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Blogging 101: Designing A Blog

Posted by dasfseegdse Jumat, 16 Agustus 2013 0 komentar

First of all, thank you so much for reading Sunshine Bloggers. The ladies and I are consistently in awe of all of the amazing feedback we get and the opportunities we have with this blog. I can personally say I have really enjoyed the past few months and look forward to the months to come.

Secondly, don't run away! This post is all about your blog's look and feel. I know I won't drop in any CSS or JavaScript during this post (as tempting as it is) but I am just offering a few tips to help you better understand the blog design process. I just finalized the design for my blog's re-brand so this topic couldn't have come at a better time.

I just spent months looking at hundreds of blogs and while some were extremely inspirational, there were a few that were slightly overwhelming. Design is overwhelming! I just wanted to share some things to help you with designing your blog or what to discuss/look for when you're hiring someone to design a blog.

We chatted a few months ago about branding your blog. I cannot stress how important this step is when starting to design your blog. It's easier to have an idea of colors, fonts, and elements beforehand than after you begin to set your blog up. It's ok if even this step is overwhelming. Not everyone has an eye for design. A bitterer reality is that not everyone has an eye for good design and that is completely fine. I would like to encourage first time bloggers who have never dabbled into design to seek out a designer or a blog theme shop. I'm pulling together another blog resource list to share some of my favorite designers and blog theme shops so be sure to look out for that soon.

Lay It Out

You typically want to have an idea of how your blog is laid out before you dig into every thing else. Some blogs utilize sidebars or footers to place information that are not included in blog posts. This information can include social media links, RSS links, contact information, blogroll links, contact forms, widgets, or all kinds of other fun things! Below are a few of some popular layout choices among blogs in case you need a visual.

Color Theory

One of the first things we talk about as children are our favorite colors. Pink has always been one of my favorite colors. It's cliche but it's one of my favorites. One of the biggest mistakes I made in the beginning of my blog was incorporating pink. It had absolutely nothing to do with my branding. I just couldn't stick behind it. Over the years I've tried forcing pink onto my blog design but it never stays long. I came across this psychology of color chart and it all made sense. The pink I was drawn to is seen as exciting, vibrant, and stimulant - however, I was seeing the negative word: gaudy. Check out some of the words that are attributed to the colors of brand. Color charts and color palettes are great ways of finding out which colors work for your brand and how they work together.

Type Talk

Is it legible?

Choose a body text font that your readers can understand. While you may enjoy League Script as your header font, it may not be the best font to write paragraphs with.

While you can probably read this, it's not the easiest on the eyes. You may want to try something like our option below.

Now Cat Ipsum is completely legible.

Does it match your brand?

Remember to keep your font choices brand consistent. We use Archer in the Sunshine Bloggers branding which lead us to choose Josefin Slab for our web font. It would have been a bit silly, besides legibility reasons, to choose League Script as our main web font. It would be out of brand.

Fonts are confusing.

I agree! The world of typography is a crazy world. If you want to get the basics, I cannot put into words how amazing this Jessica Hische article about Upping Your Type Game. She goes through the basics, choosing font families, and there are fun illustrations to catch your attention.

Be Unique!

One of the things to remember when designing your blog is to keep your individuality. It can be hard to do when there are so many popular blog design trends to choose from. I would love add confetti to my blog design but it would be completely out of brand. Your blog design should be a reflection of your taste applied in a reader-friendly format. It may be tempting to change your blog design to match what seems to be popular but will that help you stand out? I enjoy reading blogs who create a unique environment for their readers which is hard to find among hundreds of thousands of blogs. Also, feel free to be inspired by good design but make sure your blog's design is your own. Do not steal another blog's design. It's ok if you're using the same template, which happens a lot in the blogsphere. However, don't copy unique features detail for detail. Try to make everything you design your own. These are just a few tips to get you started. Feel free to chat about what you'd like discussed in a future Blogging 101 article or if you have any questions.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Psychology of Color

About Angel Y.

Angel Y. is a freelance graphic designer and web developer living in Orlando, FL. She co-owns a branding agency, Sevenality, with her husband. Angel is also an avid lover of all things inspirational and enjoys sharing inspiration through her blog, Static-Romance.

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