Brainstorming Ideas for the Blog’s Design

I feel like redesigning my blog.

This happens to me from time to time. Not as often now as it once did — I would change it up sometimes every weekend! — but I still feel the desire for a different look.

The theme I’m using right now is Apostrophe, albeit with a child theme that changes the link colors from red to blue and implements a responsive width slider.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it. I just feel like having something else.

One theme I keep looking at is Canard. Another I’m looking at is Cerauno.

cerauno-screenshot I’m looking at what’s commonly termed “magazine-style” themes, which make the website resemble an online newspaper or magazine rather than a blog. To some extent, presentation shapes content; one reason I don’t blog as often as I once did is that, when using a magazine-style theme, a random post about ducks flying overhead, which is something that I might want to write about, doesn’t feel worthy enough, especially when you need to add artwork (to make the thumbnail for the magazine layout).

What I’m trying to do, then, is to figure out what I want, see what best fits what I want, and then modify it to make it what I want.

I have a list! A list of things!

I want something that handles subpages in a visually interesting way. There’s a theme I looked at that does that, and I’ll probably snag that idea from there.

I want to find a way of allowing the random stuff to coexist side-by-side with the important stuff. Websites like The Guardian and Slate, for instance, have headlines co-exist alongside articles that have thumbnails. I haven’t quite figured out how to implement that, but I have ideas.

I want to do something with the header. I have something specific in mind, but I’m still cogitating on whether or not I can accomplish it.

I’m leaning a little more toward building from Cerauno, but I could change my mind three times before I start coding in the next few weeks. I’m still in the brainstorming stage, after all.

And as much as I’d love to use a theme like Intergalactic, it really doesn’t fit with my posting style at all.

Published by Allyn

A writer, editor, journalist, sometimes coder, occasional historian, and all-around scholar, Allyn Gibson is the writer for Diamond Comic Distributors' monthly PREVIEWS catalog, used by comic book shops and throughout the comics industry, and the editor for its monthly order forms. In his over ten years in the industry, Allyn has interviewed comics creators and pop culture celebrities, covered conventions, analyzed industry revenue trends, and written copy for comics, toys, and other pop culture merchandise. Allyn is also known for his short fiction (including the Star Trek story "Make-Believe,"the Doctor Who short story "The Spindle of Necessity," and the ReDeus story "The Ginger Kid"). Allyn has been blogging regularly with WordPress since 2004.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *