FOG's Latest Changes

The old icons were white, like these, but they were not transparent (like these are), so their dark background showed up. They also had paper with writing on it (like these), but were less professionally made (by the original creator, and by us).

Since both Axiom and I are studying in the field of design (he specifically in web graphic design, so this is what he'll be doing for a living, and me only being a few months away from graduation), I like to think (and hope) that we've learned a thing or two whilst paying ridiculous amounts of money for our art classes, and therefore can hopefully put together cohesive and appealing designs that match and work well. We both were not happy with the first new icons he made, but that is something that we both agreed on, and we simply ran out of time last night to change them, but I do feel 100% happy with the new icons and prefer them far more than our old icons we had. Simply having them be transparent adds an air of professionalism in design, and the reflection that Axiom created for them is a complete improvement from the old reflection on the old icons. I'm sorry that we disagree.

Again, I'm sorry that that's happening and that nothing is loading. Once in awhile (it happens to me, personally, about once every 3 weeks or so), Forumotion servers will experience a hiccup, and nothing at all will load for about 1 minute or so (using DSL). It will all simply not come up, and the website will appear white, like you explained. However, after a just a minute or so, it will all return to normal. I'm guessing that this happens during heightened activity.

I'm sorry you don't care for the icons, Melancholy. I was just trying to bring a little more polish to the forum. The old icons didn't blend with the background and that was something I really didn't like about them. I was actually working with the old icons when Fate showed me the ones that we have now.

I have no explanation as to why the forum has loading issues for you now. The new icons and banner are the same type of file, about the same size and hosted in the same place. Again I apologize for the inconvenience you're having.

Old icons:


New icons:


Edit: Icon's not as bright

All of the new images, in addition (including the icons) are smaller in file size than the old ones, so loading time shouldn't have to do with that.


Also, a little inside info for you guys!

The blue gradient on the new posts...

...is the same blue in the Admin usernames.


The orange glow on the hot topics...

...is the same orange as the IC Mods.


So, we kept the same color palette that is already in place.

Awww...we get no awesome color for threads, Fate? lol

Gunneh, originally the popular icon had a orange/red gradient over the whole thing that used both colors. Then a red gradient with an orange glow, but we decided to stick with the blue gradient and orange glow. (Some more useless knowledge about our creative process for ya )

Ha! I feel LOVED as an IC mod because hot topics glow like Weiss and I!

Really, it is an obvious matter of different tastes. But, as I said it really isn’t my place to call any shots; just giving an honest opinion, nothing more. When looking up at the far corner of my screen though the new icons stick out much more in the peripheral vision; as Fate mentioned, it is the background really.

I’m not blaming anyone for the issue with this, just mentioning it really. It also might be because of high activity, though who knows. It hasn’t made a difference what time of the day I’ve tried to get on so far. The only thing I can look to is that it’ll be fixed soon… hopefully.

Yeah, that's cool. I really do appreciate you sharing an honest opinion. I try to design things that appeal to as many people as possible, but its difficult to please everyone, ya know? I'm sure it wont be the last time I change the icons so maybe I'll get something more your style next time

I was considering toning down the white a little. They're a little bright.. So maybe I'll give that a shot too.

Axiom Awaits wrote:Yeah, that's cool. I really do appreciate you sharing an honest opinion. I try to design things that appeal to as many people as possible, but its difficult to please everyone, ya know? I'm sure it wont be the last time I change the icons so maybe I'll get something more your style next time

I was considering toning down the white a little. They're a little bright.. So maybe I'll give that a shot too.

That is actually my only issue. They are a bit bright, but I didn't want to mention it after all the hard work you put into them

Niccee. I love the new banner. It's great.

I support all our current changes.

Actually, I don't think I could ever disagree with the changes made here, so long as the site still exists, and has roleplays on it.

I like the new tiny icons better, and I also think it's really cool that they cast "reflections" beneath them. They are a bit bright, but if you tone them down, I think I would love them.

I like the task bar at the top. My one issue that I had when I first saw the new banner is that it feels like there's a lot of negative space above it, but I think that's just a sacrifice to be made for the cool effect of the initials popping out of the banner, so I think I can learn to not care about that.

I'm sure everyone will agree that all the new changes are indeed, very awesome!

This icons are much better as well!

Good work to all those involved in the creation and implementation!

Tony was able to tone them done a bit before he left for work this morning, but he told me (while I was still in bed and half asleep xD) that he'd like to tone them down even further, so he'll get to that once he's home from work tonight. Color-wise, both gray and white work with our color scheme -- it's just a matter of how much contrast you like. It was the same deal with the text when we changed that from white to this gray color. The higher the contrast, the more it stands out. Despite white having worked and went along with our color scheme too, it was just harder on the eyes against a dark background. So, I think if he tones down the icons even further, it will be easier on the eyes. :]

Thanks, ACK!

Ah, yeah, the banner is larger up top for the smoke effect, which I agree, is kind of more space. It also will appear extra huge, too, if your resolution is low, but then again, if you have a 600x800 resolution, you're not viewing any websites properly lol.

I like the way the banner looks. I honestly don't think it is a waste of space at all.

Hm, I like the new changes...oh, and Melancholy?

If it's a white page, and you can't do anything at all, it might be something on your end, if you're using Firefox, that is. Firefox is known to have a huge memory leak problem, using much more memory then it says it is.

I use Firefox. Looks fine to me.

Same here. Maybe he doesn't have the latest version? *shrug*

I use Firefox as well, I'm just saying, some people have problems with Firefox on some pages.

I was thinking of maybe including Charlie in our logo, but Axiom said he didn't like it. I'm not sure what to think, but I'm curious what you guys like. I'm not saying that we'll necessarily go with what a few people may say they like here, but I do appreciate any and all opinions.

Here's the Charlie logo:
https://2img.net/h/i1006.photobucket.com/albums/af189/FateForetold/FOG/CharlieFOG.png

I like it how it is now. Charlie just seems like a space filler.

Thats just my opinion. Don't get me wrong, I love Charlie, but he just doesn't seem to fit well there.

Yeah. I think I agree. I'd rather have all of that negative space than have Charlie there. Maybe in the future you'll find a way to make him fit, but that doesn't seem to be the case for today.

If charlie were to be there, it would be cool if he were less visible...like a ghost. But I'm not sure how that would look...it's just an idea

Thanks for the opinions, guys. I actually got the idea to try it out because of the negative space comment. I tried making Charlie more transparent, but it didn't look very good with the forest background, since you could hardly tell what was what with Charlie himself, but that was a good idea, Ryona. I actually thought about having it like that too at first, until I noticed it didn't work.

That's cool though. I do like our current banner a whole lot.

I lol'd.

To me, Charlie looks like he's about to say something like, "Wtf are you doing in my house?!"

I like the current banner better.

You know, I think it would be kind of cool if there was a spectre ((being Charlie)) in the forest... like... to scale, but that could just be for future contemplation. I don't mind the negative space that much. It's not a big deal.

I agree with Kathryn (if I understand what's she's saying). If you were to include Charlie within the trees somewhere and make it one of those things where people don't notice it at first but go "oh holy crap! i never saw him before! *face palm*" then that would be totally cool.

Ooh! Like this but better!
Charlie in forest

That could be neat, but I don't think it'd really work for the drawing that I did of Charlie. xD He'd be like half a body floating in the forest hehehe.

Yep. Agenda has it.

Well, you could always do the fady thing where he slowly fades into mist at the bottom.