After some careful consideration, it was time to jettison the previous design, in favour of something far more simple, clear and uncluttered.
If the design looks familiar, it’s probably because I covet John Gruber’s daring fireball and have been strongly influenced by his aesthetically pleasing approach.
However, rather than simply copy the design, which is neither acceptable, or my goal - I started with notepad2 and a blank page. After several hours I had some basic XHTML markup and CSS, including building blocks from previous designs. And if you spend a few moments navigating around, you’ll see that whilst some elements are similar, much is different or new. Yes, it is similar, no, it is not a copy or source rip.
One of my tendencies is to build XHTML in a modular fashion - it allows for code to be pulled as needed and reused elsewhere.. including all new designs. Whilst somewhere in the order of
My hope is the next design will have an even higher recycled count. And there is still a bit of work to be done, but it’s one of the most “complete” designs I’ve rolled to yet. I hope that makes the change, worth it.
You may also notice the return of the asides, or remainders.. still very much a work in progress - based around importing a del.icio.us bookmark source on a single-per-entry basis. The formatting will likely evolve to make following the breadcrumbs home a little easier, as they are indeed more a remainders link, than simple entry.
Comment away, dear readers. Your thoughts?
≡ This is a design entry relating to the topics of design, ethos, noteworthy, themes, wordpress.
Brendan Borlase is a Systems and Network Administrator living in Adelaide, Australia, having lived, worked and breathed Information Technology for over 12 years. Learn more.
Feedback is encouraged. If you would like to read more, consider subscribing to the regularly updated RSS Feed.
Mar 9th, 2007 at 8:12 pm
For a second there I thought Daring Fireball had released a WordPress theme. The only thing I would point out is how the comments are not lined up with the left edge of the content above it.
Mar 9th, 2007 at 8:32 pm
.. hmm, you’re right. I hadn’t noticed that - and now that I look at it, I’m inclined to not like it at all.
Shall fix that up shortly.
Mar 10th, 2007 at 4:18 am
Very nice, makes me want to finish my new design even more.
Mar 10th, 2007 at 12:04 pm
I can appreciate the minimalistic approach you took with this new theme; wonderful! Absolutely wonderful!
Mar 10th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
Matthew: I look forward to seeing ‘Blanc’ bust some moves.
Justin: Clutter is out,
whitegrey space is in. ;)Thank you both - I was determined that if I was going to base my design on another - it had to be from scratch..
I just hope John doesn’t find this monstrosity offensive. :)
Mar 10th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
I hope it doesn’t disappoint, Brendan. I’m very pleased with how it’s gone so far and it’s certainly a very radical shift from my previous designs and I really hope a step in the right direction.
It still isn’t quite finished, a few interface experiments to go and final detail tying down. Then there’s a few other things need doing once it’s complete including an attempt at write up of Blanc and designs that didn’t make it.
Mar 17th, 2007 at 7:05 pm
Well. It’s up, Brendan.