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Blog Design Revamp Part 1

August 2, 2010 By 49 Comments



If you’re a regular reader or visitor here, you’ll know that my blog has undergone a bit of a style redesign this weekend.

Out goes the blue and orange feel, and in comes a bolder, fresher look with cleaner lines and a nice mix of red, white and grey. It’s a colour scheme I’ve always liked and forms the design basis behind both Bonsai Interactive and the SRM Group.

The awesome logo and banner (and the mix of the colour scheme) is by the hugely talented Lisa Kalandjian of SceneStealer Graphics over in L.A. Lisa is also doing some more design work for the blog – this is just part one, and is the combination of Lisa’s graphic ideas and me overhauling the old design with this one, thanks to the Headway theme, on Sunday afternoon.

Having seen what Lisa has in store for the second part, I’m looking forward to sharing the final look with you – it’s definitely quite funky! And if you need any WordPress design work, make sure you pop on over to check Lisa and her work out.

What do you think of the new look? Love to hear your feedback!

Note: This blog no longer runs on the Headway framework. Instead, it’s a custom WordPress design by Lisa Kalandjian of SceneStealer Graphics.

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Ricardo Bueno

Just noticed the new header design and change in color scheme today. Definitely like it! Seems bold and authoritative to me (in a good way).

Congrats!

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JayTurn

Hey Danny,

I'm a big fan of the changes, they are a great improvement on your last design. I like the logo as well, the idea of the magnifying glass works on many levels.

I'm not sure if this following issue happens for anyone else but... your right sidebar appears below the body section of your site for me. It appears normal for me if I change the width to 322px instead of 323px on the following div:

div#wrapper div#column-2-page-single

I believe it is in the leafs.css file.

To help the designers out, I am using Firefox 3.6.8 (latest version)

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michelle

Hey Daniel-san, aren't we a busy bee, I love the new colours, a redesign is the new thing to do right now it seems. Always makes it feel like a new start and Lisa is obviously brilliant!

Keep up the good work :) x

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DJ Morris

Very sleek and professional looking. Personally, I would like to see what it looks like with the nav menu in red and I think it would draw more attention to the sidebar headings if they were red instead of gray.

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Lori Paquette

It's a good look for you Danny. Lisa did a fine job. Love the color scheme for you. As other folks here said, it complements your great content.

Can't wait to see "final" final ... though is there such a thing as a "final" design? ;)

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Anne Sorensen

Congrat's Danny! Love the new look! Very slick! Inspiring!! Take care - hope all is going well. Best wishes

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Jim Connolly

I really like the new look; especially the header. I also like the use of red to grab the eye, in fact, I use red a lot on my marketing blog.

Great design, great content, by a great guy!

#Win!

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Allan Ward

Hi Danny,

The site looks great. It's a good example of what Headway can do. I read that you've used some custom CSS in the redesign - I'd be interested in finding out what you did. I've just started using CSS for one of my blogs and it's opened my eyes to a whole new world within Headway.

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Lisa Kalandjian

Great to read all these positive comments :) I always found the picture of you looking down quite charming though. It gives an impression of quiet confidence, humility, and I think it makes you more approachable. Maybe we should take a vote on it

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Danny

A vote, eh? Now there's an option... :)

And yep, everyone loves the logo and header - not surprised, awesome stuff, miss, thank you. Looking forward to unveiling the cool stuff you have in store :)

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Ricardo Bueno

Just noticed the new header design and change in color scheme today. Definitely like it! Seems bold and authoritative to me (in a good way).

Congrats!

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Danny

Hey there Ricardo,

Thanks fella - Lisa has some cool tricks up her sleeve to finish the design off, and looking forward to sharing "final" version. :)

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JayTurn

Hey Danny,

I'm a big fan of the changes, they are a great improvement on your last design. I like the logo as well, the idea of the magnifying glass works on many levels.

I'm not sure if this following issue happens for anyone else but... your right sidebar appears below the body section of your site for me. It appears normal for me if I change the width to 322px instead of 323px on the following div:

div#wrapper div#column-2-page-single

I believe it is in the leafs.css file.

To help the designers out, I am using Firefox 3.6.8 (latest version)

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Danny

Hey there mate,

That's bizarre. I've tried to replicate the issue you're having on FF, Safari, Chrome and IE, no joy fella. Looks fine each time.

If there is an issue, it'll be me to blame as I designed the current layout, working from Lisa's cool logo and banner/colour scheme.

The real meat will be when Lisa gets her hands on the blog soon :)

Cheers again, and I'll keep my eyes open for that issue you found.

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Josip Petrusa

Hi Danny, really like the new layout!!

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Danny

Cheers Josip - I think you'll really like the finished version then :)

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michelle

Hey Daniel-san, aren't we a busy bee, I love the new colours, a redesign is the new thing to do right now it seems. Always makes it feel like a new start and Lisa is obviously brilliant!

