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| So what does 2014 hold for Total Immersion? |
The first thing is new and improved branding. I've been working on this on and off for a couple of months now and I'm really pleased with where I've got too. I wanted something clean and clear but developed from the 2013 version. To get my creative juices going I also looked around at some of my favourite blogs, particularly those that used strong and clearly identifiable graphic design. Credit where credit is due, so I've included some examples shown below:
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| 3++ (iconic character interacting with the text) |
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FtW (model silhouette is clean, bold and easily recognisable, note the depth given by the classic warm=close red foreground and cool=far blue background) |
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| DoG (beautiful text artwork, love the weathered and splattered effects) |
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| The Back 40k (model's eye level view of a battlefield) |
I finally settled upon the idea of cutting through a gaming board at a model's eye level, immersed in the fog of war. This gives the white slice across the bottom of the banner looking onto the terrain behind. Next I wanted the title to stand out but be part of the battle, so I made this white and bought it down to rest on the 'table', effectively setting it in the foreground. I did the same to my new avatar (see more below), added some subtle fog of war effects to break up the picture behind, added some drop shadow to bring out the text and dropped in the tag line. Finally I changed the title to 'Total Immersion' as it's much easier to say/type than 'Total Immersion Wargaming'!
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| Old banner |
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| New banner |
I think the new design is a big improvement and much easier to read and the 2013 version. The next stage is to add a battle scene in the background with exploding debris in the foreground (see sketch version below) and this is something I'm going to have fun working on in the new year.
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| Sketch future banner |
I've wanted a new avatar for a while now and had been playing around with a few ideas. I decided that I wanted something tied into the branding of the blog but less blunt than the initials. Now I have a bit of a thing for robed models and I just love the Forge World Inquisitor Lokk. Having wanted this for ages I decided to buy it as a treat having made the top 10 at Brighton in the summer. As much as I like the sword, I've always wanted to give the model more weight/balance with a big beefy flail. The deathwing one fit the bill perfectly, so after a bit of conversion work I had myself my new commander and basis for my avatar.
Since I like seeing design development and behind the scenes stuff, I've shown the development images below in case anyone's interested too!
POSTS
I'm planning more CONCEPTS: articles, plus the usual Food For Thought short posts on any topics I find interesting or worth sharing. Assuming real life doesn't get in the way I will be heading to a few tournaments, including the Indy GT final in March, so I expect to post up tournament reports and pictures. I also hope to do some more battle reports, but these take me an age to write to get to the level I think is really tactically engaging. I need to work out a quicker way of doing these! My hobbying is concentrated around getting ready for tournaments, so I expect to post up my progress either here or on the Facebook page as I have done in 2013.
SUMMARY
2013 was a great year for the blog and I hope that 2014 will be the same. Given the releases in the last couple of months (Escalation, Stronghold, formations, dataslates, Forge World changing their permission wording) on top of a whirlwind codex and supplement release schedule over the past 12 months, it's shaping up to be a very interesting year ahead. Thanks to everyone for reading and I'm really looking forward to seeing what the new year will bring. Happy New Year!
New Banner looks good mate.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'm looking forward to developing the background along the lines of the sketch. Good fun!
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