What should the new background/theme look like?

Question

As some of you probably know SFF is losing it's lovely star field and practically all elements that make SFF so recognisable when the new theme launches out of beta. After a bit of discussion with @Catija I found out that we can have a custom image back again. So, after asking if this is what we want and with most people saying yes here we are.

What should the new background/theme look like?

Things to consider:

• The background is all one colour and/or image and text on the left nav must be black so any background colour or image needs to account for that.
• The background image can be one of the following options:

  Yeah, we have a few options. We can fade the image, have it repeat indefinitely, or have it appear a single time like on WB. - @Catija, chat message

What is customisable (per my understanding, correct as needed):

• Background colour and image
• Link colour
• Tag colour
• UV/DV button colours
• Ask button colour

Important note

I asked Catija in chat what would be done with our design ideas and this was the response:

TheLethalCarrot: If/when we decide on a theme idea for SFF what will be done with it? Designers take it and use it as is, they make changes, they only use it as inspiration, etc.

Catija: That's really going to depend on... things. So, I'm guessing that what's probably going to be the best is a general idea that the designers can adapt into the theme... the chances of a submitted design being perfect for what we need is pretty low, so I'd focus on finding a concept with some general rough sketches to be implemented by us... this saves y'all time and gives us some flexibility to make it fit the layout.

Catija: What I'd hate to have happen is for someone to come up with something really polished and beautiful that... we can't use... and then y'all won't actually like our version of it any more. A rough concept is going to avoid this issue.

Answer 1

Disclaimer: I'm no artist, as you'll see later on, so this will mainly be a post of ideas rather than any proof of concept.

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The theme should keep as close to the old one as possible. This means make the side bars black and have the star field back again. However, to satisfy the need for the left nav to have black text and so a lighter theme I have three possible options.

Option 1: Extend the planet image

Use the rays coming out of the planet from the banner and extend them so that the blue and red parts extend onto the side bars. An actual version would probably have rays similar to those in this answer, however, as mentioned I am not an artist so you'll have to make do with this:

This could also have something on the right side too but the plain star field is probably fine there.

Option 2: Use the nebula clouds from the footer in the sides more

For those unfamiliar this means more of these things.

So now time for my amazing mock up again:

Again with this option the nebula can be present on the right side too.

Option 3: Use a bigger planet

The planet in the top right corner is already quite detailed and light in places. This can be made bigger, optionally combined with options 1 and 2, so that light parts are now over the left nav. The Angel of Death can then also be placed in the bottom left of the screen similar to how the robot is placed on Worldbuilding.

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For reference the whole planet image looks like this.

Answer 2

tldr; Keep the star field but add a bright element like a star/sun that will act as the background for the left nav.

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How about just using a star-field that has a gradient where it is lighter in the center and fades to stars near the edges? I found one image that is free "No attribution required" and looks ok. There might be other ones out there that would be better.

Maybe not use this exact image but I think it shows the idea of an image that is light in the center but fades to dark at the edges could work.

My favorite out of all my attempts (earlier attempts shown below):

4K:

Laptop (1440):

Tablet:

If you want to try it out and know your way around the developer tools of your browser; use the following settings as the css for the body tag:

body {
    min-height: 100%;
    display: flex;
    flex-direction: column;
    background-color: #E8E8E8;
    background-image: url(https://i.lensdump.com/i/AZloPx.jpg);
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
    background-size: cover;
    background-attachment: fixed;
    min-width: 1279px;
}

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Original image. It looks ok centered and fixed:

And it also looks ok when scaled to ipad (I don't think the background is shown on smaller devices):

body{
    min-height: 100%;
    display: flex;
    flex-direction: column;
    background-color: #000000;
    background-image: url(https://i.lensdump.com/i/AZH3D1.jpg);
    background-position: center;
    background-repeat: repeat;
    background-size: auto;
    background-attachment: fixed;
    min-width: 1279px;
}

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Edit: I think I like it better actually with black & white filter and cropped so the "star" would be behind the left nav. Still not perfect but I don't hate it.

4K:

Laptop (1440):

Tablet:

body {
    min-height: 100%;
    display: flex;
    flex-direction: column;
    background-color: #E8E8E8;
    background-image: url(https://i.lensdump.com/i/AZlK4F.jpg);
    background-position: 0 0;
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
    background-size: cover;
    background-attachment: fixed;
    min-width: 1279px;
}

Answer 3

Here is my idea from the linked post with some updates.

Split SF and F maps. Here is a rough concept to give a general idea.

Pros:

• Reflects both sides of our community
• We can make it light enough to make SO happy
• More personality than a simple 50x50 repeating tile.

Cons:

• We have to find or a make non-copyrighted maps

Answer 4

Just Keep it!

I like the simplicity of how it is. If it isn't broken, don't touch it. Just adjust it to the new size needed.