Redesigning the Church

I've been telling myself for months now that the Church of Maasa's design needs a bit of an overhaul, but I'd never actually gotten around to doing anything about it. The old design was simple enough that it worked, but it also happened to be pretty ugly.

But Blogger have recently unveiled their new layout designer, and so this morning I spent a few hours playing around with various templates. Before long, I had unwittingly created a layout that worked quite well - the one which you see before you now.

All that remained was to replace the old header. Like the skin itself, the old header was incredibly simple, but also incredibly ugly. It was something that I'd just thrown together in an hour or so when I first made the blog. So that had to go too. Now, I'm no graphics designer - if I were, I would have done a better job the first time, so I enlisted the help of my friend Liamers who has long been my go-to guy for graphics. He made all the headers I've ever used on my other blog, Berryz Kyuuden. He also made many of the forum signitures which I've used over the years (though, incidentally, not the current "L♡VE" one, which was made by myself). I guess it's fair to say that he is one of the few people I trust to do a good job of something as important to me as this blog. And he did an excellent job, at that.

I've had a little feedback so far, and it's been entirely positive. The design is nicer on the eyes, and simply friendlier - a change which reflects the changing attitude of the Church from the totalitarian do-or-die to the more open accepting religion that we find ourselves a part of today. Fundamentalism is still very much an aspect of the Church, but at the same time, changing attitudes towards H!P and our alliances with the Captainist Party mean that we can no longer be solely about promoting Maaist Idealism through simple offense, but also through cooperation and collaboration. And we needed a new look which reflects this change for the better.

The reality is that changes are coming... They must come, and we all must share in bringing them.

5 comments

Okay. I'm back (for 3 days), and I LOOVE the new design <3

Maybe we could also join forces with Eternity? I can contact ArielSoul for that, its a group that tries to spread H!P - love and fandom.

I wonder what the changes will be.

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Nice work.
The new layout and design *are* easier on the eyes.
Plus it really does look homier - a good reflection of L'Entente Cordiale and the Church's new alliance the people.

I also like the new header. Some of my favorite of Maasa's recent pictures, plus the Church's logo carefully sneaked in.
Kudos to Liamers as well.

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The last line doesn't actually refer to any specific changes. It's actually a paraphrase of a famous quote by John Hersey.

I imagined Garlix might pick up on it, given his own penchant for obscure quotes and references, but I wasn't really sure if anyone else would get it.

Anyway, it refers more to the changing attitude of the Church toward the more cordial. For the time being I'm quite content with the new layout, and I doubt there will be much change to it for the time being.

As for Eternity, I'm not familiar with them or what they do. But if you think it a good idea to affiliate with them, then go ahead and contact ArielSoul. :)

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Okay, I will.

Eternity is a new group that is formed by H!O members. Our first actions are promoting, like handing out flyers or leaflets with links to websites, music videos, etc. If one made a Maasa flyer, it would do good for both the Church and Eternity :> We try to make H!P popular in non-japanese countries.

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Haha, well I do love the idea of people handing out Church of Maasa flyers on the streets. :p

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