Going Solo

Finally! As I mentioned, the logo/branding/design aspect of Going Solo is proving more of a headache than I anticipated. I really really wanted to have it all sorted out for LIFT08, but that’s unfortunately not going to happen.

However, we do have something for you. We’ve been asked for stuff to show off on blogs wishing to promote Going Solo (which we’re very happy about), so we went and created some. Thanks to Carlos, who did all the hard work on the first version of these badges while I complained that it should be “more like this” and “a little like that”, and to Steph who came up with what you see below. There are two widths (180px and 150px) to accommodate various styles of sidebars, and also in compact form if you prefer something smaller.

Please hotlink to these images by copy-pasting the code provided.

<a href="http://going-solo.net/"><img src='http://climbtothestars.org/files/going-solo/going-solo-badge-180px.gif' alt='Going Solo conference for freelancers, May 16th, Lausanne (Switzerland).' /></a>

<a href="http://going-solo.net/"><img src='http://climbtothestars.org/files/going-solo/going-solo-badge-150px.gif' alt='Going Solo conference for freelancers, May 16th, Lausanne (Switzerland).' /></a>

<a href="http://going-solo.net/"><img src='http://climbtothestars.org/files/going-solo/going-solo-badge-180px-wide.gif' alt='Going Solo conference for freelancers, May 16th, Lausanne (Switzerland).' /></a>

<a href="http://going-solo.net/"><img src='http://climbtothestars.org/files/going-solo/going-solo-badge-150px-square.gif' alt='Going Solo conference for freelancers, May 16th, Lausanne (Switzerland).' /></a>

Carlos is also responsible for putting together the image file that graces the back of the Going Solo Moo cards that I’ll be carrying around with me at LIFT. Come and ask me for one when you see me!

Going Solo doesn’t have any branding yet. This is a standard WordPress.com design, which is preventing this site from being all naked until the branding is ready (normally, I’m told, this should be the case in roughly two weeks).

Now, in the meantime, I would like to be able to provide the nice people helping promote Going Solo with a pretty banner or badge to use on their blogs as fast as possible. So, here’s the dilemma: do I get something “quick and dirty” done (there is also some printed material I want to order… yesterday — LIFT will be here soon, you see), and have the “visual identity” of Going Solo change at some point, or wait?

What do you think?

PS: any standard dimensions out there for sidebar banners/badges?