Dev Blog Blog Redesign

This blog has needed a few style tweaks for a while but I have about as much design sense as the guy who rolled out the hotdog theme. However the guy next to me is far more creative and he gave me a few pointers so I thought I'd give it a go. It's not perfect but I like it, if you don't, find a new blog to read.

Before the redesign I was simply using the WordPress Twenty Eleven Theme

After the Spruce Up

What I was aiming for.

I really just wanted to make it look a little bit less like an out of the box theme. I know you can still tell it's based on Twenty Eleven but I feel a bit better about myself for trying. I also really wanted to include some social aspects and make it a little more personal.

So What's Changed?

• I renamed the blog. I decided that my blog should be page 1 position  1 on Google when you search my name so the blog title is now my name. Self centred or what!
• I removed the default header image to bring the content higher up the page. This blog is primarily about content after all.
• New list styles for the sidebar and I also added in the blog categories and a tag cloud.
• A new background image. I didn't think much to the plain grey background so thanks Google Images for my new paper line background image.
• A slight background on the header because the text didn't work very well on the new background.
• An updated link colour. The blue didn't work for the hover effects on the titles in my opinion so I went with a more subtle grey.
• The footer is now dark, transparent and has a bio of me. Full Web 2.0 style. I also added some social links so we can all keep in touch.
• Along with the social links in the footer I recently added Twitter and Google+ links to each post.
• I now have social logon's. I'm not sure if it will ever be used but you can leave comments via your Facebook or Twitter account.
• Some padding to the <pre> tags which contain code. This is just for you Jeremy!

This is also my first design related post so we now have a design category. I don't think it will get much use though. Beer time!