[Insert "Logo"-related pun title here...]

So, what's the hold up with Cinema for Space Lovers - the Website?

Frankly, nothing anymore.

Not that anyone was exactly clamoring for it, but it has been something important to me for quite some time. Not just a blog, but a legitimate website that I have been long building on which I can, yes, place all of the writing that has thus far been featured here on the Pylon, the Cel Bloc and on Spout (but not any longer). Such writing will still be featured here and on the related blogs, as there are many things that I rattle on about which have no place on Cinema for Space Lovers. But many of my ramblings do belong there, and in months to come there will be more of an overall push towards that site, as that will increasingly become my chief base of both operations and focus.

And all that was holding me up was a logo.

Right now, and the absolutely main reason that I haven't pushed the Space Lovers site very much (or concentrated on it, really), was that there has existed only a generic banner atop its main page (a banner which resides there even now as you read this... if you are reading this near the date of publication) representing the system upon which the site is being built: Joomla. Hard to want people to visit something that hasn't exactly been graphically branded as yours yet -- hence, the hesitation. And despite the fact that I have gained great experience in HTML and various website design programs over the past couple of years, as far as graphic design goes, I am a nebbish. I only got around out to figuring out how to resize photos for the web on Photoshop properly in the past few months; how am I supposed to design and create my own logo with the sum total of my Adobe program experience basically consisting of the ability to locate the various programs on my computer. It didn't bode well.

But I did have a concept. One which I came up with a while ago, but various delays kept interfering with forward progression. Additionally, I was not yet totally copacetic with my concept, barely conceived and yet to be fleshed out as it was. 

And then, while visiting the Eel for Thanksgiving -- and actually on the plane up to see him -- I came up with the missing piece in my puzzle of contentment. (The biggest missing piece, at least, since I am rarely fully contented with anything I do.) The next morning, while he and Chelz lounged in bed, post-Thanksgiving feasting, I finally decided to crack open Illustrator and see what I could knock out. I was mainly attempting to get a basic design together that would lead to the next step of finding some way to complete the project, either by gaining some experience in the program incredibly fast or by finding outside means. 

To my surprise, even though nothing was connected properly in the way that graphic designers or even laypeople with a modicum of design experience prefer, I did manage to come up with a reasonable enough approximation of my concept that did not leave me upset with my meanderings in the program. In fact, for the experience that I had going in -- which was nada -- I considered my efforts a personal success.

But where to take it? Luckily, not only does my brother M'Otis do things like this for a living, but I was going to be visiting him for the Xmas holiday weekend, mainly because it was to be the celebration of his 40th birthday. What better way to spend that time than knocking out a logo banner or three for his older brother? What better present to give? Apparently, there is nothing better, and he dove into taking my rough attempt and transformed it into an actual design, the likes of which you probably noticed when you looked up this page just now. Or hopefully you noticed it. 

The same design appears on the Cel Bloc and should be up on my Joomla site in a matter of days, with the wording changed appropriately for each varied title. I chose to go with a common look to brand all of them together, rather than give them totally separate looks. I also now have an actual logo -- the C4 projector design - which I can drop into any convenient box onto any other project with which I am affiliated, to brand everything there with the Cinema 4 stamp more easily.

And that's the next step. It seems small upon its completion, like it was nothing at all, but it actually took months of fretting and discomfort. I suppose that if I were a more assertive person design-wise, and more prone to launching into unknown programs with an eye towards mastery over them, I might have gotten this done a long time ago on my own. But I have so much else I have been working on, it just didn't happen.

But that was a possible past, and now I am only about possible futures, such as we all confront on a day such as today, which we hope represents new beginnings and a happy new year to come. For me, now comes the time to dive whole-heartedly into getting Cinema for Space Lovers up and running properly and smoothly. Wish me luck, if you are so inclined. Luck or not, I have no choice but to move ahead...