27
02/09
Twitter Background: My point of view
Posted in Curah Rasa, Curah Ide, Design, Internet, Tips&Trik, BloggingIn the past 1,5 years until today I’ve been using Twitter as one of my social-networking or micro-blogging tools on the internet. Honestly, for me (and for others thousand people I believe) Twitter is the best micro-blogging tool in the universe that actually can revolutionary change the way you think and the way you act, both in the internet life and actual life. There’s so many interesting things around Twitter, beside the chat, useful links, friendship and so many many amazing things on Twitter, there’s one thing that related to kind of visual thingy, the thing that always be my interest, oh and it’s my primary job actually related to visual 
that thing is: Twitter profile background.
Instead of discussing about technical issues like ‘how to make a Twitter background’ or ‘what size is the Twitter background’ or something like that, I’ll addressing more into the concept of background itself as a one of the visual element, that I believe, need more attention to it. I’ve seen so many kinds and so many people doing customs on their Twitter profile background. One thing that also interesting, there’s a website that compiling and showcasing a lot of great Twitter profile background. Day after day looking on different kinds of Twitter background, either on my Twitter followers profile background or from the many Twitter background showcase websites, it has pushed me to write some of my own notes about what the best way to designing our own Twitter profile background. On this notes, I’ll give some example on people’s "common mistakes" about the Twitter background. Mmm, but i’m not trying to tell you that I have the best Twitter background. No. Even my background is far from perfect tho
So, here we go…
1. It’s about "Twitter Background", but let’s focus on the second word: Background.
As a part of visual element, the definition about "background" as I noted from Wikipedia is "the part of a scene that appears to be farthest from the viewer". Let’s highlight the word "farthest" for a while and keep it in mind. On the other side, as an opposite of background, there’s also a visual element called "foreground", which I believe, the definition of "foreground" is the other way from the "background" definition. The background should be treat as a BACKground and should not be treat as FOREground. It means, the background should not much attractive than it’s foreground. Why? because it’s BACKground (remember the word "farthest"), and we should consider that the background is ‘later’ than foreground. Without saying the background is less important, sorry to say, but foreground is much more important. Why? Let’s see the illustration below.
Commonly the foreground (and it should be) containing a main/primer object(s) of information such as text(s) or image(s). These primary element (foreground) is the main thing that should be seeing first by eyes rather than the background. The background is a supporting element and the good background should (errr, MUST) help this foreground to be more visible/stand out. The background is far and foreground is near. Back and Front. Simple isn’t? I’ve seen so many people lost on it’s meaning of background and they applied misconception about background on their Twitter profile background.
2. Do you see a redundant?
"Why should I read your name twice? Why should I read your website URL twice? Why should i read your bio or your interested things twice? and why should i see your ugly avatar twice? 
" — (Keep open the illustration above)
We should thanks to Twitter that have been so nice to give us a certain area that can be fill up with our personal information on the sidebar. In my humble opinion, use it properly! so we don’t need to repeat the information again on our background. I still believe that the best twitter background is contain other informations, literally or visually, that could not be delivered by the default Twitter information sidebar.
I planned to make a great Twitter background, but it ended with dizzying people that came to my profile.
More crowded, more visible, more eye-catching, but keep in mind that it’s just a BACKGROUND.
3. Your Twitter profile background is not for yourself, it’s for your next thousand potential followers! (to catch your unique personality)
Yes, custom things make it more personalized, but it doesn’t mean "WTF with people says". Of course the Twitter background is the area that we can customize to match with our brand personality. It show who we are, sometimes it also show what we capable for (your particular skills; maybe on art, design, photography, business or it can be anything). But trust me, you’ll never look at your twitter background twice and sure neither your followers, but for other people, first look on your Twitter background is the most crusial part for them to seeing you as a unique person and it will end up with how people will decide to follow you or not to follow you (yes believe me, that’s one of the visual power that sometimes people could not realize that visual capability).
People these days are getting sharpen and more aware to visualize and to show their unique brand personality, even if they’re not visual designers, i’ve seen so many Twitter background that well-done designed and have a strong personality, but in many cases they’d missed about the basic background-foreground concept. Redundant information on background also another thing that always make me unpleasant because the Twitter profile page it self is already crowded with the tweets timeline.
You can agree, but in the other side you could disagree with this issue I’ve written above. So let me hear your thought about it Oh ya, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter! 
. Videonya berdurasi 2 jam, besar file .flv 187MB.. nyam nyam.. sabarrr… :)
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