Some of my Gentle Readers have noticed that I am slowly going back and modifying my early posts.
When I first started this blog, I was using plain text for stories and works that I had posted elsewhere. As I was going back, this habit looked really … odd … so I am editing my earlier works so that most of my writing is done in my familiar heavy blue script.
At the same time, one of my Gentle Readers has offered to craft for me a custom header for this blog.
He suggested an Old West style, with the classic Old West Font and such.
I am tending more towards an earlier style — elegant cursive script and maybe a percussion duelling pistol or somesuch.
Regardless of what header The LawDog Files gets, I intend to stick with the parchment background and the heavy blue italic font.
I would like my Gentle Readers to put in their two cents worth. Should The LawDog Files go with an Old West header? Earlier style? Something else?
Your input would be much appreciated.
LawDog
36 thoughts on “Your opinions, please.”
Comments are closed.
Using an Olde Western font would be a bit cliché, but still fitting….
A nice Copperplate cursive title over dueling pistols gets my vote.
I don’t know… while you are live in Texas, I’ve never really drawn a tight connection to you and the wild west. Maybe its the background in Africa, (ergo… heavily influenced by the Brittish mode of speach and thought) but I think something a bit older seems more the right note.
Anything but blue, LawDog. It just doesn’t go with anything else around here…Old West style is splendid…love the parchment background and other brown colors…but the blue has got to go…It’s so…so…oh I dunno…expected for a LEO? Reminds me of a young rookie in the LAPD or something…
FWIW,
a fan
I prefer a Caslon Openface font. You can look at it here:
http://www.paratype.com/efstore/samples/fsample.asp?foundry=BT&scode=000581
–Vic303
I found one called “De Louisville”
that I think has a good balance of
“western” and elegance.
farmist
p.s. I think pics of a couple of
BBQ guns would be a nice touch.
I learned to write using a fountain pen and a bottle of Waterman’s Blue/Black ink.
Since then, all of my personal correspondence and informal scibblings have been done with a fountain pen and dark blue ink.
This blog is informal, and it is very definently personal correspondence.
Sorry, but the blue script stays. Besides, the heavy blue cursive has become somewhat of a trademark.
LawDog
Lawdog –
I am, perhaps, something of a romanticist or classicist in my aesthetics…but take a look at
http://www.lva.lib.va.us/whoweare/exhibits/mastheads/opinion3.htm
A classic 1868 newspaper masthead of a style that is sadly seldom seen today…
Re-Tuned, something like it would be a fine masthead for your column…
Something Kipling would feel at home with….
I sorta think of you as a Texan Kipling, after all.
LD,
I think a couple of Colt Western Style, in holsters,crossed with a Star in a circle badge.
Or the Colt Lawman and badge.
The font and color are good.
For myself, the blue on parchment is easy to read. Perhaps a shade darker on the blue, to take some of the ‘bright’ out.
Of course, that’s just a personal request. I’m ‘all rods, no cones’ when it comes to eyesight and I have problems detecting subtle changes in shade.
Regards,
Rabbit.
I think the “Old West” is not the image you portray with your scribbles. I would think a more classical style would work better. As to the blue lettering…I am a big fan of the thin blue line and using it in correspondence has a double meaning for me.
Being a fountain pen lover too, I prefer the elegance of earlier styles of lettering. True, I see you as a Texan, and people who demand order in an increasingly permissive society do have the naff of Old West trailblazer about them, but I think this is too limited an image for your writing. To me the theme of your blog runs more to eternal truths, and for that the more classical lines seem an apt setting of your text. Of course, I love the parchment and the bold blue lettering.
I was wondering why your RSS feed showed a dozen new posts…
Hey LawDog,
I like the blue and the font is fine. For a header, how about a good looking German Shepherd With a Tactical Vest and a badge? It just seems appropriate somehow.
I vote for just your design. Partly because I think that what you feel comfortable with is what you should use.
