A new design
I’ve always found designing for myself pretty damn hard, and this time was no exception. What colours, what logo, what style of site? It is a lot easier for me working with someone else or for someone else’s site. Still, I did enjoy it, it’s nice being able to take a bit more time and experiment with things when there is no set deadline.
Colo(u)rs
I wanted the option of several colours, for further branding I may create, such as business cards. When I started playing about in Illustrator, I used pink and couldn’t take my eye off it. Then I added a light blue, a dark blue and a brown. Although I haven’t used the brown much on this site, it is a lovely colour on its own which I’m sure I’ll exploit further at some stage.
And from the brown came another set of colours which in the end I decided against for my primary style, but I think I will offer it as alternative stylesheet at some stage.
Logo
At first I wanted a little graphic in the logo but after a lot of time spent messing about, nothing suited. That’s when I incorporated the ‘web design’ into the logo. Because I have a long surname, it looked a bit funny on its own but now (I hope) the logo is balanced.
Fonts
So I knew what I wanted but what font? Again, more hours spent looking at fonts online and in books. In the end went for MgOpen Modata.
On the site, I had planned on using the same font for all headings but after some initial design feedback, it was suggested that it was a bit overkill. They were right.
So for headings I’m using Myriad Pro which I love, and for normal text, I am using Lucida Grande.
Hey, Safari users, could you do me a favour, if the headings are in Trebuchet, could you let me know? On my version of Safari (PC), the headings are in Trebuchet. I really don’t know why. Ideas?
Site design
I wanted something minimal but also with some colour. The skyline in the footer was created with Illustrator and I also drew a little Twitter bird, but sadly he (or she) was culled as the design went along.
Again, because it is my own design, I have gone back and forth on so many things and I am not 100% settled on the homepage layout.
But like any site, it will evolve and I will be changing little bits here and there as I go along.
I don’t want to bore you any longer with a redesign post but if you come across any issues (possibly letter-spacing) or browser bugs, please leave a comment below.
The future
The plan is to get more articles written and explore ExpressionEngine more, and probably do a redesign.
Unitl then, there are still a few minor issues to sort out, but they lie with ExpressionEngine, which I will definitely be blogging about soon.