Alex Harries's diary

I've just watched a short video of this photo...



... being created in MS Paint. I'm absolutely amazed - this guy is a genius.

You can find out more about him at Pixelgod.net - seriously, check his stuff out. Amazing stuff.

Plus, the soundtrack's pretty inspiring too - I'm not a metal fan (are NIN metal? I think so...?), but it was a really appropriate choice to have Nine Inch Nails' "Right where it belongs" playing in the background while this guy created a work of art in MS Paint.

Seriously, check out the video. I don't even care if you never read my blog again ;o)

Let's set the scene here: I'm sitting in a corner of the Sabb office. Somewhere behind my back and to the right, less than 30 metres away, the Waterhole is largely full of sportos (sports team members for the uninitiated) and Freshers. Most of them - especially the Sportos - are sampling the delights of Snakey B, a concoction of beer, cider and blackcurrant cordial capable (I lie not) of permanently staining stainless steel and everything else it comes in contact with.

It sounds foul. It tastes good. And it gets you horrifically drunk when not treated with the proper respect a very sweet, alcoholic drink should be treated with. And no-one shows Snakey B any respect whatsoever ;o)

So, while the fun's going on "over there", I'm sitting "over here" in the Sabb office.

I'm finalising the new UPSU.net homepage. I say finalising - I actually mean, "trying to shoehorn the UPSU logo into the space I have left to fit it in". And I'm trying to use the proper branding style, which means logo, and "the Union" text, and the bottom corner of a big purple circle around it.

So far, it looks crap. See for yourselves (click pics to enlarge):

• Version 1:
  
  
  
• Version 3 (2 isn't even worth mentioning):
  

Ok, so "crap" is probably a bit over the top. But it still looks pretty wrong.

I think, after two hours of deliberation, I'm going to drop the UPSU branding style, and just drop the logo and text into a stripey, rounded-edged oblong to fit in with the shape of the other boxes on the page.

It's a shame really, because the whole point of branding the homepage like this was to make the logo stand out from the rest of the page content - now I'm worried that the logo is going to blend into the page, or at best stand out for all the wrong reasons. But, that said, if I don't try it, I won't know - it's hard to picture how it'll look in my mind and decide if it'll look good or bad on the page at the same time.

I reckon I'll be able to go for a pint about midnight...