But an elegant cursive with a couple of percussion duelling pistols–that may be more authentic “Old West” than is generally realized. The educated people in the Old West–and there were quite a few of them–had a strong sense of history and often appreciated expressing their connections with it. A general under Stonewall Jackson, commanding troops recruited from Southern Universities, when Jackson asked about their training, replied, “We will be your Macedonian phalanx!” Jackson did not need that explained to him.
Yours is one of the very best blogs I know. You achieved this by very much following your taste and values.
This is not broke. As far as I’m concerned, don’t fix it.
LogEyed Roman
This looks fairly Old West to me. Maybe a picture of a 19th century lawdog at the top/header of the site would be a cool addition.
Hell, write it in crayon on old grocery bags.. we’ll still read it.
Suit yourself.
Not rocket science. You obviously have an image of what you want – so find someone that can do it.
Best of luck.
I’d say whatever fits your taste and personality.
I read via RSS feed–I’m far more interested in the content than the font. My vote is that you spend your time writing, rather than messing with fonts and such.
If I were to vote on colors, I’d suggest a blue that’s a bit darker, farther from the standard color of a link.
dawg, I would like a photo of your smiling face, so that I may know what one of my favorite authors looks like.
I realize due to your profession, this probably isn`t gonna happen!
Randy in Arizona
Fonts? Folderol.
Just keep writing. More.
If you are gonna use image(s) be sure to compress adequately. There is a blog out there (that shall remain nameless) I ignore solely because the induhvidual has a postage-stamp-sized picture of himself in the sidebar that is 6- or 7-hundred Kbytes.
I suspect he hates dial-up folks…
Peet
I’m in the “Other” category as well — I don’t think you need to change a dang thing, but whatever makes you happy…
As to a header, I would personally suggest you use pics of ‘Unc’s pistol and badge. No doubt you could find someone who could implement them into a nice header for the site. Perhaps include Nana’s deringer as well.
These items seem to define who you are on many levels. I envy your access to such “history” — none of my ancestors had enough sense to recognize that someone may want these sorts of things someday.
Of course my “people” were rather prolific breeders, so they tended to get rid of things people might be interested in fighting over.
Love your writing, and your style. Do what you want.
DD
I’m more interested in WHAT you write, rather than what color you write in.
It’s your place, do what you like.
Not like a font would keep me from my daily dose of Lawdog!
Are you thinking about emphasizing your current career or something more historical?
I would seriously consider something from your heritage or from your Africa days for a header. Failing that, old west lawman would work as well…
Don’t matter none ta me, I come fer the readin’.
Frankly, you could have a border of pink cartoon elephants honker to hindquarters wrapped around the whole thing spelling “Law Dog” out of candy canes and as long as you kept up your talented and entertaining prose, you would get no complaints from this humble reader.
-DocF
1. Picture of the Alamo with Sam Houston in the foreground.
2. Pencil drawing of the Hanging Judge (Roy Bean?), the “Law West of the Pecos”.
3. Picture of your late dog, napping in her favorite spot. I prefer this look because you’re not on duty when you write this blog. And she was a cutie.
4. YOU.
How about something along the lines of Teddy Roosevelt? Comfortable on an African Safari, at British Tea, and in the West. Also, a great President.
I don’t know what that font would look like, but that’s kinda how I see this site.
The Wanted Poster font would be my vote,
It tends to highlight the Texan-Western thought, while the British accent is/was not uncommon in the old west, nor was the Swedish or Irish accents as well as many, many others.
Russ
How about crossed pistols, one a percussion dueling style, the other a Colt SAA?
Just a thought.
Whatever you do, I think it will be uniquely you.
Mr Fixit
32 point Klingon.
I remember you talking about your Grandfather’s Colt SAA. Crossed Colts against a Deputy’s Badge with a parchment scroll backgrond would be fitting.
Crucis
I like the idea of an older, more classical style, vs. Olde West; especially as you reside in Tejas. Olde West seems a bit obvious, methinks.
LD,
Just catching up on my reading after being out and about for the last month or so, when I see this post
i think this is an exercise to fix something that ain’t broke, or to paraphrase LTC Cooper “an ingenious solution to a non-existent problem”
My opinion is to just keep doing what you do so well. Your words and style are what’s important.
Regards,
Striker