• CG Design: here
• Design Name: Hotto Suru: Yuki Nagato style
• Usage: Blog banner request for Kiba
• Approx. Perfectionist Timespan: 7-8(?) hrs.
• Software: Photoshop 7.0
• Hardware: KanaChan laptop
• Description: I was “contracted” by a fellow blogger to design a banner for him almost a month ago. Due to getting back on my feet with commuting back and forth from my job, and being dutiful with spending time with my Chessi, I just didn’t have the time or energy to get started on it right away. About a week and a half ago though, I finally did some Yuki Nagato research, as that was Kiba’s theme request, and got started on this two Sundays ago. What I didn’t expect was to find time to do the majority of this while spending a week with my lover. XD

  Well, enough with the minor details.

  This design is a very unique case. Not only is this the first banner I have made for someone else (sigs don’t count, as they are smaller), but I usually tend to do designs in one or two sittings. For this, I stopped short in working on this design so many times and spanned it over so many days that I was constantly dissatisfied with what I did when I had left it alone. However, that dissatisfaction opened up doors to other ideas that I may have overlooked if I hadn’t been working in the presence of such a beautiful woman XD

  Honestly, everything about this design was a process. I was so lacking in ideas when I first got going on this that at first all I had was the middle Yuki, the “HS” type for the prominent “Haruhi-like” feel, and a lavender-to-black gradient in the background. For the background, I wanted to convey the mysterious and ethereal air that Yuki Nagato is characterized by. For type-setting, I wanted to have enough that would compliment the major content that Kiba writes about. For a while, I was trying to accomplish the Yuki-feel in the text and the background, but eventually, I worked myself in a better direction, as I had dealt with the background first. I started with the single Yuki behind the “H”, thought I was done, added the one on the left, thought I was done, then added the faded one on the right…and I still wasn’t satisfied. For every Yuki I added, I moved or changed my typesetting so that everything would work in aesthetic harmony within the design. Halfway though the design, I decided to make the blog title much more prominent than it was with a stronger “Haruhi-like” type-setting theme instead of my own variation…

  And the list goes on…

  To make a long description a bit shorter, I took this banner design in three parts, shifted, toyed with, trashed, and teased text and visuals countless times, and worked on each section individually until it all became as uniform as possible. Chessi even helped me cement decisions on type-setting and color contrasting. ^_^ I wanted to make sure there were other color accents in this design since staring at lavender could get dull really quick. I also attempted to pull off something like a constellation effect on the faded Yuki’s face. I can say that this was a lot of fun to design and piece together as my own design while grabbing inspiration from my own visual reserves.

• Creative Epiphany: There is a difference between a bad distraction and a good distraction. I had a good one…
• Foolhearty Sacrifices: None (seriously)
• Next EF design: Something pink, pretty, and cute for Chels

Currently Listening To: Disturbed – “Prayer”