An anniversary present ...

Vignettes, in graphic design, are decorative designs usually in books, used both to separate sections or chapters and to decorate borders. Vignetting in photography, any process by which there is loss in clarity towards the corners and sides of an image. In theater, script and poetry writing, vignettes are short, impressionistic scenes that focus on one moment or give a trenchant impression about a character, an idea, or a setting. Art and definitions from Wikipedia

Since my blog and I have been together for a year, I decided to give it a gift. The traditional anniversary gift is paper after one year, so I made a new banner (virtual paper?) for the top of my blog. I always liked the idea of illustrating the ornamental aspect of design with the image of a graphic vignette on my blog’s banner, but the pen and ink drawing that I found isn’t super recognizable in such a small size.

Why vignette? Since my career started in graphic design I liked the idea of the woodcut image of a vignette which was traditionally used to lead a reader into a new chapter. Every blog entry is like a new chapter, don’t you think? In interior decorating, the vignette represents a close up view of a photographed space that tells a visual story. If you have been reading my blog for awhile, I am sure you know how much I like to tell a story! Also, most of my images are close ups since those are easy shots to compose without doing a complete style makeover of a given space.


One of my favorite vignettes

My intention for this blog has always been to inspire others to create their own special moments in their home. New furniture, fancy drapery, expensive construction ... a small vignette does not require any of these. A vignette only needs a little design intention created with objects that relate to one another in a meaningful way. The end result usually provides a glimpse of the person who created the visual story (in some cases it may say more about the designer than the homeowner, but that is a topic for another post!)



Original blog banner
and new blog banner



For our new banner, I have temporarily removed the vignette graphic and then warmed up the wallpaper background. The traditional photo corners were added to highlight the fact that photography is a big part of my blog. Now it looks more like a scrapbook which is also appropriate to the way a blog functions. It really is a snapshot in time, highlighting the projects that I am involved in while saving momentos from other interesting people and places.

My blog has decided to try this new banner on for size. We may decide to keep it or exchange it later for something that can better illustrate the vignette concept. As I have said before, once a graphic designer always a graphic designer! Thankfully I am not able to kern blog entries or I probably would waste a lot of time trying to do so!



Please pen your thoughts ...