Wednesday, June 3, 2009, 12:34 PM
So, after a very long period of inactivity, I feel I should get back to updating this blog thing. I know with Twitter and all, it's a bit "old school," but then isn't simming?
So yea, I've been busy this month with lots of new stuff for the FSF site. We've had a flurry of front page news items, but I've also been doing a lot of design work as of late.
After a couple weeks of work, I've finally completed a project long in the works, namely re-doing images for the main FSF site.
The project went in two parts. The first was a revamp of the old "square" ads that were on the "Game Listing" page.
I found myself constantly needing to update them as games would change fleets, or a new hosting team would take over and want a new flavor. At 125 x 125, they weren't the easiest thing to work with anyway. After thinking it over and working with FSF Admin, I decided to take a new approach.
The ads currently on the game information site are now much larger (132 x 600) and are all original designs, as opposed to re-hashes of other art work found on the internet. They're also designed to promote the individual subfleets within FSF and link to each FSF webpage.
The design follows a pretty standard format. They have a background image, which I designed, with text telling you to join "x" fleet, the name of the group and then a single image of the greek letter for the respective fleet.
Each fleet has a different look and feel to them, and I am proud of all of them. The only one that's a little different is SFOL, which had to be different because, well, it doesn't have a greek letter to represent it!
The second part of this major project was a revamp of images on the front page, including the header. Part of the design process was going to be revamping our 'official' font, so that it was standard everywhere on the site, including the ads and images.
The first thing I redesigned was the header image. The old one was set to rotate among a couple different colors and used the font Serpentine. The new one kept the theme of using an alien landscape, but went for a lighter powder blue color. I also decided to go with a more simplistic font, this time "Agency FB" and use Eras Light ITC as my secondary for the "resistance is futile" tagline.
I am pretty happy with the result:
Another nice feature added during all of these changes, thanks to Shuni, is the site's ability to accept PNG images. For those of you who don't know/care what the difference is between that and a JPEG, PNG is prettier and made for web images, it also holds transparencies better, which is nice for the SOTM images.
Once the leg work was done picking a font scheme, and I'd worked on the headers, I started working on the revamp of the other front page images. Some were outdated, like the Sci-Fi Fusion and the AMS Dev Blog, while others, like the blogging one, simply needed refreshed.
Here are the two that replaced Fusion and AMS Dev blog:
I am pretty happy with all the changes.
The next big project is going to be working on redoing the FSF Logo that's on the background of the main site as well as used by a number of people on their game websites.
Stay tuned for updates on that project!
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( 0 / 0 )Monday, January 14, 2008, 08:24 AM
The FSF Communications Department would like to announce the opening for Managing Editor of the FSF Communiqué.
Former Editor FSF Trinity is stepping down from her post, and we would like to wish her the best in her future endeavors as she will remain Editor of the Commander’s Table.
The position of Managing Editor is open to all FSF Hosts, and will be responsible with the primary production of the newsletter itself, including staffing. The ME will in-turn report to the Executive Editor and Publisher, the Communications Director, FSF Nefarious.
Anyone interested in this position should contact FSF Nefarious.
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( 3.2 / 12 )Friday, July 20, 2007, 03:24 PM
On July 19, 2007 the Federation Sim Fleet lost a beloved member of our group. Mic Maharaj, known to many as Trent Ravenwood, lost his 26-year battle with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. A West-Indian first-generation immigrant to the United States, he came to America along with his parents seeking medical care.
Duchenne muscular dystrophy or more simply DMD affects 1 out of every 3,500 to 5,000 boys, rarely effecting females. DMD is incurable and few patients live into their early thirties. Eventually fatal, the disorder is characterized by rapidly progressive muscle weakness and atrophy of muscle tissue starting in the legs and pelvis and later affecting the whole body.
Despite his physical condition, he was able to find freedom in the world of role playing, and enrich the lives of others around him. As his host, FSF Linds noted “Our Mic...loved to game,” she said “[he] couldn't be gotten down by anything, his favorite thing to do was be with his friends.”
