FORUM BANNER project

We talked about it a while ago in the "paper goodies" thread, better later than never here is a first test for a potential OSF forum banner!

I went simple by keeping the general structure and texts from the original banner, but all suggestions are welcome, from fonts to color to whatever, the work file is now sleeping on my office desktop so veeeeery editable lol.

Same for the pictures, I went simple with official promo shots from various brands and themes, of course we can't please everyone with so limited space but again if anyone has ideas or suggestions, you're welcome! If some of you are willing to give some pictures to be used on the banner, welcome again, and if custom artists are ok with it I'd gladly add some radio king characters or alike!

Anyway, hope you'll like, I made a quick black n white variation for the main letters, up to you boss!

Hey hey. I like it. Perhaps squeeze a Marvel character in there somewhere.

I like it a lot, thank you for working your magic, Alex. The black-and-white version of the main lettering seems more impactful. You are opening a can of worms inviting suggestions for further inclusion. I don't know about Marvel characters (there are so many), but perhaps Wonder Woman (DC) or one of the Black Widows might be a fitting addition.

Excellent work. I love it. I guess I agree there are perhaps a bit too many Star Wars characters, and perhaps the Guv’s suggestion of Wonder Woman is a good idea to mix it up a bit. Other wise, I like either one of them. So cool.

Ok. Thought about it some more. I would say replace two of the Star Wars characters (your choice) and put in a military figure (either modern or WWII), and one female (TBL or either of the two that the Guv suggested). We don’t want folks to think we’re just Pop Culture, as we’re supposed to be all inclusive for any and all 1/6th interests. Just my .02 cents.

Maybe get folk to submit pics of their figures to go in? I know I’d be happy for any of my lot to be up there!

Lynkhart wrote:Maybe get folk to submit pics of their figures to go in? I know I’d be happy for any of my lot to be up there!

I’d be all for that, as well. Max, Juno & Baxter! Or your fantasy character would be very cool.

I would suggest we should stay away from anyone's kitbashed or custom figures, because there are just too many people making these and too many great-looking figures, so a great many worthy candidates will be left out. One more reason why Blackpool should not have invited suggestions. Also, let's not forget that this is professional work offered up to us for free and we should all be just thankful for what we get, which is a stylish and effective composition already.

It’s really aesthetically well done, though I’m hardly surprised given the caliber of your edits!

And even though I’m obviously a die-hard SW person, lol, I nonetheless have to agree that the banner really ought to include some other genres, and most especially needs at least one female character (or multiple), given that female figures (especially tbleague) are quite a big focus of many users here.

Obviously you can’t fit everything we collect/create in a single banner, but was just trying to think of certain figures commonly seen here. : )

ETA: whoops, meant to say I also think the black and white ‘OSF’ is quite striking.

Stryker2011 wrote:Ok. Thought about it some more. I would say replace two of the Star Wars characters (your choice) and put in a military figure (either modern or WWII), and one female (TBL or either of the two that the Guv suggested). We don’t want folks to think we’re just Pop Culture, as we’re supposed to be all inclusive for any and all 1/6th interests. Just my .02 cents.

Agreed. This sounds like a good mix of genres.

I agree with the Skywalker, the black and white OSF looks very striking. Some more variety would be great of course, but it's a perfect 'template' and looks quite professional. The lighting, contrast and composition really sell the look.

About members submitting their own figures to the banner, that's what happened at the German forum this year. It was an open call, started with one figure and they became more and more.
That's what it looked like. Exactly what The Gubernator feared, haha...  But the forum banner is changing for special occasions and events multiple times each year anyway.


I prefer Blackpool's design, but I think one can be inspired by that great variety. Totally clustered but charming in it's own way.

Looks good, I like the OSF in black and white, looks more cooler in my opinion.

Hey hey thanks for all the ideas and comments friends, that helps a lot!

Indeed I can't believe I didn't put a single female character in the banner (even more since half my collections are ladies!!!)
For the marvel heroes, being a big fan myself I didn't want to include any, just to escape the marvel/dc fight, I had put a captain in place of boba at first but the blue/red/white combo was giving a very "patriotic" style to the banner, which I wanted to avoid as well to keep this place as international as possible... Same for Jack Sparrow and the predator, I wasn't sure about them, I guess I tried to highlight some older figures as well to create variety but that could be changed!

Sooooo to make it short I'll make few edits and variations with those guidelines:

- at least one female character (and I agree wonder woman would be great)

- one marvel hero (if possible since WW might bring enough flashy colors to the banner, iron man will have to stay in the closet this time lol)

- one military figure (may be in place of john Mc Clane which is not very recognizable, I'll try something and we'll see)

- to be discussed with the board leaders but I could surely make variant banners for specific themes or moments, on a french forum I had made banners by genre (scifi, historic, military, hollywood movies...) that were rolling randomly everytime you would get to the main page. More simply we could have a few variants in stock for christmas, thanks giving, or dedicated to custom, or whatever!

All good ideas, Blackpool! : )

And you’re right about replacing the John McClane — admittedly I had struggled to recognise him in the banner!

Glad you will add a female figure, no matter which one it may be. While I’m not personally invested in either Marvel or DC, it does make sense to include something along those lines , given the extreme popularity of superhero genre over the last decade or so.

I rather like the idea of rotating multiple banners myself, though perhaps to begin with it would be good to have just one for a little while, simply to help make the site more recognisable?