If you’ve been here before, you’ve no doubtably noticed that the site looks a fair amount different today. I got into another one of my moods where the site design was just buggin me.
I haven’t had the time to design a new WordPress theme from scratch yet, so this is actually just another variation on the default theme. It’s not the most efficient use of code, but it will work for now.
I’ve wanted to go darker for a while now, so I decided to take the plunge. I’m still tweaking it, but it’s about 90% done. What do you think?
Looks like it’s Halloween around here Paul, maybe change the orange link colors and make them a matching blue maybe?
Well, as you know, both from the mail I wrote you, and from my blogpost (three minutes prior to yours, I might add,) I absolutely love it!
One thing I notice, as I’m writing the comment, is that the preview field seems to overlap the submit-button as it reloads… (In Camino 1.0, MacOS X 10.4.5 at 1280×1024) This causes the bottom of the button to flicker everytime I type a new letter…
Interesting… I looked at it in Camino 1.0, 1280×1024, 10.2.6, and didn’t see what you are describing. I can’t imaging the slight difference in OS version would make a difference. Those kinds of things just bug me.
New design is nice but i prefer the older one
I love the new look. A little too dark for me, but I like it. Maybe a grey, I’m not sure.
I’ll agree with the orange. I LOVE orange, but it seems out of place here. I’m a sucker for nice black pages.
I think the whole layout is kind of.. tight, to be honest.
The link-color doesn’t fit the design really well. It’s too contrasty, IMO. Personally, I would’ve used a light form of blue for the link colors, as Laurence mentioned. And perhaps a more dark orange color for hovering.
The header is.. just a standard OSX-background with some text thrown on it at a random place with a power-button placed next to it? The background is too blurry too, I think.
Pardon for the critique sounds somewhat destructive. I don’t really mean to sound destructive, I usually give construcive critique.
I actually prefered your old design better :\
Thanks for the comments so far… don’t worry about saying you don’t like the new design… I can take it ;)
For everyone who said use blue for the links, you are correct in that blue does go very well. In fact, I started with blue. But, I found it to be a little too bland for what I wanted for this go-around. I wanted to add some bold color, and the added contrast was by choice. I like the orange, so it will be staying… at least for a while.
Frozenlime – With exception to the width, the header image is identical to the previous design. I didn’t quite understand the “blurry” comment or the “?”. The “power-button” is what I’ve always used as my logo. Also, I think you may have meant to say the layout is NOT tight. The term “tight” generally refers to a design that all the pieces work well together. I didn’t get the impression you thought that was the case here. :)
Again, thanks for the comments, and keep them coming. I probably won’t change anything based on the comments because I like the new design (obviously). No offense, but in this case… mine is the only opinion that matters… but I’m still curious to hear what people have to say. :)
I like it but i’d get rid of the orange links and make it blue or white, one or the other. It does feel a little like Halloween here, lol. Besides that i love the darkness!
Wow… Updating the OS acutally got rid of the button-problem..! As by magic!
Though I feel sort of alone here, I actually like the orange links… Blue would make it too… corporate…
I Would probably have gone for something else on the footer, though… Kind of blends with the background a little…
Come to think of it, though… This isn’t my favourite of your designs afterall… I actually liked that really old one, with the OSX-window on top… You wouldn’t happen to have a screenhot or someother of that laying around, would you?
Thanks, I like the orange too :)
Strangely, I just tried it again in Camino, and now I see the flicker !?! It looks like it is some kind of intermittent bug.
I don’t have a screenshot, but I still have the theme. I just tried to run it under my local install of wordpress and it wouldn’t render properly. I’m not sure why. If I get it running I’ll post a screenshot.
Thanks!
Hard to read.
This uber subtle contrast is killing me, I need to make everything bigger, I hate making type bigger.
i like it a lot!
I loved your old design but I also love this one too :) I think the dark colours and the orange is great! Keep up the good work :D
I know you just said you aren’t changing it, but I’m not a fan of the orange either. :(
Paul, only thing I miss is the wider format. I’m lucky enough to have one of those 24-inch WS Dell monitors and now its extremely thin. I’ll cope tho. Love the color scheme.
Hehe… it’s an optical illusion. The stories are actually slightly wider now, than they were before. It just looks thinner because the “edge” is closer. ;)
I think maybe if you put a hint of orange in the header (as text?), that it would help to make the site ‘tighter’ (if you look at the bottom of the site where the footer is – which has orange and blue in it, it seems more cohesive. If you translated that to the header in some fashion, I think things would look a lot better)!
Orange and blue are complementary colours, so it certainly all works together – in a bold way. I am also a fan of the darker look! It’s what I would go for! :)