Designing a New Blog

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m developing a new site devoted to things that children say. Thank you to all the readers and bloggers who have commented and sent me quotes. There are some great ones in the mix and I can already tell that this site is going to be lots of fun.

Seeing as the new site launch is still 6 days away, I figured I’d give you a sneak peek at the art for the site and talk a bit about what goes into my site design process, for those who are interested in the behind-the-scenes of it all.

Who is the site for?

Whenever I approach a new site design, whether it be mine or a client’s, I try to get a feel for both what the site is offering and who the ideal site viewers are.

For this site, geared mostly towards parents, I want the site to be fun and whimsical. I drew a few mockup headers and some art. To be honest, I don’t like what I initially came up with. Sometimes a design is an instant hit. Other times, it takes a while to figure out exactly what I want to do with it.

Usually, I don’t share my test sites while in progress, but I figure some of you might be interested in the early stages of the process.

Color

A website’s color immediately sets the mood of the visitor. One might argue that it’s the single most important thing in forming first impressions with new readers.

Clean, dark, bold and flashy, earth tones, pastels, soft colors – all of these choices say something different about a website and your brand. It’s not about picking what your favorite color is, but rather the color which presents the message you are trying to convey. Check out this video for some more details on color and branding.

However, don’t be afraid to experiment with web design colors. After all, how boring would it be if all sites of a specific topic looked the same?

There are tons of good websites out there devoted to color. Here is one of my favorites color scheme generators. You plug in a color’s RGB code and it whips up a few different schemes. Sometimes they look nice. Other times, not so much. More often than not, I use it as a reference, but use my own judgment to determine the final colors.

I played with a few different color schemes and am trying to pick between green, blue or just plain white.

My first design (still in progress) is a bit on the green side. Literally and figuratively. Click on the image below.

The header is not what I originally came up, but it’s not bad. I’ve got playful lettering and some swirly tree lines and a nice word balloon. All in all, it looks okay. Maybe even good. However, the more I thought about it, it’s not perfect for what I want.

Going with your strengths

For all my site design work, it only now occurs to me that I don’t often use my biggest asset, what makes me unique from some of the other designers out there, the fact that I’m a cartoonist.

For my children’s quotes design, I need to add some of my personal flair. So I am changing the header, and likely a bit more of the site design, before it launches next Monday.

Here is the first illustration which I will be utilizing in the new header. I’d like to tell you how it will be used, but I’m more interested in making it a surprise.

Thanks for reading my little behind-the-design-process post. I’m really looking forward to this site launch. I think it’s going to be lots of fun. I’ll post a bit more each day this week, leading up to the site launch on Monday!  Remember, I’m looking for some more quotes, so email them to me (see this post for details).

If you have any comments or questions regarding either the design or the site in general, feel free to post a comment or email me.

As always, thank you for reading,

David

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