Here is where I am with our custom banner. (Ignore that weird blue tinge, I think I bumped up the contrast without paying attention to the entire right side of the image. In the final version, you will not be riding into a blue haze, and the lines will be darker and easier to see.)

So here is the banner so far. I do not know anything about CSS, but my hope is that it is like a template, and there will be some sort of placeholder for our banner, so that, once the style sheet is in place, either one of us will be able to update the banner picture when needed, as long as we keep the same dimensions. Maybe if you haven’t had your appointment with Max yet, you can add this to the agenda?

Provided the above is possible, my concept with the banner is that it will be made up of a number of pieces of paper layered over each other, sort of like they are in the picture above, but in a more rectangular alignment that fits at the top of our blog. You will always be on the left, since your name is first, and I will always be on the right. That accounts for two pieces of the paper. In the middle, there will probably just be one big piece of paper that says Carmen+Emile on it. That makes three visual elements, with a plain white background (that is not just white space but really scanned drawing paper.) To play off the simplicity and minimalism of our theme, I used the silhouette style for you and I, and sort of planned on doing all future updates in this style, as long as you like it. The Carmen+Emile title can be either computer-type or drawn on the paper – do you have any preference?

Some things to consider:

• This banner plan currently does not have any color. is this okay, or do we want some color up here?
• If we keep the individual elements (you, me and the title) as layers in Photoshop, we can update any part as needed without changing the whole thing. My idea was that anytime we have a banner-worthy event, I can make a new drawing for you or I. For instance, in this one, the idea is that you are riding your bike in San Francisco and I am walking by the beach in Santa Barbara. Since they’re just pencil drawings, they only take a few hours (although drawing that bike was kind of a bitch, so I hope you like it! Plus, I know it is too small to see it now, but I gave you cute little kitten heels and Maggie Ward satin charmeuse sweatpants to glam up your ride!)
• The picture above is a work in progress. I need to fix your waving hand, the palm trees behind me need some work, and I thought about adding the edge of the Golden Gate bridge behind and to the left of you. If you think that is too cliche, I can do something else – any suggestions?
• Once we’re tired of this current banner, I wouldn’t mind adding a page for previous banners, like a banner gallery.

Okay, let me know if you like where this is going, if you have any suggestions, or if you had something completely different in mind! It will be the first thing we see on the blog, so it needs to be something we’re both 100% satisfied with.

I did a bit of image editing to try to make it look old. (It already looked old because the original picture was taken in 1998 with a camera that was made in 1972, so I decided to try and enhance the sort of gritty and deteriorated look rather than hide it.)

Rooftop meeting

That was a LOT of scanning, but I am very happy with my new slide scanner. An unexpected bonus: all the tutorial videos are narrated in an incomprehensibley thick German accent, and you know how I feel about German engineering.

This is the project template

Well, the first time it was too large, and now I think it is too small…have to find the optimum size, but my laptop battery is about to diiiieeeeee

To be continued…