The Institute is a global community of scholars and researchers. One goal of the redesigned site is to elevate photos of this community throughout the experience. Because the work the Institute supports and produces will no longer be divorced from those who create it, it’s important that avatar photos be entered in Craft for all users.
Individuals’ avatars will (for the most part) appear on their profile pages as well as part of the full, alphabetized list of experts on the Experts page.
Avatars may also appear on:
- Video Details if the user is the interviewer or interviewee
- Blog Articles if the user is the author or is featured
- Young Scholars Initiative if the user has published recent YSI news
- Event Details and Speaker listings if the user is speaking at an event
- Partnership Details if the user is involved
- News Details if the user is featured
- Paper Details if the user is an author
- Conference Session Details if the user is featured/moderating/introducing/discussing
- Grant Details if the user is a leader
- Research Program or YSI Working Group Details if the user is a leader
- YSI Working Group Details if the user is an expert on a similar topic
- Education, if the user is an expert in Teaching Economics
- Course Details if the user is an instructor
- E-book Details if the user is an author
- Curriculum Material Details if the user is an author
- Search Results if the user matches the query
And, avatars for individuals with Notable Profiles will be elevated to the following pages:
- Homepage (3 manually selected)
- About (5 randomly selected)
- Ideas & Papers (1 randomly selected based on the featured topic)
- Blog (1 manually selected, 3 randomly selected based on recent authorship)
- Community (3 randomly selected)
- Experts (5 randomly selected)
- Explore by Person drawer (5 manually selected)
Stylistically, these avatar photos always appear in black and white, enclosed in a circle.
Individuals with Notable Profiles appear the largest on the site and are always displayed on a dark cream field.
If no photo is available, the individual’s initials will appear in a color-filled circle.
Preparing assets
- Orientation: Square
- Size: 450px wide by 450px tall if available, otherwise at least 225px wide by 225px tall.
Guidelines
- Adjust levels and positioning of the individual in the square format in Photoshop. Higher contrast photos will translate better.
- When you’re ready to save out the JPEG, hide the red layers and make sure the layer you’d like to export is in view. If your photo is between 225-450px and you’re using the 450px template, crop the canvas in a square to the size of your photo.
- Select File > Save for web. When you’re ready to save out the JPEG, select File > Save for web, and save out at quality 60. “Optimized” and “convert to sRGB” should be checked.
- Upload the full-color photo. The black and white treatment and circular enclosure will be applied automatically.
- For a more conservative look, scale the photo so that the neckline is still visible and center the individual in the square.
- For a more artistic look, scale the photo so that the photo is just a headshot. You can also experiment with off-centering the photo here and cropping some hair. This treatment is most effective if the individual is not looking directly at the camera or is positioned straight-on.