Blog Design Trial

[Rhonda]

I can't believe I'm actually showing this, normally most artist are their own worst critics and I think that at the moment, this looks like utter crap, (but maybe has alot of room to improve). But, I thought I would design a blog look, style. I had my own website once back in like 2001, that I designed using Photoshop and the ancient GoLive. Now, this is just for a bit of practice, I was trying to think of things that I at least had not ever seen out there as far as blogs today go.

So having said that I'm open to thoughts, advice or anything. Be truthful but sincere is all I can ask you. Some points I already was thinking Obviously some better more eye pleaseing font. Also the side bar, maybe for widgets, could be broken up into smaller boxes? Finally do you think the middle should be a solid color field for text to go on?

 

[Mohammad]

Are you a designer????

About the design..

Loose the bevel on the text.

Saturate the background picture so that the toucan and frog stand out..

Loose the outer glow on the boxes...

and about the main content area.. I think it would be hard to read text so I would say go for a full white.

Overall I don't like it sorry

 

[Levi]

Ok I think I can see what you were trying to do.

You've already said the font is bad so thats off the list, look for one with more clarity as the one you've used isn't really that good to read.

The frog's perspective is wrong, it needs to be rotated (3d) into the screen more so its shallower in the viewport.

The toucan is looking off as theres no feet and you can't see the rest of it through the transparent box.

The background image is to strong, it needs to be lightened up in relation to the main scene.

I've attached a (small) screeny of a pixie blog theme (taken from softaculous installer) to give you an idea of a direction I think you could take your current concept but by using more rainforest style plants etc.

click to make bigger

 

[Rhonda]

Very good points! And no need to appologize for not liking it. Everyone's tastes will vary. I will work on it some more. Though I don't want to make it look like a million other blog pages out there but I will still take the advice given here. And I know alot of the ones I've seen on successful blogs do share many of the same design attributes between each other. So there must be something to the design. And there are probably alot of exceptions out there, especially by people who took time to design their own pages.

So for fonts, what makes a good font? Or a good one for a title anyway. Is it just me or is the new hotness is thin, streamlined fonts especially for logos?

 

[br3n]

Rhonda that really doesnt work on any level. you really should take a look at the most sucessful websites around, theyre simple and clean with a clear focus on the content. If you lay any text inside your lighter area (I assume is for text content) you simply wont be able to read it.

Content is king. Especially if its a blog...