Well, it’s here! You’ve been waiting for the redesign since January, and it’s finally up!
There are of course some little thing that still need to be worked out, but it’s 90% there. A HUGE thank you and lots of kissies to my husband for his hard work over this past week coding and troubleshooting and keeping me calm while things just wouldn’t work right.
Can I ask you, dear reader, a favor? Can you take a look around and report any bugs or inconsistencies you find? I know about most of them, but especially if you are on a Mac, I could always use a little help. Please leave your OS and browser information.
So?? What do you think? Is it everything you expected?
Not quite my style but you can tell a LOT of work went into this. Congratulations on taking an idea like this all the way through.
Thanks, BTW, for the great series on design basics. I’m just getting into this whole world and really enjoyed that.
There is a white space between the background for the I Learn From… header and the content. The background for the content starts at the third bullet point.
Safari 3.1.1, Mac OS X 10.5.2.
Nice site.
I don’t see any problems with webkit or gecko, so that should be fine.
Small details:
*Blogroll the whitespace is too excessive, I think
*The search button is of by 2px but thats it :-)
and congratulations Lauren
It looks wonderful :)
Congratulations Lauren, your new site design has a very distinct personal style and a great textural quality (I’m thinking back to your recent post about textures in design). I especially like that your blogroll is titled “I Learn From …” - nice touch. I can’t report any bugs but then I’m using Firefox on the Mac so it’s likely to show everything the way it’s meant to look, right?
WoW! I have got uni in like 5mins but Sweet! I will check it out once I get back! (or at Uni)
Congrats on getting the new design up! So many nice details, and the footer is especially nice!
Woohoo! I dig it (that phrase can never be used properly again…).
Oh, I like how the yellow only contains the posts and not the footer. The footer is looking very useful!
I am really impressed with the way you’ve made this style work. Great job. Yay for Jerrol too
I see one teeny weeny little thing on Camino and FF (Mac OS X), to do with the footer bg. See it on my Skitch (I’m testing Skitch out, it’s so cool!) apparently the pic is secret except for those who have the URL, whatever that means. (I can delete it one you’ve had a look, let me know).
Very Nice!
Just one little thing: your favicon (and yes, I’m really nitpicking, sorry!) doesn’t fit in with the rest of the new site.
Still, it’s barely noticeable - I only did because I was bookmarking your site
Congratulations, Lauren! This will really help set you apart now.
One thing I’ll add is that if I didn’t already know the name of your site, I’m unsure if I could make out the ‘curio’ word in the header image. Might be an idea to ask a few others?
Just added you to my delicious, and thanks for the ‘I learn from’ additions. ;)
WoW! Whoa! Bravo! Congratulations, Lauren! You did a superb job with your blog’s makeover, applauds to Jerrol as well.
I love the colours, I feel like I’m in a circus and it’s a magician’s turn to perform his tricks
Are you planning on adding more things to your sidebar, like most popular or recommended posts? I love the footer.
I’d like to see you work more on the comment form area, at least add more space between the first three form fields, and style the borders of all comment boxes.
I’m with David—the “u” in Curio reads more like “v”.
Other than that, I’m loving CC’s new look. Now we should all start submitting your blog to all those CSS galleries. :-)
oh, you haven’t installed AJAX Edit Comments plugin yet?
Just noticed your Uncategorized category, I think you should get rid of it, or rename into something different. :-)
YAY! Love it. It’s really SLOW but maybe that’s on my end? Very lovely though. Congrats!
Wow, this is a great design! It must have taken a lot of work to get it working. I too don’t like the style (I prefer web 2.0), but that’s just my personal opinion. Great job!
It’s looking great Lauren, and very ‘you’!
I love all the handwritten details, but I would agree with David about ‘curio’ not being entirely legible, but only since he pointed it out.
I love the design! It’s very refreshing. Also, major props on the amazing footer.
Lauren, it looks great! I love the hand-drawn touch. I look forward to your future posts.
Thanks for such positive and constructive feedback everyone! I’ve still got quite a bit of polishing to do and you’ll probably notice things improve over time.
Josh C & Josh Drake,
And stop by to comment more often! It’d be great to get to know you.
Thanks for recognizing the work that went into this design, even if it’s not quite your style. I hope you’ll still read the articles in your feed reader even if you disagree with my choice in style
Jacob Degeling,
Thanks for noticing the blogroll issue. I Will look into it.
Esben,
Got your emails. Will take a look at them more in depth in a bit. I agree about the spacing in the blogroll list. Thanks!
