Every time we tackle a new website project, we use our years-upon-years of accumulated design prowess to carefully craft the perfect primary panel for your homepage.
Whether you call it a banner, a header, a hero, or a masthead, this area falls at the top of the page and is undoubtedly the most important piece of real estate on your new site – serving as the visual anchor of your online presence. It’s the friendly face that greets all newcomers… just like that very nice doorman at the beginning of Dunston Checks In.*
It makes perfect sense. The banner is the first thing that establishes your brand and legitimizes your business or organization. If the design and appearance is anything less than professional, you run the risk of losing points with your audience, right along with their trust. The integrity of your site can go downhill quickly, making your business look sweaty and gross… just like Glenn Shadix at the end of Dunston Checks In.**
It’s In the Details
When it comes to website visuals, the small details make all the difference. We give the top section of your homepage the utmost love and attention, combining killer photography, color, graphics, and illustration with the right balance of introductory messaging.
We scrutinize the details because we know this is your chance to impress and win over a website visitor. And y’know, because we’re designers.
It may seem like a small portion of your overall website, but being the first thing people see, the homepage banner carries a lot of weight and sets the tone for their experience.
Photographs In Homepage Banners
When using photography, we make sure it works perfectly with your messaging, fits the aspect ratio of the layout, adheres to your brand, and is totes profesh. We handpick images based on lighting, composition, tonality, depth of field and countless other particulars that would probably bore the heck out of you if we brought it up at a dinner party.
Overall, we want you to look awesome and professional – like a legitimate established business that paid an ad agency to do their marketing.
Oh, wait a second… (record scratch noise).
Let’s Recap
So, all of that being said, we highly discourage the practice of changing your banner yourself. We know you really want to, but let us send a warning… it usually goes from something like this:
To something like this:
The careful design that was created by seasoned professionals may now look like something that was made by your cousin you haven’t spoken to in 15 years because you’re fairly certain he went to jail for setting fire to a car.
Think of your banner as a big giant billboard on the side of a highway. If you paid an advertising agency to design an awesome billboard to grab people's attention, would you climb up a ladder two months later with a bucket of paint and try to re-design it yourself?
No. The answer is no. I really hope you said no to that.
So please, let us give you a hand when it's time to refresh your homepage banner. Trust us. We're like a team of robots that were specially programmed to make your website as effective and engaging as possible.
*A movie about a monkey living in a posh hotel. Watch it immediately.
** No seriously. Go watch it now. The guy from Beetlejuice is in it.