Throughout his long history with the FSF, Mic played on a number of games including Dark Falls, Circus of the Damned, USS John C. Stennis, USS Aquinas, Firefly: Objects in Space and most recently the Hornet, leaving a unique impression with everyone who had the pleasure of enjoying his company.
Mic Maharaj's death serves as a reminder to the entire community of the positive effects we can have on others. He was a son, a brother, and an uncle, most of all, though, he was a friend. And the entire whole of FSF is saddened at his passing.
A memorial service is scheduled for Monday night at 8pm EST in "Ten Forward." Additionally all of his characters on Dark Falls, Circus of Damned and Hornet will be made permanent members of the game, with his Hornet character being promoted posthumously to the rank of Chief Petty Officer.
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( 3.1 / 31 )Thursday, July 19, 2007, 10:58 AM
Just some of the new Square Ads in rotation:
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( 2.9 / 29 )Tuesday, June 26, 2007, 09:50 AM
So while bored at work today, and feeling creative I started working on a new banner for the front page
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( 2.9 / 26 )Tuesday, June 5, 2007, 01:01 PM
So I've not been as busy as of late with FSF stuff due to working on our "Freshman Survival Guide" issue, so not a whole lot of work has been done on my projects. I did however get two square ads done:
and
More as I get them done.
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( 3.1 / 26 )Wednesday, May 16, 2007, 10:55 AM
So to quickly prime what this blog is about-
The Comm Unit will be my place to make announcements to the group, and also keep forum members upto date with what the Communications Director does on regular basis.
That said, yesterday I started working on a project the Dictator (aka Shuni) asked me to begin working on for the group. As many of you know, several members of our forum will be attending the upcoming Shore Leave convention in Baltimore, and and Shuni asked me to create something that could be made into t-shirts for the group.
After a little work, I came up with three designs and narrowed it down to one, but I've included all three for visual purposes.
My first attempt
A little different shading
And the version I submitted to Shuni
Feel free to comment!
In other news, I also posted a monthly summary of FSF news events (found here as well) to the Startrek.com forums, which is a great place to advertise because it is highly trafficked and they have a forum just for online role playing games (hint hint hosts!)
Also, I am starting to percolate ideas for my upcoming revamp of all the square ads on the main site...more on this later.
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( 3 / 29 )Tuesday, May 15, 2007, 01:47 PM
In what can be described as a busy month, the Federation Sim Fleet (FSF) announced the winners of it's monthly competitions, hired a new guild director, and launched a new simulation.
Winners of the monthly contests are:
Community Award: Starbase: Genesis (319 Posts)
Fleet Activity Award: Delta Fleet (686 Posts)
Game Summary Award: Starfleet Delta
Simulation of the Month: Stargate: SG-10
Blog of the Month: Iced Tea, Cofee cake, & a Break
Each month FSF awards a winner from each category, and they are posted on the front page of the forum's website and awarded a logo they can place on their website.
The administration extends congratulations to FSF Bawls on being selected as FSF's next Guild Director. The Guild Director is responsible for managing FSF's dozen-plus guilds. Guilds are non-sponsored simulation related events. A guild can be anything from a special interest subgroup like "Online Games" to something more sim-like, like Stargate 'Libertas' or Star Trek: Blitzkrieg.
The Guild Director works hand in hand with guild leaders and the Boards Director to support and expand the guilds within the FSF.
FSF is also pleased to announce the launch of Epsilon Fleet's newest game, the Hornet. Hornet is a Chat (AIM/AOL) Simulation simming every Monday at 8:00PM EST from May 14th, in the AIM/AOL room: "Hornet".
The simulation is hosted by FSF Goran & FSF Saros and takes place in the Enterprise Era, you can read more information about the simulation at its website
The Hornet Simulation will be the first ever Chat Sim created in Epsilon.
Everyone are invited to the launch sim, which will take place this Monday, at 8:00PM on "Hornet" AIM/AOL room, in addition the sim is looking for regular players in the following areas: ENG, MED, HELM, MACO.
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