Tracey,
Yes, texture is one of those things I’ve been working on in my own designs. I’m very pleased with how this designed turned out! Good to see you’re not experiencing any glaring issues!
Jacob & Randa,
Let me know if you find any problems! Thanks for the compliments
Kristarella,
Still having a bit of trouble with the sidebar repeating graphic extending beyond the footer in some places.
Nathan,
Ah!! Thank you for reminding me! That favicon is actually the default one from my old host and it just got copied over with the rest of my files. You’re totally right, it does look pretty silly and out of place with this design.
David,
Hmm… didn’t notice that about the ‘u’ in Curio before. Maybe I can make the strokes a little thicker to make it more curved at the bottom.
Vivien,
Sorry about disabling Edit Comments. I’ll reactivate it in a bit. Didn’t want to tax my server too much. I also want to add the CommentLuv plugin when traffic dies down. Yes, I actually commented out quite a bit from the sidebar just to launch because I hadn’t gotten it up and working yet. And the comment for needs work, too. Just keep coming back to comment and you’ll see the little details coming together!
Gayle,
The site is pretty graphics intensive, but we compressed them pretty good. Thanks for the mention on your blog!
Aaron,
Thanks for the note on Curio, too. I’m surprised at how many peole are saying it’s a very “me” design. I mean it is, but it seems to be something that people are really picking up on! Thanks!
Jacob Carter,
Thank you!
Blue Buffalo,
Thanks :)
Lovely! Looks great on Windows XP/Firefox 2.0.0.14 — no bugs I can spot. Excellent work! (Love the background image in the comments — particularly cool.)
One typographic suggestion: The site is so aesthetically interesting now that Arial just seems a little blase. How about Trebuchet MS? I know — web safe blah blah blah. Just a thought…
re: the favicon – did you make that one or get it from somewhere, because I saw another site with the same one. I think the little blue sidebar list icons would make a cool favicon.
re: Trebuchet MS – I quite like the letter forms; it’s been used on the projector at church recently and I’ve noticed the kerning is pretty bad. Is it the typeface itself or perhaps Powerpoint mucking things up.
Lauren,
I’m coming in on FF (Mac) and everything looks just fine. Yeah! Good job :-)
Alec,
Ooo, good call. That was supposed to be Verdana, but I’ll see how Trebuchet looks. Thanks for the suggestion!
Kris,
Favicon was the default from my old host. I haven’t quite decided on what my favicon will be yet. I was thinking something with the C, but I’ll see how the blue bullet looks, too.
Cat,
Yay! Thanks :)
Great redesign! This sets your website apart from other designs, well done!
Great content > Great design = superb website! Good luck.
Argh so annoying I just had a full page of stuff written out then I clicked a link by accident and I lost it all. Oh well I will write it out again.
Rather than telling you how great it looks I will nitpick at the smaller things that in my opinion could do with a change.
The purple dots are way too distracting especially around “Posted Under” section. I think they are too big and draw attention to something that is really not that important at all. I would even put the Posted Under Section underneath the what next section.
I like the idea of the What Next section… especially the Write For Us… I think ill add a Write For Us section to JCD after I come back from my holiday.
The search section (top right) I believe needs more space. The word search is too close to the search bar. See how the RSS section there is more space.
See how you have Subscribe by Email, you should add a Subscribe by RSS as well as the big RSS.
Possibly instead of the grey boxes for the gravatars, have nothing. I think I will be doing this on JCD too.
Also the word Curio, it seems a bit weird, kind of like ‘Cuuo’.
Anyway those are just some things that come to mind. Hope it helps!
Great job!
I just read on iLT that I probably should have said letter-spacing, rather than kerning in my earlier comment. :P
The cold-pressed paper aesthetic is so full of character it’s impossible not to like it. It would feel incongruous to me to mention anything else, when the quality that endears good visual design to me—personality—is so vibrantly present. Nice work!
Some other things worth changing upon second visit… the black title of your articles, they don’t seem like links, just words.
I also searched for your recent articles + popular articles but couldn’t find them? Having them above the categories could work I think.
If I pick up on other small things I’ll give them a mention.
Sander,
Thank you!
Jacob,
Search: not how it was originally design, so I agree about giving it more spacing since my original idea didn’t pan out as imagined.
RSS: needs some work, too. I wanted a few more links, but I need to expand the BG image first.
Purple dots: Needs more spacing around them and then I think they won’t be so distracting. Everything is definitely a little bunchy at the end of the posts.
