The Birthday Present Revealed
As previously promised while discussing the seven-year birthday of drewd, I have been working on a present for my website (and for you). You should be looking at that present now—I designed a new WordPress theme for my site. Huzzah!
I am proud of this theme for a number of reasons. The first reason is that I think the site looks great. My typographic skill and intuition has been increasing for some time and I am quite pleased with the site's readability. I am using nothing but Helvetica (or, ew, Arial) and color is minimal. The information organization does the majority of the work in directing the user, as it should.
I might still add a few typeface flourishes to certain elements. All-uppercase words look particularly nice in Georgia, though I suppose I lose that quality on Windows. Ew, again.
The next point of pride is of a more technical bent. My CSS file for the theme is particularly simple and bare. I feel WordPress themes have a tendency to be overly complex and I wanted to avoid this pitfall, especially in the context of producing with which I can easily work in the future. Furthermore, I do not feel I sacrificed design quality or site functionality at all by taking a simplified approach to the theme.
The final matter with which I am happy is that I completed the theme. Every bit of it is done; nothing is broken. (If something is broken, please leave a comment.) Despite the completed nature of the theme, I feel that I have built in the possibility for future customization and changes without the need for a complete overhaul.
Well, okay, I admit that there are few pieces I need to add but none of them are vital to the site's function, to your reading my writing and generally stalking me.
I hope you enjoy the new look of drewd—please leave any comments you have so that I might improve my craft.
Cheers!
From whit scott
Commented July 31st, 2008 9:08 am
I have only seen it on the iPhone so far, but it looks great here! Congrats on the new design.
From Dave Z
Commented July 31st, 2008 9:32 am
Looks great!
My only complaint (and I felt obligated to come up with at least one) is that the "Comments" link for posts on the homepage is at the top of the post. Fine for short ones, but for longer posts (like this one), by the time I've scrolled to the bottom of the content and want to make a comment, the link isn't visible any more.
Okay, nit-picking finished. Nice work!
From brookr
Commented July 31st, 2008 9:39 am
Nice work! Things layout well, are clear and very readable.
maybe using a -more- break will keep the comment link accessible from the main page?
From drew
Commented July 31st, 2008 10:16 am
Oh, also, I used Golden Ratio to lay out some of it. Fancy.
From drew
Commented July 31st, 2008 10:16 am
Dave, I will assess your complaint and figure something out.
From Melanie
Commented July 31st, 2008 4:16 pm
Is the photograph taken from the top of Mt. Washington?
From drew
Commented July 31st, 2008 11:58 pm
The photo was taken on the way down from Mount Washington, Mom.
From laura
Commented August 1st, 2008 12:12 pm
Since I browse with a rather narrow window normally, I discovered that the grey fill up top is only as wide as my window. Doesn't extend out when I scroll to see the rest of the pic.
But very nice.