Jemjabella ‘Branding’
For a long time now I’ve wanted to make some sort of consistent image for jemjabella.co.uk. A logo or type of branding that is instantly recognisable — much like the Coca-Cola™ bottles or the Nike ‘tick’. The problem with this is finding something that fits the site, that I actually like, and that I can re-use.
I’ve half-solved my problem with the circles and the lines. They’re not original, it’s been done before and yet I think they’re really groovy. All I’ve got to do now is transform that concept into some sort of adaptable logo and I’m all set.. which is all well and good but I’m crap at that stuff (as you all know).
Part of the re-doing of the site would involve a slight fiddling with the layout. I don’t want to change much from what I’ve got now — I like the structure, the fluidity (is that a word?) and my sidebars in each section. I want to add a bit more.. pizazz though. A little bit web 2.0 (although I hate that buzzword), a little bit flash (and I don’t mean Macromedia). Improved/more obvious navigation, a rotating tagline that I’ve wanted for ages (that Katy did first but I’m doing anyway), and possible changes to the back end.
So.. tell me what you think? What you don’t like about what I’ve got now, ideas for logos, slogans, absolutely anything that sounds cool. 
Edit: I’ve implemented a few minor changes.. let me know what you think.
![[feed]](/images/feed.gif)
I still need to fix the font weirdness on my taglines…
Comment added: June 7th, 06 @ 8:02 pmI’m all for branding, I think its a great idea…as for a tagline/slogan - I loved that one you had on a past, pale green layout once - something about being “better than you”, I can’t remember the wording exactly… It entertained me no end and really summed up the fantastically prickly humour I associate with Jemjabella.
Comment added: June 7th, 06 @ 8:04 pmOoh, I love the idea of logos/branding for personal sites. LOVE IT. Dooce’s logo comes to mind. I wish I could come up with something awesome for my own site.
I also really like the idea of a rotating tagline, too, like Site5 used to have (do they still have it? I haven’t looked recently). They’re fun. The “Ultimately better than you” tagline you had was great.
Comment added: June 7th, 06 @ 10:25 pmErrgh, I want a branding/logo also. But I could never really think of something interesting. And a-ha. Re-doing the site again. I always want to add pizazz, too. But I could never really do anything. Durn. I’m sure that you can do wonders, though, with the new Jemjabella. Heh.
Comment added: June 8th, 06 @ 12:27 amI like the tagline/logo idea. I don’t have a tagline or logo for my site, but I think they’re cool. I like your sidebars for your different pages, too. Somewhat better navigation would be nice, but I’m not sure how to fix it. :-/
Comment added: June 8th, 06 @ 12:51 amFunny you should mention branding/logos — I was thinking I needed to do the same thing myself about the time you launched the current green circles design, and I thought you did it much better than any of the half-baked ideas I was throwing around. I really, really like the design you have right now (I only just noticed the ircles in the footer as well — yum!), and I think the abstract green circles are realy what makes it. But I don’t know how recognizable it would be as a stand-alone logo (I’m thinking without the horizontal lines and text — although maybe it would have some text in logo form?) But I do think the Jemjabella brand *should* be as recognizable as Nike! (Or at least deserves to be…)
Comment added: June 8th, 06 @ 2:03 am^ I agree with what Meggan and Claire said about the “ultimately better than you” slogan. That, in my eyes, epitomised Jemjabella.
Comment added: June 8th, 06 @ 2:15 amI like things the way they are?
Comment added: June 8th, 06 @ 2:52 amI agree with Amanda, Meggan, and Claire, “Ultimately better than you” is just so fitting for this site that it just can’t not be used!
A logo’d be shibby too, it’s just that, as many people said, they’re hard to create, since it’s hard to boil your entire site (or network in your case) down to one little image and be able to have it automatically associated with you. I thought about using a snowman as a logo for my sites (snowmen are obviously associated with me by almost everyone that knows me personally at least), but decided to give up on it. Do whatever works for you, and I’m sure we’ll all love it as usual. 
