This is a layout I have been working on for my blog that I am trying to revive...

I still have a bit to do with the sidebar CSS and I haven't even checked if it validates, but design-wise, what do you think?

Any tips/critique/suggestions?

I tried to go for the grunge/illustrated/artistic look but I hope I didn't over do it.

 

http://intotherain.org/blog/

I love the design, the only things that stand out are the repeating textures. They're a bit to small so it's obvious that they're repeated.

 

Edit: Also the girl in the top image looks pretty skewed and the pink header text on the blue ink pattern is a little hard to read.

I forget that my screen is fairly bright so the pattern hardly shows for me so I don't notice its repeating-ness. I will adjust it to make it less obvious.

Also, I hate the pink header text on blue as well, thats what I need to fix with the sidebar. I was thinking little illustrations next to the header text rather than the splatter.

Thanks for the advice.

 

 

 

 

 

On another note, anyone got IE7 they can check it on for me? I only have IE6 on my computer and can't be bothered upgrading. Also any other browsers anyone want to check it on? Thanks

I forget that my screen is fairly bright so the pattern hardly shows for me so I don't notice its repeating-ness. I will adjust it to make it less obvious.

Also, I hate the pink header text on blue as well, thats what I need to fix with the sidebar. I was thinking little illustrations next to the header text rather than the splatter.

Thanks for the advice.

On another note, anyone got IE7 they can check it on for me? I only have IE6 on my computer and can't be bothered upgrading. Also any other browsers anyone want to check it on? Thanks

 

Tried this?

Awesome, thanks for the link!

Wow! Thats a beautiful site!

Very Nice design.... keep it up

Have you thought about 2 sidebars?

 

It seems like a lot of stuff for one bar, but that could just be me I have seen that a lot on blogs anyway

 

Also - any way to make your recent posts a little more prominant? Maybe make the Pages menu into a horizontal bar so that recent posts comes up at the top? Or reduce the size of the header?

 

Just a couple of ideas, not to take away from that it does look good so far

Very nice!

 

I would move the "Into the Rain\nthrough illustrated eyes" text up a few pixels so that the word "eyes" doesn't overlap the black eyebrow, also definitely fix the sidebar so that the headings (Search, Pages...) are not placed on top of the blue smudges.

 

Good site though and the content is quite interesting, I had a good read of your blog

Thanks for the advice everyone.

I have thought about 2 sidebars but decided against it.

I was also thinking of doing a horizontal navigation for the pages, but at the moment I am just designing it as I go in the spare time that I have. I might have time tomorrow to put in a horizontal nav, the other thing I thought I might do is make the navigation links CSS different to the standard links in the sidebar (ie a fancy CSS hover menu)..

 

I have changed the headers in the sidebar to illustrations and spruced it up a bit. How does it look now?

Any other suggestions?

Nice design

 

Congrats on the little one (when it arrivers)...

Mine was 11 days late... He's now a little 11month tantrum throwing, walking, climbing, getting trapped behind the sofa little boy... ahhh the actually sleep again would be nice... but I wouldn't give him up for the world

 

Mike

Thanks

 

Wow 11 days late, I don't think I can wait any longer, I have 10 days to go!

The um side bar fonts. id make them more hand drawn and bold but not filled in, but otherwise its perfect

Oh and add a .7 em padding around img{} so images done crush the content.