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How to create a New Look for a Blog

In recent posts we discussed the criteria one has to consider when planning a brand-new website or blog – be it from the website owner’s perspective or that of a client, who may or may not have any clue about what a professional web designer actually does respectively what this complex task actually entails.

How to Create a new Look for a Website or Blog – meaning to work on something that already exists but that doesn’t live up to the expected standards, that is outdated, was never completed or whatever – brief: it is not high on the owner’s ‘likeability list’ and needs a thorough makeover to reach out for the Internet stars… well, while it may not appear thus in the beginning, the fact is that it is even more challenging and definitely time-consuming.

How to create a New Look for a Blog

In this article I share with you some of the considerations and experience regarding how to create a new look for a blog – or several blogs in fact – one of our eminent partners on YORGOO has entrusted me with and that he certainly agrees to given the benefit for our readers to learn from other peoples’ experiences and sincere report.

Remember: the Look comes second on our priority list – so as the corresponding blogs had been neglected over a period of time, they first needed some thorough thought to reestablish their purpose and subsequent targeting… followed by some serious technical updating and corrections here and there… and finally real life injected in form of regular original posts – properly edited and published – to start flirting with Google again and remind the online world of their existence and definite renaissance!

This having been said, what did we have to start with as concerns the ‘look’, the visual impact – and how could it be improved and further customized to reflect the author, his intent and valuable writings. . . and from there attract and subsequently convert more visitors and readers?

The Layout of the Blog

In our example, the layout of the blog was previously established and there was no need for any major changes. Once posts, images and widgets had made their way onto the Homepage, things started looking better every day. However, there were various items we were not too thrilled about, like headers and banners namely on the Author Blog.

The Colour Scheme of the Blog

Further to this, while the colour scheme of the blog was quite harmonious at first view – soft beige and rich maroon tones plus white and black – , there was room for improvement. And clearly for reduction. . . and as we are in that exact process right now we know: less will be more :)

Clearly, what guides me is the elegance, light and preciousness exuded by the Judaica Art on the Slideshow – something that’s very close to the author’s heart and expresses a lot about him – and which in my view sets the tone. It determines my adapted colour scheme. . . the way I visualize and translate it. . .

The Fonts of the Blog

While Semiomantics Scripts come with two practical presets of fonts – serif and sans-serif – I had introduced a specific font previously on his NewsCast Script, that I now also applied to the web graphics I specifically created for the various posts over the past 2 weeks, their particular style forming a new visual theme or thread throughout the Blog. Voila an example:

The Background of the Blog

A simple colour never hurts, but it’s not exciting either with the great possibilities a Semiomantics XO theme allows us in terms of creating new original backgrounds and integrating them into the css stylesheet.

As for some reason I cannot access the stylesheet right now, I decided to integrate the background on my own Author Blog for a limited time to test it. I chose it from a number of designs created from a digital photo I took which I then manipulated artistically in Photoshop to get the result I wanted.

Various versions were necessary as I had to bear in mind that if we work with a transparent background we have to ensure the readability of the text. Also, I do like the vertical lines in degrades as I show in the example at the top, but they are too dominant if I work with total transparency – they may be just fine if I don’t. It’s all a matter of doing, experimenting, testing and evaluating.

So I did have to make some compromises and am looking forward to seeing this version at its designated place and decide from there whether or not I continue on a transparent journey!

Visual Expression

Imagery is the most powerful visual expression, touching, stimulating and influencing our senses and subconscious mind in direct and indirect ways. It is therefore extremely important to have a good understanding of what the Blog is all about in general and particularly if it’s an Author Blog – to create a distinctive look and feeling for the personality behind it, the product, service or whatever is to be branded. It’s this look that will create empathy, recognition value, branding, trust – once properly established it will remain!

An important conclusion from this exciting example so far – meaning to change something that had been started and has already left a mental mark in the client’s brain that is not that easily ‘released’ – this is a process that requires trust and understanding on both sides. I believe that the best way to get a feeling for what it needs when approaching such a complex and responsible task is to dig into the articles, categories, keywords to get the knowledge from within… which obviously comes when editing and publishing as well… but my point here is that to create a look that ‘talks’ an in-depth feeling for the topic at hand needs to be developed and then translated into the Web Design and Web Graphics.

As said before: this is work in progress and to be continued. . .