I just thought I would share a little of what was going through my mind when I sat down to design my latest theme. I was getting really tired of looking at my previous theme and it was beginning to affect my blogging negatively. Thus began the redesign…

I’m just going to highlight some of the key design elements and my thoughts regarding them.

The Header

I designed the header as reflection of my personality as well as my South African culture. I wanted it to look almost like items on a desk… but I’m not quite sure if a really achieved that effect correctly…I will leave that for you to decide .

Seamless background

Well, obviously I was going for a wood effect I was trying to make it look almost varnished and expensive, like the kind of desk you would have in your study. I think I might post a tutorial on how I created the effect, as well as how to get the seamless look, which isn’t as difficult as you might think.

Content containers

I thought I would try to push myself a little with them, making rounded corners is not too difficult, but it can be quite challenging at times. Combined with transparency and a slight shadow does, however, make for a pretty nice effect, if I do say so myself . Any one agree?

Colour scheme

I decided really early on that I don’t want the usual black test on white background, so once the wood texture was finalised, i settled on the orange and blue combo which seems to combine pretty nicely with the overall dark look and feel. I also, decided to use a whitish/grey font to ensure that it didn’t become too dark (and depressing) which can happen really easily if you’re not careful!

Conclusion

I absolutely love designing websites, there is something about conceptualizing an idea and then seeing it come to life. It is absolutely exhilarating! Obviously, not everyone is going to love this particular design, but hopefully you can appreciate the effort. Also, please feel free to let me know any thoughts or opinions!