DomDotCom

My Site Icon

A site icon serves the purpose of representing a website by a simple logo. With every tab you open, a new icon is there to help you recognize the different sites. For mine, I put “DL Creations” with a smaller monogram underneath. I wanted to something that was easy to spot while also having something connected to me.

How it was Made

I used Canva to help create my designs. Canva gives different options and tools to help create images or in this case, logos for free. When making my designs, I wanted to incorporate colors from the website, so I used blues and greys primarily. First, I started with the background; to create a more vibrant, bold logo I decided to use a gradient color rather than a regular color. Next, I went into signatures to get a different font for the logo and then used a textbox for the monogram. Lastly, I wanted something that was going to centralize everything but not be generic so I used a gear cog to create a border. After that, all I had to do was download it as a PNG image to preserve the image quality and then import it into WordPress.

My File Type

For the site icon, I chose to use a vector file type as they can be altered in terms of size and not lose quality. This allows vector images to get used on multiple ways from creating multiple websites under the same domain name to creating personalized letters or business cards.

My Header

The header is one of the first impressions of your site when someone visits your site. It is important to have something that captures the audience. When creating my header, I wanted to do something that brings my site together; from my tagline, my site logo, my colors, and overall, something that would be simple yet clever. So, I used my initials again but instead of just using regular text, I decided to use my tagline literal as I aligned my initials with stars and put the tagline on the moon. Something that I felt fit the overall color story of my site as well as something clever to tie everything together.

How I Made It

For my header, I also decided to use Canva. Once I determined my dimensions, I filled the background with a dark navy again, to continue the color story. Then, I used the shapes to fill the corner to resemble the moon. I added the stars to create my initials and then added my tagline in the moon. Then, I uploaded it as a PNG as I wanted to maintain the image quality then put it into WordPress.

Sources

Canva

Copyright and My License

Copyright is the legal protection of creative work. It gives the owner control over how their work is to be used. Nothing online is free and when using a form of media that was created by someone else, it is important to give that creator credit even if it happens to be copyright free. There is also media that is considered protected where a fee must be paid to have full access to the picture or video. If not, many forms of media leave a watermark or lower the quality of the media to protect the creator’s work. There are ways to still get media to use without worrying about copyright restrictions. Public domain works offers media that is free for public use, but it is still important to credit those who created said media. For my license, I decided to use “all rights reserved” for my website to protect my work and prevent it from being recirculated without my permission.

Using Someone’s Work the Right Way

Attribution is known as the practice of giving credit to original creator of any form of content. Using attribution is important as it’s transparent and gives the necessary credit to original creator. Most creators will let others know how they would like to be credited or if they even want their work reused. The actual process of giving credit is very simple as seen through the images shared. DKC Free Media Resources is a resource that now I have access to so I can add pictures or videos to add to my posts.

My Online Person

Why am I Here?

When I think of who I am as a person, I would be cutting myself short if I didn’t include my online identity. Every post, every account, and every project is all a representation of me. My entire life I’ve always liked the idea of creating some form of content or entertainment as it’s been something I’ve always admired from other people have that platform Whether it’s a TikTok page, a YouTube channel, or a blog page being able to post something that you’re passionate about or able to communicate well and to have an audience for it is a surreal thing to me. Being able to have my own website gives me a chance to live that out for myself. Projecting my thoughts and creative thinking gives me more control of my identity and who I am.

What Am I Leaving Here?

Part of having a presence online is understanding that everything that you do, is part of your digital footprint. Being a creator gives people the power to influence others from what they create and publish. Increasing that influence requires improving your online presence and staying active through your platform. Learning more about the importance of having digital footprint gives me perspective on improving my online identity. The Pew Research Center helped further my understanding on how what we share can affect how people view us.

The Name Decision

I chose dominiccreatess because it identifies me by my name and gives me a simple yet easy way to also show that I’m creating content. It doesn’t limit my website to do one specific thing I can blog, record, experiment, or make a new form of content that hasn’t been done before. I wanted something that gave me free reign to make whatever I feel is right for me.

What’s Next for Dominiccreatess?

Having a domain gives me a chance to figure out what I can do and who am I on the internet. My identity has been building ever since I first created an account and I’m looking to improve it. The more I learn and create, I can make my website into something recognizable; something that can create legacy at some point. With time and technology continuing to improve, so will my ideas and thoughts of creativity.