Take a look and share your thoughts

The redesign madness has returned and once again I find myself fooling around with a perfectly good design in an attempt to come up with something striking. An hour or so ago I came up with the design pictured below. Click it and you’ll get a full size image so you can see more clearly what I’m talking about.

maybe.jpg

I had hoped that the current design would be around for a long time but my recent success with the Moleskine theme, coupled with some adverse reactions to the changes I’ve already made, took me down a design road lined with centrally aligned text and large serif fonts. I put together a few ideas for some more themes earlier today and began wondering whether or not Upstart Blogger should follow the same stylistic direction.

What do you think?

Am I barking up the wrong tree or is this something worth pursuing as a fresh look for Upstart Blogger?

Categories : Design

14 Comments For This Post

  1. Ian Parker August 1st, 2008 at 6:30 pm

    As I said before, I like the new dark red colour. In the screenshot, I love the font and the layout. To my eyes, it is very readable and attractive, but I prefer serifs. Perhaps it’s not the best feedback, but I like the new design better. Go for it.

  2. Elijah August 1st, 2008 at 6:58 pm

    I really like the centered feel with the date stamp and header, it really draws attention to the post.

  3. wesley August 1st, 2008 at 7:02 pm

    I like it, puts a nice emphasis on the title. Still not sure why you put so much emphasis on the date. (Though putting the month and year lower than the day is a good idea)

    I’m not sure why you are afraid of some more color though, you put the links in black, yet have red underlines. That seems a bit strange.

  4. Allan Cole August 1st, 2008 at 7:24 pm

    I definitely LOVE this new design. A surprising step in the right direction. In my head, Upstart Blogger had seemed to feel like a Sans-Serif. But this really works.

    Did you really figure out a way to get Garamond working in a browser sans SiFR?!

  5. josef stevens August 1st, 2008 at 8:16 pm

    I think the look, like your recent Moleskine theme, does not have the unique punch expected of an Upstart Blogger theme. In my opinion it borders on the sameness of many other themes out there. I like the Underscore theme you use, at least it has a look and feel uniquely Upstart Blogger!

  6. markus August 1st, 2008 at 9:20 pm

    i love the look of the new one!

  7. Amber August 2nd, 2008 at 2:14 am

    I think it’s great with the colors, but I think if you balanced out all the serif font with a sans-serif it would look even better.

  8. wangjel August 2nd, 2008 at 9:58 am

    let the people download they will love it………
    no?

  9. wesley August 2nd, 2008 at 1:37 pm

    Btw, do you really have 17,000 unread emails? :D

  10. paul August 2nd, 2008 at 1:54 pm

    I like the new direction - One comment: R2S2(S) (your robot RSS icon) is still orange. It doesn’t really fit with the new Red Header’s, Dates etc.

  11. Foster Grant August 2nd, 2008 at 3:48 pm

    I think you should make the switch and then hook me up with the current theme. They’re both excellent. Seriously, I want the underscore theme for my blog!

  12. Josh August 2nd, 2008 at 7:23 pm

    Cripes! That’s gorgeous! What’s the typeface—is it some sort of Garamond?

    My concern is that for Windows users who don’t have that typeface installed, it could turn into a what turns up in the garden after a dog has eaten some dodgy prawns; however that could be remedied with a splash of sIFR, and decent use of the CSS font-family property.

  13. Spence August 4th, 2008 at 8:39 am

    Very nice design indeed! Go with it. By the way, does anyone know what the icon to the left of NetNewsWire? Was just being nosy and seen it, cant think of the name though!

  14. tacogirl August 22nd, 2008 at 2:03 pm

    I like the date centered.

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