The new banner was designed to achieve four goals:

1. Make sure the blog was immediately recognizable as Canadian.
2. To eliminate the potential problem with making the word "white" white.
3. To maintain a certain level of professionalism and maturity to the look.
4. The freshen things up a bit.

So the banner you see now is what my art-challenged self came up with. The maple leaf, the black background in keeping with the basic black-and-white colour scheme, the simple font minus the problematic colouring used in previous designs, the red from the flag carrying through -- clearly I have no clue. Ah well. I suppose giving me Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop and expecting art is like giving a monkey a dictionary and hoping he'll come up with a great novel.

Be that as it may, what's new in the banner? The star is not a random design element. In fact, it's not even a random star shot. The star in the banner is Polaris, the North Star:

Polaris, The North Star, SAO 308

Polaris is a lovely yellow star with a fine deep yellow companion. One of the most important stars in the sky because of its proximity to the North Celestial Pole less that 1/2 a degree away. Polaris is also a type of Cepheid Variable star called a W Virginis Cepheid or Type II Cepheid Variable.

I know lots of folks (mostly Liberals) thought it was corny but I liked that reference from the Throne Speech:

Like the North Star, Canada has been a guide to other nations; through difficult times, Canada has shone as an example of what a people joined in common purpose can achieve.

And what's conspicuous by its absence? Joe the Beaver, the long-time icon for Angry in the Great White North. He's not gone, but right now I don't know where to put him. I tried in various parts of the banner, but he always seemed out of place.

I expect I'll find a place for him on the sidebar, perhaps as an anchor image for a contact link.

But really, I'm looking for opinions. How important was Joe the Beaver? Is the new logo too radical a departure? Is the North Star thing silly?

Update: OK, I put Joe back in, and inside the maple leaf as several people of suggested. If it doesn't work, I can revert it back quickly enough. What I've done is fade him back and reduce him to just shades of red. Now he just a shadow of sorts, instead of in your face. Give me some feedback. Does his merge well, or is his jarring?