beginning or in the middle of your blog, go for it!
Designing the Body Paragraphs
*NOTE: The designing of the body paragraphs is entirely my opinion. Of course, a lot of you have a lot more artisitc talent than me and can make something beatiful, but for the simpletons (such as myself), this is for you!
Body paragraphs are also a key element to getting readers to focus on your content. First, I'll start out with what NOT to do; these will include basic errors in colors, etc. and should be simple to follow. Let's begin!
1) Don't get too complex with colors; keep it simple (unless it matches): when and if you use colors to decorate your text, I recommend keeping colors relatively simple - dark shades, nothing that super pops out and makes me want to scrape out my eyes (bright turquois, hot pink, etc.)
2) Don't constantly use different font sizes - use three or less if you have to: when I create my body paragraphs, I usually keep my text at the default, mostly because the small-ness of the text, I think, is appealing to the eye and shows how much time and effort you made into the blog. If you have to use a different size, use it for a header (titles), for example, I only change the font in the titles of each section in my blogs. Otherwise, the text is all the same.
3) Don't abuse emoticons; this is a big problem I see with younger writers -- I know it's hard to not include the occasional smiley face, but don't over-use them. In my opinion, it turns me off when I see a post that is littered with ":) :O :P <333". The same thing applies with expressions like OMG or LMAO; keeping it to a minimum will make your work look neat and mature (and frankly, more appealing!)
Now, let's get started on what you SHOULD do with your paragraphs.
1) Do use all your tools to your advantage; thankfully, PMC allows us to edit our content in really however way that we want. PMC has some pretty cool features that include bold, italic, underline, and strikethrough, as well as horizontal rule (I use it all the time!), hyperlinks, inserting images/videos, creating tables (yey I can include my excel sheets...), and more. Be sure to familiarize yourself with them. They're pretty neat!
2) Do highlight key points in your text; this comes especially for me -- I love to write really wordy blogs, but sometimes a wall of text is very off-putting to some viewers. Bold your main ideas so people are able to skim through them. It gives them a good idea of what your talking about and gives them the option to read your opinions in detail if they please.
3) Do attempt to allign the majority of your text to the LEFT; I do see that some people align their text to the middle, or even worse, to the right. The only time that aligning your text to the middle is if you want to experiment to see if it looks good, or your adjusting your header to be in the middle exclusively. I personally keep everything to the left, for the sake of easy reading, but once again, that's a decision you'll have to make.
Design: Something We Can All Do a Little Better!
Now, I'm not saying I'm the most perfect human being in the world, I totally understand that. My goal with this submission is to imrpove the overall quality of the blogs section, or atleast let this be a base for new bloggers to start on. Everything in life really depends on how it looks, so learning early to make something pretty is an essential part to PMC, and possibly to life itself.
With time and experience, I hope that you guys can make your blogs a bit better, even by a little. I know that my blogs aren't the most artistic, and I obviously have a lot to work on, but I won't know what I have to work on until I submit something. Let me know in the comments of what I did good or what I should impove on. I always love constructive criticisim.
Expect a submission at least once a week, maybe even two. I'll try to expand this series as long as possible (expect 5), and at the same time come up with new ideas for after. Thanks for reading!
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But anyway, a brilliant blog and a brilliant return, for a brilliant blogger.
Diamond and favorite, you deserved it!
I MUST USE HER POWERSSSS
I used to have a friend to my images, and they looked really cool! I don't know if he plays MC anymore, but dingousa, if you're out there, I miss you. :((