Just a quick post to let you know that we have just launched a new blog site using Thesis Theme, called Blogging Down Under. The site is meant for Australians primarily, but anybody interested in dipping their toes into the world of blogging for the first time is most welcome.
When customizing the site we focused on 3 main design elements to make the site unique: colour scheme, Australian design elements and a colourful and obvious navigation bar.
Colour Scheme
- The overall look is made uniquely Australian with the use of a background image of the Australian bush. Colours found in the image were also used in the text and headers.
- The header was designed in Photoshop. If you look closely I made the main header word of “Blogging” with many pairs of thongs - rubber shoes in Australia as opposed to skimpy underwear in America! You need to visit the site to really appreciate the detail :-)
Australian Design Elements – Australian Map, Flag and Fauna
- I used the MaxBlogPress Favicon plugin to add a favicon of a map of Australia.
- This image was used again to make unique bullets. Check out this post to see the bullets in action.
- The concept of blogging involves a computer / laptop so I used an image of a kangaroo and the Australian flag on the screen of the laptop.
Colourful Navigation Bar & Consistent Use of Images
- Blogging, and especially learning about blogging, should be fun.
- My thinking is that by adding a mulit-coloured navigation bar - with funky round corners that change colour when you hover over them – I could add extra energy and life to the page.
- My intention is to use as many images as possible that have mostly the same colours as the navigation bar.
WuFoo Forms
I used my free membership at Wu Foo for the contact form.
Feedback Needed
The Blogging Down Under site is just getting off the ground. The few articles that are up are in multiple categories so I could display all of the categories in the navigation bar. I would love to know what you think of the design. Any suggestions prior to me making more tweaks are much appreciated.
Add a Comment
Hi,
it’s a nice site.
1. I like the background picture, very nice
2. There is no Home link to go back to the home page
3. mulit-coloured navigation bar – it does not highlight the whole box, only the wording in it. I don’t know if thats what you wanted.
I like it, but there is not much info, so I could only suggest on what is available.
[rq=55758,0,blog][/rq]Best posts ending 21 June 2009
George – now I’m depressed. I use Firefox and when I just checked it out in Explorer – OMG! I need to find out how to get the header to not get chopped off in explorer and will have to tweak the nav buttons so they don’t end up in 2 rows. I’ve added a breadcrumb trail that includes a home link. Will remove the black and just alter the font maybe. Thanks for the quick heads up. You wouldn’t know the explorer fix off hand would you? I’ll explore the Thesis forum when I get the chance.
I have checked your site again the the nav bars are not highlighting now but are also looking better now (all next to each other). The breadcrumb is ok, but check out your first article (the breadcrumb is very long and goes across 2 lines)
I received your email and have replied, I will set up details and email to you when done.
[rq=58038,0,blog][/rq]Time Management – Doing more tasks in less time
Okay, I beat Internet Explorer by working out how wide the header image and content had to be. Added an image link for the home page to avoid squeezing in another nav tab. No black highlighting of tabs now – just bolding in IE and no action in Firefox because I can’t work out how to get the text-decoration: underline to work. Aagh!! Need to sleep at some point. :-)
It seems the site is down or still not live. The link leads to cpanel and apache page. From the screenshot though it looks good.
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I’m in the process of redesign/relaunch. Should be back up in a few months.