by on May 21, 2007

New Theme Today

I worked my tail off to create a picture of my taste. This is the color scheme I chose to showcase my likes. I’m still going to work on implementing more graphics into the layout, but I had to create a new template from scratch (yes, a blank Notepad file) to ensure that I will be able to track where I put things later.

I’ve left an entire invisible sidebar off the to right to use for advertising, affiliates, and other important items that I want to be able to completely control how they look without messing up any of the other elements. I’m thinking nice graphics that won’t get blocked by Firefox. :)

Swing on by the comments and drop me a line to let me know what you think. Open suggestions and comments.

Filed Under: Design
by on May 18, 2007

Looking for a New Theme for WordPress?

I learned so much at SOBCon about personal branding. David Armano’s presentation really hit home with the question, “Are you unique?” I am, but my blog’s not. I consider myself as more than capable of designing what I want my blog to look like, but it really comes down to taking the time to do it after work or risking getting fired by doing it at work. That would suck, wouldn’t it?

I started looking around for more themes for ideas to see what it would take to come up with something “original,” as I often do when I’m getting geared up to create a logo for someone. It really gets the juices flowing. That was when I stumbled across Template Monster. This is perfect if you don’t have the tools or experience to build your own design, but still want to be unique.


FEATURED WEB TEMPLATE

VIEW MORE TEMPLATES


Think about it this way… How many people do you know who have paid for their design? I know a lot of bloggers, and my number is probably under 30. There are a lot of numbers floating around out there about how many blogs there are, but let’s say there are 3 million current self-hosted WordPress blogs, and they offer thousands of free themes from their site and other libraries of themes. It’s impossible to have a unique look if you use a theme that everyone else is looking at! I know, I have one right now. Sure, I changed dozens of things, but the skeleton is still there.

Be on the lookout for a new design soon, but go ahead and prime your pump, too. Maybe you need to pay to get a new theme, and there’s nothing wrong with that. You’ll be different, unique. Dare to be different. It will pay off.

Filed Under: Blogging, Design
by on May 15, 2007

Picking Color Schemes Is Easy, With the Right Tool

I stumbled across two tools today to help you with selecting a color scheme for your blog, letterhead, or brochure. It might even help you with your clothes, though I wouldn’t suggest it without consulting a fashion expert first.

Color does a lot for you, and it can do a lot to hurt you. I don’t need to tell you something looks bad, you just know it, and so does everyone else. There is always wiggle-room for personal taste, such as the colors I’ve picked here. If someone has a general distaste for one of the colors, it might not please them, but it should not offend their sense of what is good and decent in this world. That would take a bad color, and you move on to try another color.

The first tool I found is called yaflaColor. It gives you seven colors that “go” with one that you enter the HEX code for. Some of the colors “match” and others “go.” The difference is the degree of commonality and opposite-ness.

yaflaColor

The second tool was one that Liz Strauss linked to me at DeGraeve.com. It takes an image and reads the colors for a palette with both a dull and vibrant scheme.

Color says a lot about you. If I picked all bright colors, you might think that I was young or carefree. If I picked a black theme with white text, you might think I was a goth. A lot can be implied in a color palette, so choose wisely, grasshopper.

Filed Under: Design
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