I was thinking about the same when i was setting up my new site, because i saw a few very simple designs without any logo. So i just added that “square-speech-bubble” to the name and there it was, simple but kinda not so easy to forget since you can associate that site to something, it is not just a name to remember.

Maybe do something like that with your top navigational link? Like giving “Upstart Blogger” a yellow box so it stands out a lil’?

Regards,
Manuel

Heh, good that you didn’t take the pee-pun the wrong way :)

But one thing is really bothering me here: When i came back today to see if you have replied, i had a hard time to find the actual link to the topic. I was hovering above the correct one, but then i did not click, simply because it was below the excerpt. I like the look of it, but it is confusing.

I would put the “Welcome to Upstart Blogger” in the yellow “in your face”-bar and let the four (!?) girls do the advertising work for that hosting thing.

I get this error on this page fyi:
unterminated string literal
http://www.upstartblogger.com/?live-comment-preview.js
Line 101

What if the yellows were set to a background color for links rather than underlines; like highlights with a marker. A repetition/reflection of the “highlight bar”… ?

I can see the yellow clearly on my Mac but I agree that it could go a shade or two darker. I might change it for a more golden tone, nothing too orange though. It’s not set in stone. I just want to make sure that only one color is used and that it is only associated with links, making them absolutely obvious.

As for the layout, the highlight strip at the top will be used for important announcements and special offers. Other highlight blocks will appear in the sidebar and in the main content window as the design spreads out. Hopefully that will add more color interest.

One of the most common complaints received by email was that the archives were only available on the index page. So, to aid navigation the monthly and category archives are going to be dropped to the footer and displayed inline.

Finally, I haven’t ruled out the idea of a header graphic. I’ve already ported the theme in another color, with a dark background, light text with a very subtle drop shadow, and a header graphic to another blog I’m redesigning (part of a wider project – more information soon). The header graphic sits under the second line of text and before the highlight bar. It works and got me thinking – does Upstart Blogger need a graphic header after all?

The only critique I have, maybe make the yellow a couple of shades darker. They are a little harder to notice on a bright screen with tired eyes…

And the top level links, followed by the description line, then yellow box,
then main text, it all looks a bit confusing to me.

But i kinda like it, very curious how the finished theme will look like.

Nice work!