Blog Header Design 101

Tips for Designing a Blog Header

by Sue Kristoff, Creative Team Member

Do you have a blog? A lot of people have them now for various reasons: for businesses, for hobbies, for sharing family information. If you are looking to get people to return to your blog again and again, one of the easiest things you can do is to create a distinctive and memorable blog header.

At its basic, a blog header is a block at the top of the page that contains the title of your blog, maybe your name, and some graphics. It's generally the first thing that people see when they visit your blog. Does it stand out? Is it recognizable? In this article, I'll highlight the traits of a very familiar blog header, then share some online design resources so that you can create a stunning blog header of your own.

Let's look at the blog header for this blog, the Everyday Digital Scrapbooking blog! I know I'd recognize it in an instant, even if there was no text on the image. There are several elements that make it memorable.

• First, the colors are very bright. The yellow, blue and fuchia jump right out at me. These colors are only found in the header, and not in the blog text, so it's not overwhelming. While this sort of color scheme works well for a creative-themed blog, it would not work as well for a more technical blog.

• Second, the title is a distinctive. The title uses an unusual font, and I've unconsciously associated that font with this blog. Take a look at household products and foods around your house. I bet you'd recognize a lot of them based on their title font. This is a basic branding technique that many marketing firms use.

• Finally, the header uses several elements that are relevant to the subject of the blog: Digital Scrapbooking, including swirls, fonts and other digital elements. This ties the title of the blog to the subject of the blog, so a digi scrapper will know immediately that this blog is related to digital scrapbooking.

Here are some links to give you ideas on creating your own personal logos and branding:

Photoshopsupport.com
TutorialBlog.org - Logo and Branding
Allgraphicdesign.com - Logo and Branding Tips
Webreference.com
Allgraphicdesign.com

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