Having a "look"
  • gtimusicgtimusic
    Despite writing Given and Taken in Ink for over a year, I still consider it very young (and compared to some, it really is).  One thing I think I'm still doing very poorly is creating a unified "look" for the site.  It's very plain, just a solid brown background with no pattern or pictures.  Likewise for the title and sidebar.  I suppose I could lie and say I'm going for a minimalist presentation, but really it's just due to my complete lack of any artistic skill.  My old site had a mild attempt at a visual theme (at least it had some ink blots to mirror the "Ink" part of the title), but even that was just a Blogger template I used.

    So, I'm not even sure what question I'm really asking, but here goes: How did you guys come up with a look for your site?  Do you create the graphics yourself, or do you know people who lent their skills?  For Wordpress users, did you customize a pre-designed template, or build yours from scratch?

    I'll admit, I was inspired to bring this up after reading Kevan's post about Soft Signal, which I think has a great style.  And not just Soft Signal, but all the blogs run by people who post here have visually appealing sites.  It gives me something to work toward, but I have no idea how to even get started.

    Greg
  • SurfingOnSteamSurfingOnSteam
    I change the look of my site at least 3 times a year. I get bored with how it looks so I'm constantly tweaking it. Trial and error has always been the key. Eventually, you'll just find something you like to look at and let it rest. I guess what I'm saying is don't be afraid to mess around with colors, jpgs and templates.

    Personally, I like the limitations and simplicity of Blogger. It forces us to try different looks using whatever is available.
  • Mike_TrackeachDayMike_TrackeachDay
    Hey Greg,

    I'm not a web designer, or someone who knows they're way around photoshop, but I've recently been working on a minimalist layout for this blog called Track each Day.

    Although it's a premade tumblr theme I went through it tinkering with bits of code and stripping the layout of anything non-essential, leaving each post suspended in a gap of white space with only the smallest amounts of contextual info, there's not even a side bar on the left which I think makes scrolling vertically down through the week's tracks more readable.

    There are a few caveats, like the facebook and twitter links (both in the top right and under the posts) and the badges in the footer, which are there not because they look nice, but because they might boost traffic.

    I guess my advice is generally pick a theme idea and really follow it through. If you want a minimalist look, then really question how necessary every single element is. For example on GATII : does every post need the author byline? Does the top right RSS button need to be so obvious? Do you have enough traffic to turn a profit from the Amazon and itunes links? Do you need two forms of comments counter per post? Is your sidebar really useful, useful enough to merit taking up a whole chunk of pixels all the way down the entire page?

    If you don't think you need them then ditch them, that's my motto!

    Keep up the good work and happy tinkering,

    Mike (@trackeachday)
  • gtimusicgtimusic
    Hey, thanks for the suggestions. I've started poking around in the stylesheet code to make some tweaks, and reached out to my artist friend for advice on a banner and logo. I've already ditched the big rss image and author byline, and added some small bits of color. I definitely need to integrate the social badges better, so that'll be the next step.
  • MusicForMoronsMusicForMorons
    Hi GTI, I personally have quite a few years of photoshop experience in web design (merely as a hobby) but with little/basic knowledge of coding all that designing is down the drain if you can't code for it. At the moment I'm not happy with my theme, I usually try and take inspiration from other blogs, websites and themes out there but designing and redoing the whole look of a site is a lot of work.

    There is a whole of trial and error, change the layout, preview it, and see if you like it. I suggest you do look up some basic CSS and html just so you understand what your theme styles are doing what (it's very boring stuff, not interesting to a music blogger). A lot of bloggers have no knowledge so are drawn to a minimalistic look which ironically looks very professional and clean, like my try at a tumblr theme for jstchill, doing it from scratch I couldn't code much so I went simple.

    I also suggest taking a look at designer's themes such as Allan Cole - a brilliant web designer. A theme like his High Art theme is something you could use and turn into a attractive, clean and stylish music blog.
  • apocketfullofseedsapocketfullofseeds
    I like that theme
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