Redesign TalkGraphics!

[AntonyF]

You may spend quite a bit of time here, so why not design it how you want?

As you may know, I've been working on a way to migrate TalkGraphics to a new messageboard system. This is becuase the performance and level of service from our current providers has been been poor and lacks flexibility.

I am pleased to say that this is coming closer to reality, and it hopefully won't be too long until these forums are run on vBulletin and are hosted by ourselves. This means faster, better and no disk space restrictions (and that means no trouble with attachments anymore!).

New design
To go with this move, it'd be really nice to redesign TalkGraphics, to give it a fresh lick of paint and to move away from what will be the standard v-Bulletin look.

To that end, this is an open competition to design a heading/title design for the top of the page. Feel free to do what you want, but key requirements are:
<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
<LI>That it is something that isn't too large (in terms of download size, or 'real estate') and at the very least contains the word "TalkGraphics.com". You can change the page colors if you wish.
<LI>You don't mind giving us your original artwork files, and then using them to redecorate TalkGraphics, and that we may adapt them to fit the needs of the messageboard design.
<LI>That, if we choose your design, when we're customizing the rest of the message you won't mind if we talk to you, get your opinions on colors etc.
<LI>It's a design that you, as a user of TalkGraphics, won't mind looking at each day![/list]
To give you an idea of what vBulletin looks like as standard, this is their site's messageboard:
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/

The only difference is that our version will be unfixed width.

The winner
We will probably hold a poll to gauge people on what they like; after all, these are your forums. This is the main reason for this competition, so that you can design the place you frequent.

However, as an additional incentive the winner will receive the entire Xara product suite.

If you have any questions, let let me know. Otheriwse, I hope you enjoy the challenge!

[LogoVend]

Good god - about time as well - the colours on this site and logo suck big style and I hate how slow it is as well - when is the deadline for this as I'll definitely give it a go!

[AntonyF]

Ahh, deadline. I'll say May 30, provisionally.

[amoore]

I'd like to request that people submitting designs think "clean and uncluttered".

(I won't be submitting because I'm not an interface designer and I'll be out of town throughout the submission period. I'm sure you're all sighing with relief.)

[RAMWolff44]

Hi Antony,

Why not consider the board software that Peter and Risto used for Pixelparity.org?? It's latest incarnation made it VERY fast. Why not contact Risto or Peter and ask them for the address to take a look see. I'm sure Peter would be happy to give you a run down on what he thought of the software. I've not been on many boards that run that fast, even on my 56k dial up!!

All the best and good luck!

[diniel]

Originally posted by RAMWolff:
Why not consider the board software that Peter and Risto used for Pixelparity.org??

But please not the same host! I don't visit often, but most times that I try, the site is down. Just checked that I had the right URL, ironically the first result of a Google search is a talkgraphics.com posting saying that pixelparity.org is down again

[min]

Daniel

PixelParity closed down in March - it is no longer running.

Amanda

[RAMWolff44]

I'm sorry Daniel, I should have said the former forums site know as Pixelparity.org.

Yea, it's GONE Gone gone!!

But the forum software was really nice compared to the TG forum software any day of the week. Peter would shut it down every night for a few seconds to do some sort of maintenance and then sometimes there would be a glitch. Then something happened either to the server it was on or something happened where we were off line for like 2 weeks or so and that's when things went south!! Really a shame. The last forum software update Peter applied really sped things up super fast even for my 56K dial up connection!!

I'm sure Antony will do what he thinks is best and it will be good!

All the best

[RTK]

The software used on Pixelparity was YABB. And the reason it ran with lightning speed was not only the code itself, Peter kept it all in tip-top shape.

The two week downtime on PP happened was because the host re-configured the server - without letting anyone know. Peter also happened to be on vacation at the time.

However, rest assured that the board that Antony is working on (vBulletin) is every bit as good.

[AntonyF]

RAMWolff, I have spent considerable time resourcing a new board, and then working with that company to get their filters up to date to be able to import attachments. That's very important. We are down that path now, the software bought, the time is invested and going to another system on a whim would serve no purpose. As Risto said, vBulletin is good.

This topic is about a design for the forums, so please, let's all keep to that. But if no one bites, I'll just do a design myself. Save yourself from my design skills...