I was dismayed to discover that, upon adopting the new Twitter layout, a good portion of my background was obscured. As soon as I felt that dismay, I stopped to wonder why I should feel dismay.

Why should I be attached in any way to a Twitter background?

For more than a year and a half, my Twitter background was a single photo of Trafalgar Square’s fountains. Nothing fancy, but not something anyone else had. Over the summer, it occurred to me that my background should tie in with my “personal brand.” So I picked up my Color Index book (crack for designers of any kind), picked out a color palette (the same one I used for my magazine prototype, as a matter of fact) and designed a large dot motif, with a list of my self-styled titles (“student, editor, writer … ” ) on the left and a line of travel photos on the right.

Sadly, the new Twitter rendered my design visually obsolete. Rather than design a new background (for now, I may go back later and do it), I got on Themeleon and picked out a color palette and design (arygle) for my new Twitter profile.

While I was messing around with the color tools, I wondered why I was bothering at all. Why not just leave it blue? Most people do. As I looked through my Color Index book to find just the right combinations of colors, it hit me: I was designing my new background for me. I’m the one who will have to look at it the most. And I have a feeling that unless it’s really awesome or really horrible, most people who look at my profile page won’t really care or remember what the background was.

So let that be a lesson as you experiment with new Twitter backgrounds. Pick something that you like and that you won’t get sick of looking at .

And even if you do get sick of it, there are a few million more where that one came from.