Changing the Look (Again)

I am working on a new look for the site. I have already changed the layout and background colours and reduced the top margin (to zero). I am now working on a slimmer banner that will only be 200 pixels high. The current banner is 315 pixels high.

One of my aims is to make it so more of the page fits on a 768 pixel high screen, which seems to be the new ‘standard’ height for screens these days. This new standard of 768 pixels in the ‘y’ axis is a bit of a step backwards because back around 2005 the standard screen was 1,024 pixels high (being 1280x1024 or ). So basically in the last 5 years the ‘y’ axis density of screen has become less and is now about 75% of the size of screens back then. Which is rather odd, but that’s what has happened.

The new banner is still a work-in-progress but this is what I have so far.

 

I am trying to include a pleasing composite of images from many of my postings so far into the banner while keeping the same ‘abalook’ hand-drawn word prominent. Even though I have dropped the contrast of the the background images, and most of them are between 60 and 80 percent transparent on a white canvas, they are still overpowering the ‘abalook’ word.

If anyone has any ideas how I can make ‘abalook’ stand out against this background then feel free to offer suggestions (as comments). I am using PhotoShop Elements 8 and every element is on its own layer.