Designing with personality

I registered this domain with the intention of creating a personal blog that to some extent reflects my personality. After reading ‘Why should your site have personality?’ and ‘How To Destroy The Web 2.0 Look’ I decided to take a different design approach. No more rounded corners, bright gradients or bubbly badges. I now planned to create a design with personality and the capacity to grow as I do. So I started compiling a mental criteria for the design:

  • No rounded corners, bright gradients or star shaped badges.
  • Preferably light on dark colors.
  • The design should be flexible and allow for growth.
  • Key characteristics – Typography and textures
  • Fast to load
  • No overkill, no clutter
  • Leaves an impression

I then sourced some inspiration:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I then had to find a base theme that was as close as possible o the final product.

 

 

Then based on the inspiration, criteria and base theme I started building my design.

 

 

The plan is to continually add little details to the design. Odd items like a coffee cup, holiday photos, note book etc. Hopefully in a few months the site looks like jumble sale!

Well I hope you like the design and maybe took home a little inspiration.

Be sure to come back and check out the weekly design additions!

Posted in: Showcase

Tags: , , , ,

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 31st, 2008 at 9:27 pm and is filed under Showcase. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

12 Responses so far

PaulT August 31st, 2008 at 10:16 pm

Well done bud, like the grunge vibe…

Robin September 1st, 2008 at 2:31 pm

Thanks Paul!

justBcoz September 1st, 2008 at 3:43 pm

I’m liking the grunginess of your design too and you’ve kept it simple and scalable … nice =)

My only observation - your logo is fairly complex and I feel it’s a wee bit on the small side because of this. Perhaps make it a bit more prominent, I think it gets a bit lost up there …

mandy September 1st, 2008 at 3:55 pm

hhhmmmmmm no more action movies for u ever!

Robin September 1st, 2008 at 4:19 pm

@Justbcos - Thanks for the feedback, you may have a vaild point! I will play around with it…

casey September 2nd, 2008 at 6:20 am

The site looks a little too similar to elliotjaystocks.com/
I’d come up with your own textured background if I were you.

Michael John Grove September 2nd, 2008 at 9:25 am

Great site Robin, looking better and better as you tweak it each time.
Great work.

Robin September 2nd, 2008 at 10:14 am

@Casey - Spot on, elliotjaystocks.com was perhaps the main inspiration for my design. New background is in, made it from cement, leather and stone textures, what you think? Thanks for the feedback.

@Mike - Thanks bud. I got that IE bug you mentioned, turns out it was actually in the first post, WP’s editor rearranges DIV tags, very odd. Anyways I used horizontal rules in place of DIVs and all is good. Thanks again.

Fubiz September 2nd, 2008 at 2:39 pm

Beautiful selection !

Robin September 2nd, 2008 at 3:38 pm

@Fubiz - Glad you like em!

Robert September 2nd, 2008 at 3:54 pm

I’m actually very happy to see that my post changed someone’s mind:)
I can say that the final design of your blog is much more better than any “roundy”, “glossy”, “splashy” web 2.0 design would ever possibly be.
Cheers
Robert

mandy September 2nd, 2008 at 4:37 pm

i think it needs flowers and butterflys like my Blog ….. :P