There are definitely ‘perks’ when you enter into a relationship with someone, and no I’m not talking about those perks. For me it’s the fact that I married a Graphic Artist. This gives me unfettered access to advice, design critique and raw creative talent whenever I need it – as such, Almost American has a new header image:-
Almost American Header Image
In the past, I’ve utilized these perks professionally to get interpretive signage, maps, brochures and flyers either created for gratis or at a ridiculously reduced rate. In my current job however, I’ve tried especially hard not to make these request of my wife (even though it would have helped greatly) as it detracts from the time she’s able to spend with Z, or by herself recovering from spending too much time with Z. Furthermore, having her do the design work for free under-values her time and creates and expectation from my office that I’m able to continually get free services, whereas someone else in the office may be paying a designer to perform similar tasks.
I should note, just in case she’s reading, my wife has offered, even begged, to help on every single graphic design related project I’ve had to get involved with at work.
I didn’t feel so guilty asking for her help when it came to a couple of simple design projects for the Almost American blog – a New Header Image and a Blog Badge. As you would expect with any Graphic Designer she’s pretty handy with Adobe Photoshop and in in a few minutes had combined a couple of royalty free flag photos into the cross faded flag image you now see at the top of the page.
Almost American Blog Badge
The ‘Blog Badge’, which I’ve also used as my “Gravatar” (avatar image used across several websites and blogging platforms) and “Favicon” (shortcut/favorites icon), was also quickly created from combining some flag images, to which she added a distressed effect.
Just in case you were wondering, as I was, what’s a blog badge and why do I need one? Here’s the answer courtesy of The Incessant Droning of a Bored Writer:
… a blog badge, which is an image representing and linking back to your blog, [allows] your fellow bloggers to show their support by adding your badge to their sidebar. So if a blogger likes your blog, they will – without a doubt – add your blog badge to their sidebar. In fact, I guarantee they will. And if your badge is appealing and thought-provoking, I promise you a reader will click on it and will then be taken to your blog.
So basically the blog badge is a cool way for your readers to share your site across the web! You can grab Almost American’s Blog Badge from the right-side-bar, or by using the code below.
Once you have the code copied to your clipboard (select and press Ctrl-C) you can past it onto your website or blog pretty much anywhere you want!
Let me know if you if you end up using my Blog Button!
[...] of eyes to assess my theme, layout and design choices (all in addition to doing the artwork for my header image and blog badge). She now, however, tires of being a bystander to my blog and has decided to take the leap into [...]
[...] I talked briefly about a few posts back, a blog badge is a neat little graphic that you make available to other bloggers (and webmasters) [...]