I want to customize those non-existent gravatars. I found a really cute idea the other day.
Sidebar, yes! Not even remotely done with that sidebar yet. I think I’m actually going to just remove that categories list (who really uses them anyway? As an author I don’t, and as I reader I rarely look at them on other blogs). I definitely need to get recent and popular articles up there and my silly tags aren’t working either. Lots to do! I’ve got a HUGE list!!
Kris,
No worries! I’ve actually increased the line spacing to 1.5em and changed the font to Trebuchet per Alec’s suggestion. What do you think? I like it. It has a good character about it (ha).
Jon,
Its beauty matches the new design!
Many thanks for your eloquent and poetic compliment
Yep, don’t mind the Trebuchet - the increased line spacing is needed for it.
Ooh, yay - that bit in the footer is all better now :)
It’s great to see you get so much constructive feedback on your new site design. Out of curiosity, how long did it take you to put the redesign together?
Tracey,
Which part? The coding or the actual design?
Design: been working on and off since January. Total hours? I would guess about 20-25. I did sneak in an emergency vacation day from work to really concentrate on getting the design finalized.
Coding: My husband did it in one week and most of last weekend (a 3-day weekend for us). If I had to guess how much time he spent on it I’d say probably about 20 hours, too.
Of course, we’re still going back and spending an hour or so a day on little fixes like spacing issues, styling the fonts, alignment, etc.
Ah nice link there. Guess I will see some changes once I get back from my holiday?
Congrats, Lauren! I think the new look is a wonderful complement to your writing style. The whole watercolor paper aesthetic has been pulled together very well. Don’t notice any problems on Mac OS 10.5.3 on Safari 3.1.1, Firefox 2.0.0.12, Camino 1.6, and Opera 9.25. Everything seems consistent across browsers.
May I suggest using a more humanist font in your navigation bar? A formal serif like Georgia seems a bit jarring against the handmade feeling of the aged tape.
Otherwise, I can’t help but smile when looking at your new design. =)
Jacob,
I am so jealous of your trip!! You’re going to have so much fun. And I just received some brochures I ordered from Contiki. Gonna take a look and see if an Australian dive trip is in my future
Dickson,
Hi! Long time, no see! Thank you for the compliments and for checking on all those browsers on the Mac. What kind of font were you thinking would look better? I’m rather partial to Georgia myself, but it can’t hurt to try something else!
I don’t know if you own it already, or if you would consider purchasing it, but I’ve always been partial to Mrs. Eaves. It might work well in italic form, although I’m not sure what ligatures (if any) would appear considering the navigation text. Of course, using a font like this would require you to switch to image-replacement or sIFR.
Or maybe try Georgia Italic or Georgia Bold Italic?
Just noticed your
blockquotequotes. Awesome touch! May I suggest a PNG with transparency? There’s a white background on the quotation mark image when presented over a colored background, as in my comment above.Dickson,
For some crazy reason, PNGs aren’t playing nice with my web host. Not sure why yet. There are many things that would work/look much better if I could use them! Mrs Eaves is a beautiful font, but it’s not a web font. I wanted the navigation to be HTML, though sIFR is an idea, too. Thanks!
Well done! As you know I’m a complete fan of this design I think it’s one of the best 4-5 blog designs I’ve seen. I agree with the point about the favicon – you could just put the ‘C’ from Creative in the header into a 16x16 pixel size and see how it looks, it’s amazing how much you can get into that space. But anyway, really lovely!
Rob,
Thanks again! Yeah, I need to fix the favicon. That’s actually not even mine! It was from my old host.
How did I miss this?! Very very nice! It looks like the kind of design that was a labor of love, and it’s very you.
There’s so many little details I don’t know what I like best. I think maybe the boxes in the “extras”… and the weathered scotch tape effect for your main nav.
It’s interesting how you combined a slightly grungy appeal with watercolor and crayon-like effects… gives it an actual journal feel. You know the kind where you scribble and draw pictures and make little notes everywhere? I can almost smell the paper!
Great job Lauren!
Charity,
It does feel good to have a design I poured a lot of time and effort into appreciated by others.
Hehe, surprise!! No worries! Thank you for the beautiful comments
As much as this is very “me,” it’s also a difficult style for me because I keep looking for it to be perfectly imperfect, to get the grunge just right or the skips in the lines at the best place. I admire this style a LOT and I thought I’d try my hand at it. I’m very pleased with the results!