Comment added: June 8th, 06 @ 1:26 pmI think you’ll find it very hard to make a third, or fourth layout based upon the one logo. I think sticking with one little thing that can easily be applied to any layout though is a good idea. Right now I’m using the female figure in all of my layouts. People seem to like it.
Comment added: June 8th, 06 @ 3:28 pmIs it just me, or did your text move over? o_O To keep it on topic: branding is good, just keep it versatile so you can change it a bit with your layouts. People get a logo and tend not to change their designs because they become so boxed in. The circles thing is great because of its versatility — you can change color schemes and styles and still keep your logo.
Comment added: June 8th, 06 @ 6:08 pmI love the branding idea. But yes it’s hard to come up with something. I think it would be great if you had a logo like thing. Good luck with it. I love this layout. It’s really lovely and I think the circles and lines are great. Even if it seems like old hat. Nice coloring here too.
Comment added: June 8th, 06 @ 9:02 pmThe branding idea is great, that would make your site stand out even more. But thinking of something original is probably not going to be easy. I remember when I had to design for my mom’s logo for her business. It took ages until we came up with something that was simple, recognizable but also original. Good luck with it
Comment added: June 8th, 06 @ 11:33 pmIs Jemjabella planning on going commercial?
Comment added: June 9th, 06 @ 12:33 amI’m on IE, and you’ve clearly made your ‘container’ DIV too small because it has pushed your sidebar down underneath the main content. Just thought you should know - I know what’s happened because this has happened to me when using your ‘centering’ cheat.
Comment added: June 9th, 06 @ 12:36 amBTW, why is it that when I hover over your links, the text shifts? It’s dead annoying… and something I’ve seen on the average “My First Style-Sheet-Driven Page”. *gasp* I hope you’ll fix that - I don’t think you intended it to happen.
Comment added: June 9th, 06 @ 12:38 amFunky — definitely jazzes it up. The grey in the text boxes is a little hard to see in this background color, though, do you think you could lighten it?
Comment added: June 9th, 06 @ 1:40 amHa. This new… whatever/stylesheet… is ace.
Comment added: June 9th, 06 @ 3:35 amI like it much better like this. I can’t really see if this is a fluid layout or not (I’m at school with a whooping resolution of 800×600px), but I’d say it look rather nice. The previous example looked a bit awkward on higher resolutions, with short pages. Where the bottom ‘circle’ was around the middle of the page. By the way, where’s that circle? I really like it. Could you bring it back, and put it at the right edge of the solid color background? I was rather fond of it
P.S. I’ve recently submitted my site for a review to Nile (you know blueberriez)… and contrary to what she advises with reviews (you know tables), I found this review quite helpful. You can check it out, if interested: http://vera.squirrelism.net/cin.php
Comment added: June 9th, 06 @ 9:06 amoh wait… now I notice, there’s a slight misalignment in the header image, at the top. With my resolution 800×600px, it’s above the ‘m’ in domain. I’m using Internet Explorer 6.0.2
Comment added: June 9th, 06 @ 9:07 am^ Yeah, I know about the alignment problems. It’s being a pain in the arse.
Comment added: June 9th, 06 @ 9:19 amYou need something that really reflects the… er, someone else used a good phrase, “prickly humour”… yeah, that’s it. You need something to reflect the prickly humour of your site. I’m thinking something along the lines of a PC mouse with little devil’s horns or something. Since you’re pretty Web-oriented it makes sense to have something computerish for a logo. Sassiness + Web = Jem. Good luck; I like the idea of having a logo for your site. I might do the same if I ever churn out a design I like.
Comment added: June 9th, 06 @ 1:14 pmI like the little changes you did! It doesn’t look like much, but it “refreshed” it a little.
Comment added: June 9th, 06 @ 2:48 pm