A New Look Dodo

Dodo Au Go-Go is suddenly looking a bit different. After many years of plain white, adorned only with a couple of quirky fonts, a bit of a sea breeze has just come through.

The reason for this breeze at this particular time is a bit convoluted but amusing to me, so I'm jotting it down here.

In the spirit of doing everything backwards (what the Aussies would call "arts-end up" - except they wouldn't say 'arts', but you get my drift), now that the Falling into the Five Senses anthology is out, I've been trying to wrap my head about marketing for indie (independent/self-published/self-pubbed) writers. Helpful advice on Twitter from the forever-wonderful Sarah Brentyn pointed me towards the idea that a cohesive identity/brand across platforms is one of the helpful things you can do to make yourself more recognisable. 

This was a kind of first-step marketing task I could cope with. And so I started thinking about making the look of this Dodo blog more connected to my Twitter (and Instagram) profiles. I'd actually been meaning to add a dodo pic to the blog's header for years. But, you know *gestures to giant box of Stuff I've Not Gotten Around To decorated in white elephants* and so it stayed unadorned. 

This was a small but nice, easy, fun one to start with. I could make quick progress on it in the few minutes I get to myself each day. And it would be an easy fix, low-hanging fruit, quick wins, get some early runs on the board, and all other management-speak metaphors.

Step 1: Draw a cute dodo

Surprisingly easy-peasy. Call it a doodle and call the style you're aiming for 'rough' and 'rustic' - and that removes all stress associated with trying to make it perfect. I used my Surface Pro stylus pen and doodled one in Paint Shop Pro. I had to re-learn where to find stuff on Paint Shop Pro, but hey, pretty easy. One dodo doodle, with a lil colourful hibiscus and everything. (Psst, for an explanation of the thing around its ankle, check out my very firstest post ever.)

Step 2: Create a Twitter banner in Canva.

Again, easy. And also, fun. 

Step 2b: Create a matching blog banner in Canva.

Again, easy and fun.

Step 3: Update blog's header. 

Easy-peasy. Go into the Blogger behind-the-scenes stuff and add my dodo to the banner. And Oh. My Gawd. I was taken aback to see how ancient the Blogger back-end is. And clunky. I liked it and found it easy to use - 7-8 years ago! Now, I realise just how much I've gotten accustomed to more sophisticated technologies. Not easy. No Peasy. 

After many, many attempted refinements of my Step 2b banner to get it to fit neatly into the template (steps 3b.1 through to 3b.16, to be precise), I was thoroughly crankified and seriously considering transferring the entire Dodo blog to Wordpress. I didn't take that route in the end, because it's part of the Dodo's history. (And it's also more work. Also if I re-read everything I've written previously while doing a laborious transfer, I'll probably want to re-write/re-edit or just plain delete everything.) 

In the end, Step 4, I changed templates (such a limited number to choose from!), crawled through every single navigable element in the back-end and found a way to get the banner in pride of place. At. Very. Long. Last. 

The only thing I couldn't figure out was how to change the font colour of the 'More Posts' gadget at the bottom of the page. It's stuck on white. And this white font is the main reason the overall background is aqua-ish and not a more neutral colour. To make sure that 'More Posts' link stays visible. 

And then. The original background colour for my banner wasn't quite working with the aqua. So. Step 5a. I changed the banner background to a more matching lagoony one. Which meant, Step 5b, I also then had to update the Twitter banner background to match. Fortunately again, canva made these two steps easy.

It's (mostly) funny to realise that the aesthetics of my blog colour choices had to play second fiddle to clunky old technology. Oh well. C'est la vie. And la vie-ntage. 

And to be fair, the colours work well with the banner and they add to my Dodo's lagoony vibe here and on Twitter. 

Notice how my Twitter banner includes a little image plug for the Falling into the Five Senses antho? And notice how the blog and Twitter banner colours are taken from the antho cover? I thought it was a nice subtle sledgehammer nod homage.

Done in five-and-a-bit steps over a couple of weeks. A new vibe that's a bit whimsical, quirky and playful. They're ways of being that are important to me. Even if I forget - or especially when I forget.

So there you go! Welcome to my new-look Dodo Au Go-Go seabreezey, tropicaley blog 😃