My Images

My “favicon” is a “K” in pink with the name “Katie Royle underneath. The color pink represents how I go about life. Not only is my room covered in this color, but it represents a sense of vibrance that I try to display throughout my days. For my Site Image, I decided to stick to the theme and use a pink “K.” When people click on my link, I want them to feel happy from the colors, while understanding what they are clicking on with the letter “K.”

My Process

I decided to use Logo Maker to create these icons. These files are JPEGs as I felt it was a common file type that viewers will be able to see clearly.

Image found on Design

Image found on Design

Favicon

My Image & Why

I wanted my favicon to be simple, yet funky. I also felt that it stylistically matched my site theme. I’ve always had a love for abstract art and I feel that this unique favicon exemplifies my personality and creativity. I included the ‘A’ as a nod to my site name (amkincaid.net).

Header

My Image & Why

Once again, I wanted my header to be creative and reflect the site’s theme. I expanded upon the simple shapes I used in my favicon image, in order to ensure continuity throughout my creation process. I included ‘My Blog’ to serve as my site name, as well as including my name and the class that this blog is primarily used for.

Creation

Process and Software Used

I used Vectr to create this image. I went through a trial and error process of learning to use the website and what each of the tools did, but soon found my groove and really just went to town on my image. I first sketched a rough idea of what I envisioned and then let me creative side shine through in the digital reproduction of this image. I was sure to use high contrast wording, for example on my header, I used black text on a white background. This high contrast wording is crucial to obtaining attention and making it more accessible for those visual processing abnormalities.

File Type Chosen & Why

I downloaded my favicon file (512×512 pixel) and my header file (1920×1080 pixel) as JPEG images. JPEG images are typically raster graphics, meaning that each pixel on the image has a specific color that altogether create an image. This is not necessarily the best option, as the image can appear blurry once stretched out, but it is common for website building platforms to require these file types. I ultimately chose the JPEG for an admittedly silly reason: it was the default file type when downloading my creation off of Vectr. That being said, I ensured that I had the right pixel size before download to ensure my image would have the best quality possible when applying it to my site.

My images

Icon

I choose my first imagine to be a purple ribbon for my website. I used the website Vectr. I adored the purple color when I was looking at different colors. I liked the yellow underneath with a little white on the middle to state “Kenley’s Blog”. I thought about editing the name to fit better and be more visible like 2 initials instead of words. However, I like the tiny bit of white as an offset from the purple and yellow.

Header

My header imagine is my actual cat. I used Photopea for the background of the brick and putting the photo on it. I created a blur on it after removing a whole bunch of white space around charlotte. Then, I used vectr again to create the writing on it. I am not a creative person therefore I wanted to use as many resources as I could. I choose to use a picture of my own cat Charlotte because I didn’t want to use a cat from one of the sites. I also choose the purple to blend with the dark blue/purple theme to not create an eyesore. Once I picked the image, I used PicResize to shrink it to properly fit without any blurriness that wasn’t intentional.

Image types

For my Icon, I used a JPEG file. I choose this type because it was what was the choice when I went to properly download the image. For the cat image in the header, it is JPG file. I also choose this because it was the option given. I prefer the JPG file over JPEG because I feel as though the image is stronger and clearer.

Process of creating

For my first image of Kenley’s Blog, I wanted something basic. Due to it being small for the website icon, I didn’t want it to be very detailed and layered. I added the ribbon and then wrote overtop of it with white lettering. For the cat image I used an already created a brick background and then added Charlotte overtop of it. After this, I took a long time trying to see how much I should cut out. I ended up choosing Char to be larger then the background of the brick. I choose black lettering because I wanted to offset the purple.

License

I chose CC BY because I want others to be able to use my work and build off of it as long as they give credit to me. If I were to post educational content online, I would want everyone to be able to use it however they need. Copyright is very important because you need to give credit to whoever creates the content, and without copyright laws it would be very easy to steal others work and claim it as your own.

Ethics

There is nothing wrong with using the work of others as long as you do it ethically. It is very important to cite their work and give them credit. Make sure the creator is okay with their work being used and don’t take credit for creating it yourself.

Why Did I Choose this Copyright?

I think copyrighting is very important in this day in age. With so many works entering the web daily, there is also the risk of someone taking those works and distorting them for personal use or to make money off of someone else’s time and effort. This is why I feel attribution is important, because it protects the creators work from being completely free game if they want to share it under some form of controlled parameters. If a person doesn’t want their works shared at all, without it first being asked of them, they might place watermarks across the picture to keep it from being used.

The copyright I selected was the CC BY-NC-ND copyright (Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives). I chose this type of copyright because it allows others to download my works and share them with others as long as they give me credit for it. I feel it is important to credit an artist for their creative works because it is their time and effort that has been poured into it. Also with this particular copyright, a person cannot change my works in any way or use them commercially. I just want to be someone’s inspiration if I can, not someone’s cash cow. If you, or someone you know is interested in making a website, but doesn’t know anything about copyrighting their works, they can read more information on Creative Commons.

So Why Not Take the Risk and “Use” Without Permission?

When building a website, it is a good idea to add so of your images to capture your audience’s attention. But what about when you use someone else’s images? If it is a picture or an image, it is important to place a caption underneath giving credit to the creator. However, once someone dies, the copyright on their works expires after 70 years. If you are unsure about how to use images on the web ethically, read more on Search Engine Journal.

On this page, I used two images that are copyright-free sources. They both came from the same web page. I was having issue finding a website for copyright free images, so I took the suggestion from someone I knew to check out ‘MorgueFiles’. From there, I searched through their catalogue of pictures. The images I chose did not have watermarks printed across them, which is a good sign the artist doesn’t mind its use. Under licensing it says one is free to adapt the work, to use this work for commercial purposes and the photo can be accompanied with other content.