Hero Picture

[Chanelle Kirksey]

Ilooked down at the person who was once Daniel Quinn. This reluctant hero, infamous for his rage against the machine that controlled motion picture and television industry long-term care, now lay silently. The only noise was the whir and click of the life support system that kept him alive. Because Daniel was part of the group that fought for motion picture and elderly long-term care, I was used to seeing Daniel in hospital rooms and residential care facilities. But not now and not like this.

As a teenager, Daniel traveled to London to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Royal Shakespeare Theatre School at Stratford-Upon-Avon. His pursuit of his art also embraced classical dance. The strict discipline that was required helped to focus Daniel. He refined his talents, and developed a keen sense of timing, affect, and he moved around the stage like liquid. His passion for acting is shown in nearly every role. His compassion for humanity allowed him to reveal facets of a character that lesser actors either ignored or were not aware of. That empathy created a bond between Daniel and his mother, along with all of our parents who were part of a greater community.

Daniel was the campfire that we gathered around. His exuberance was contagious. We warmed our hearts in the glow of his soul. With Daniel, cantankerous was an art form that was fueled by Guinness and diffused in the wee hours of gathering car keys and singing Irish songs.

Had Daniel succumbed to death at the ripe old age of 90, we might still be saying that he left us far too soon. His loved The Green Bay Packers and Irish music. He gave great hugs and would cry with you at your own loss. He was never short on love, and I love him for that. We all do.

The boy was pointing to a black medallion, pasted under the silver foil award marking the 2016 Caldecott Honor and under the gold foil award marking the 2016 Newbery Medal. He was pointing to the shiny black circle that marked the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor, that lists the qualities of peace, non-violent social change, and brotherhood on its emblem.

This narrative pattern of myth and legend has been followed by other characters on journeys. In the literary canon there are many examples such as Odysseus (The Odyssey) and Bilbo Baggins (The Hobbit). The same narrative pattern is seen also in film with Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz and Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars trilogy.

Campbell drew parallels between these journeys of legend in literature and mythology with the journeys that everyday heroes make. He suggested that the everyone in life meets complications and obstacles, but it is the individual who goes through each of the stages and completes them successfully who society regards as a hero of any kind.

In the mono-myth, the hero must make final preparations before taking that final leap into the great unknown. That comes about when the man with the guitar begins to play, and CJ follows the advice of a blind man:

Whether or not you realize it, you judge every website by its visual appeal. And it only takes about 0.05 seconds to form an opinion. That means the hero image (the first photo, graphic, or video people see) has to be eye-catching enough to keep people scrolling the site.

This guide will explain how to level up your website with the perfect hero image, from choosing a graphic inspired by the latest design trends to ensuring your image is the optimal size. We'll also walk through hero image examples to spark ideas for your own website. Get ready for some design eye candy.

In web design, a hero image is the first photo, graphic, illustration, or video people see on a web page. It typically incorporates both an image and text in order to convey a company's core message. Hero images sit above the fold and often feature a call to action (CTA) that encourages people to dive deeper into the website. The goal of this image is to add energy and excitement to a page. You want it to show off your brand's style, share the purpose of your site, and make people excited to explore.

A good hero image can elevate your traffic and conversions by making people want to interact with your site. Animation, carousels, and scroll-triggered effects are ways to flex your creativity beyond typical stock photography. But a bad image can bring down an otherwise great design. Off-brand visuals, large files that slow loading speed, and meaningless copy can ruin the user experience.

One common mistake when designing a hero image is getting the right file size. Too large, your loading speed plummets. Too small, everything looks pixelated. Let's walk through the different hero image sizes so you can create a stunning image every time.

Finding the right aspect ratio and cropping can get confusing when sizing a hero image. Banner hero images aren't the same as full-screen images, and every image has to scale to fit the space. You also have to consider that no one browses in exactly the same way. Personally, my screen is usually zoomed in to 120%, but others may have dozens of tabs open that are all different sizes.

If you need crystal-clear images, or your target audience browses on large screens, you may have to size up to 1,800 pixels. Keep in mind this can result in a large file size that slows down your site.

You can check your loading speed for desktop and mobile with Google's PageSpeed Insights. It gives a comprehensive look at which site content loads first and where there's room for improvement. Aim for a page load time of one to two seconds because you'll likely lose people if it's over five seconds.

Your hero image design must be responsive and fit a vertical (phone) and horizontal (tablet) orientation. Dynamic hero images, like videos, do well on a desktop, but they often have to be swapped out for a static image for mobile. Videos take more time to load, and no one wants to take a massive hit to their data plan just to see your site.

You want to compress your hero image if you have a large file size (anything over 1MB is too big). You can use sites like TinyJPG, Compress JPG, or Adobe's Photoshop Compressor to decrease the size without reducing quality. Just make sure to get the dimensions right beforehand or the image may appear blurred or stretched.

When sizing a hero image, check your Google analytics to see the typical screen resolution of your website visitors. Then, design with that target audience in mind. Just remember to test out your hero image on multiple browsers, screens, and phones to see how it scales. Once you have the dimensions right, it's time to work it into your web page using HTML and CSS.

Creating a hero image with HTML ensures your visual appears on a web page, while CSS makes it look good on a screen. Both require coding skills, so you may need to brush up on your HTML and CSS knowledge or enlist the help of a developer.

Set up two containers for your hero image using the coding conventions of your website. For instance, the first example below uses .hero for the structure and .hero-content for the image, text, and button, while the second uses .image-container and .inner-container.

Once the structure is in place, it's time to personalize your image. Add an image, choose a custom font, craft a header and subheader, and create a button with an enticing CTA. If you want to add a filter to your background image (without applying it to the text), DeveloperDrive recommends including the filter before your .hero-content code.

No hero image is complete without a button that drives people to take action. Incorporate one into your image with the element. Just make sure to include the font-family since the text doesn't automatically translate from the .hero-content element.

Not all hero images have centered text, but most have a centered image. To align your background image, you can make a flex container by incorporating display, justify-content and align-items under your .hero element.

Congratulations, your HTML structure is set! Test out how the image, text, button, margins, padding, and centering look on different screen sizes. If something seems off, comb through your code to see if you can find issues. For detailed instructions on creating and troubleshooting with HTML, check out this article from DeveloperDrive. All look good? It's time to add style with CSS.

While HTML creates order, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) adds flair. It's a rule-based language that complements the HTML elements by applying stylistic effects. For example, CSS lets you turn the text in a hero image header bright yellow so it pops against the purple background.

By including CSS rules, you can develop an image that draws in visitors instead of scaring them away. The above HTML examples include CSS rules, but let's walk through a basic design so you can work it into your own image.

The following template outlines the basic HTML and CSS needed to create a full-screen hero image. You can adjust the style by changing the rules under the .hero or .hero-text elements, like font-family, color, border, or padding-top.

We experience parallax every day when watching cars pass by or walking down the street. It's the optical illusion that makes objects close to us appear to move faster than objects farther away. In web design, parallax uses foreground and background to recreate this effect. The result seems like magic. Just make sure not to overwhelm visitors by incorporating too many moving elements. Simplicity is key here.

Scrolling animation makes participation the goal. A good scrolling animation encourages people to keep scrolling before offering up a unique, engaging experience. Scrolling animations come in a variety of packages and work well across a number of industries, like retail, creative services, news publications, education, and more.

Circles, triangles, stripes, and color blocks are back in vogue. Instead of restricting space and making sure everything is in its place, abstract hero images evoke a sense of freedom and creativity. You can find this trend taking over tech companies and startups, like this example from Zendesk that incorporates video within an abstract semi-circle to keep the design playful.

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