Keep up the good work :) x

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Danny

Thanks Michelle. It seemed kinda apt - new company, new business plans, new ideas moving forward. So yeah, new design seemed to fit - cheers!

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Jackie Adkins

Swanky stuff, Danny! You look good in red.

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Danny

Ha, when I first saw your comment, mate, I thought you had called me a British slang term ;-)

Cheers fella, enjoying the "new digs". :)

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Sue Anne Reed

Love the new design. :)

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Danny

Thanks Sue-Anne, and thanks for being here :)

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Daria Steigman

Danny,

I like it! Very crisp and readable. Look forward to design upgrades, Part II.

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Danny

Thanks Daria, likewise - Lisa has some neat design tricks in store :)

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John Carson

I think it looks great, Danny.

One thing though for consistency: on the Contact page it talks about Danny in the third person, then on the About page you talk as yourself. I think it should be one or the other all the way.

Cheers!
John.

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Danny

Cheers bud, makes sense - just updated it. :)

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Gini Dietrich

I'm a big fan of white space and this looks really good - really clean. Of course, the content is always superb so this is just a great reflection of what you offer every day.

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Danny

Thanks Gini - agreed, I'm not a huge fan of clutter. Tell me what I need and how to get there, and I'm a happy camper :)

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Julie Walraven | Resume Services

Looks great, Danny! I too am one of the people who wants you to look up or at least not down but knowing how many shots my photographer took to get the headshot I use, I understand. (140) LOL so a profile pic that you like is what is important. I Like the new colors but I didn't hate the orange and blue, it woke me up!

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Danny

I do have some "front-on" head shots, but none that I'm over the moon with, so I'll wait for now.

And are you saying that I'm now sending you to sleep..?!? ;-)

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DJ Morris

Very sleek and professional looking. Personally, I would like to see what it looks like with the nav menu in red and I think it would draw more attention to the sidebar headings if they were red instead of gray.

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Danny

Hi there fella,

Then the "final" design might just cover these suggestions, as Lisa has some cool stuff for the sidebar that isn't in my refresh at the minute. ;-)

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Lori Paquette

It's a good look for you Danny. Lisa did a fine job. Love the color scheme for you. As other folks here said, it complements your great content.

Can't wait to see "final" final ... though is there such a thing as a "final" design? ;)

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Danny

Hehe, no there isn't Lori - you're right, we're never at the "final" stage, especially when it comes to blogging. :)

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Christine Livingston

Love the new look, Danny. The clean, elegant style is just going to enhance your awesome content even more, in my humble opinion.

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Danny

Well thanks, Christine!

Now I'll just have to make sure I keep delivering, to live up to the design side of things. :)

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Anne Sorensen

Congrat's Danny! Love the new look! Very slick! Inspiring!! Take care - hope all is going well. Best wishes

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Danny

Cheers Anne - and seeing what Lisa has planned for when she starts coding, I'm excited to sharing the second phase when it goes live. :)

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Jim Connolly

I really like the new look; especially the header. I also like the use of red to grab the eye, in fact, I use red a lot on my marketing blog.

Great design, great content, by a great guy!

#Win!

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Danny

Well thank you kindly sir. :)

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Adam Vincenzini

Danny
I really like it - easy to navigate and I am a big fan of blogs 'on white'.
Nice one.
A

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Danny

Me too, sir - not a huge fan of the light font on dark background. It can work in some cases but most I've seen have been hard to read.

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Allan Ward

Hi Danny,

The site looks great. It's a good example of what Headway can do. I read that you've used some custom CSS in the redesign - I'd be interested in finding out what you did. I've just started using CSS for one of my blogs and it's opened my eyes to a whole new world within Headway.

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Danny

Hi Allan,

Very minor CSS coding - one to center the nav menu, and one to center Leaf titles. Everything else is out the box.

Funnily enough, it was Headway that made me brave enough to experiment with CSS, thanks to the Live CSS box. And like you say, pretty cool what you can find out and do :)

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Grant Griffiths

Don't forget Danny, in new version of Headway you don't need CSS to center Leaf titles. Love the new look too.

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Danny

Ha, of course - how did I forget that one? Cheers for the reminder, sir!

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Ari Herzog

...also, don't forget to change the favicon file to reflect the logo change from your face to the circled db. What made you go with that, and how many iterations did it take?

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Danny

Good call, Ari, I'll get on that.

Basically most folks that know me shorten my name to DB, so it made sense. Plus it's nice to be able to work that into a clear logo.

Took two iterations; Lisa is very good at getting exactly what you want from initial discussions.

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David Horne

Looks good Danny. Nice and clean.

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Danny

Cheers David, definitely the aim I was going for.

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  1. Tweets that mention Blog Design Revamp Part 1 #dannybrown -- Topsy.com says:
    August 2, 2010 at 1:38 am

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Grant Griffiths and Blog Manana, Doktor Social. Doktor Social said: Blog Design Revamp Part 1 http://bit.ly/b2S9EG #dannybrown [...]