Some of you may have noticed that I’ve played around with the look of the blog in the last few days. I’m trying to establish a look or “brand” that is consistent across all my media, starting with a new logo.

I’ve been wanting a logo for a while, but I’ve definitely not been wanting to pay for one. This isn’t exactly a lucrative business for a new designer so I’m trying to be cautious with my expenses. After dilly-dallying for a while, I finally sat down and started sketching. It had to be simple since my drawing and Inkscape skills are little to none, but also because I like simple, clean lines. I played around with fonts a bit and found a free cowboy hat drawing on the web. Here’s what I came up with…

Then I took those colours and carried them into a new pattern template that I built on Microsoft Publisher. I started off with one of their pre-built documents and then rearranged it for my purposes. I’m extremely happy with how the new template has worked out and am excited to convert all my patterns.

Finally, I wanted to translate the new branding over to the blog, which has been much more difficult. I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing here but I did manage to convert to a new theme and add a logo to the banner.

I’d love some feedback on the new look!