This is the current banner used to promote the Creeper's Lab, both on servers lists and various forums.

For some time now, I've been meaning to create a new one, more visually attractive, animated, listing various server features and what not. I never seem to sit down and actually do it, so I thought: "Why not ask someone else to do it?"


Your mission, should you choose to accept it: design an animated, 468 x 60 pixels banner, used to promote the Creeper's Lab. Ideally, it should include a list of perks that set us apart from other servers. Here are some suggestions, feel free to alter or add to them as you feel.

• Online 24/7
  
• Normal and amplified worlds
  
• Friendly community
  
• No map resets, ever
  
• Active staff
  
• No griefing
  
• Events
  
• http://www.creeperslab.net/

If you need inspiration, you can look at what others have done on PlanetMinecraft.com.

Keep in mind that placing the server IP directly on the banner is pointless, considering that people need to register and it changes once in a while.


If you need some of the official images to promote the server, such as an high resolution version of the logo, you can grab this image pack. I'll be happy to provide anything else you might need. Maybe you could even incorporate a screenshot in there. It's a good idea to keep the final file size below 350 kB, as some websites won't accept the image otherwise.

My thanks to anyone who rises up to the challenge!


UPDATE: I forgot to specify, I need this in GIF format. That's the only animated format accepted in most places!

Edited by Dr. Cossack on February 18, 2014 at 20:32:28

That background landscape looks oddly familiar. Is it from the Minecraft title screen, in any chance?

One thing that'd definitely help the look is to keep the proportions on the logo and title correct. They're vertically squished right now, which looks off. Including the website URL at all times might be a good idea. Since its text color is white against a dark background, its got a nice constrast.

That looks pretty damn awesome. If I had to nitpick one thing, though, it would be to add more time that each statement stays visible. By even a half a second

That view from Mt. TopHat is hilariously out of date and doesn't represent the current landscape anymore, but it does work well as a background piece.

The rotating text display should definitely gain some anti-aliasing to give it a cleaner look. Maybe some sort of drop shadow or dark glow around the letters should be considered, too? It'd improve the contrast even more.

Also, at the risk of sounding nitpicky, the rotating text is misaligned vertically. I'm not sure if it should be centered on the main logo's red line, the image height, or if you planned to add something underneath.

Anti-aliasing basically means that the text isn't so harsh (for lack of a better word at the moment) against the background. Glow and/or shadowing will help with that.

And what Doc said about squishing/stretching the logo... never a good idea to do that. Doc's got a brand going on with Creeper's Lab, and ALL artwork needs to reflect that brand. Think about all the logos you see daily... do you ever see them in any other shape or form other than the most recognizable one? There's a reason for that. If you go all willy-nilly with stretching or squishing, the brand starts to become less recoginizable, because you're not sure what you expect to see. But when it's consistent? You start remembering it, even without realising it. Soon, you remember the shape and know what it is without even needing to read the words. Theoretically, Doc could eventually start using JUST the beaker graphic, and people would automatically associate "Creeper's Lab" with it.

So... keep it consistent.

And thus endth the lesson of branding 101.

I wasn't sure if the text placement was final or not, so I figured I'd point it out just to make sure!

The font definitely looks better now, which is a big plus.