Finally, Artwork for Our Blog Site

I started this blog site in March 2009 to document some of my experiences as an at-home dad as well as share some of the things we do as a (play)group. I constantly asked the dads in the group for feedback about the blog. What do you want to see more of? Less of? What can I do better? What enhancements can I make?, etc.

Quite a few dads said that it looked “too corporate.” After looking at several blog sites, I noticed many of them had catchy titles & cool artwork. Well, we don’t have a very catchy title. I figured the simple title (NYC Dads Group) would enable dads in NYC to find us. Therefore, I was left with setting out to find some cool artwork for the masthead logo (now at the top of our website).

As a teacher in the Bronx (my previous job), I was fortunate to participate in a partnership program with the Guggenheim Museum called Learning Through Art. The students in my classroom worked closely with a resident artist (an art expert) each week to create a culminating project that gets displayed in the museum. An amazing experience for 12-year-old kids in the Bronx! Our resident artist was a talented & inspiring teacher as well as a known children’s book illustrator – Jeff Hopkins. Consequently, I knew exactly who to call upon for help with the creation and design of artwork for this blog’s masthead banner. After a few months of exchanging ideas, we finally had what I was looking for – a drawing that captured the essence of our dads group – involved fathers spending quality time with their kids in NYC.

Jeff’s artwork was almost exactly what we were looking for. It needed some additional “pop.” Many thanks to one of our own members, Frank Benavides, for using his graphic design expertise, and providing the extra “pop” to the artwork that it required.

As usual, I would appreciate any feedback on the new masthead logo design for our blog site. Positive? Negative?