Art / Design Blog Layout

Move the main content area up to the top and move the logo higher up on the bar. Other than that, I think you have an interesting very creative concept here.

Personally, I think you've done a great job with this. The grunge effect at the top perfectly complements the rest of the page.

Great work with the positioning of the shadows.

I might reduce the padding between the footer and the end of the page content.

I might also redo your logo. Right now its really hard to read, (even though its looks cool.) :D

One more thing, keep the padding in the latest post boxes the same. Right now the post body has like 10px of padding but the post meta has like 3px. Make the meta data have 10px also. Also align your post titles to the left-it looks more professional that way.

Great Work!

First of all, I love the design & your use of typography.

The only thing I'd change is the different between titles & paragraphs regarding alignment/padding on the left. The same goes for the dates on the bottom.

On 2nd thought, I'd also get rid of the Courier or whatever monospaced font that you used - it has a 90's feel to it:)

Finally some creativity!

This is a very good start Jennifer. I like where it's going! It looked like it might not pass my "1024x768" test but it looks like you have most of the relevant stuff in the frame. I think you could move the left column up about an inch and also move up the right hand column and still retain the look you are going for. I've attached a graphic that shows the small screen test I did.

One other thing is the large headline all in uppercase seems a little out of place. Everything else is so elegant and I think if you get a really long headline the H1 at this size is going to be an issue.

I would also left justify the headlines in the 3 bottom columns and use the same color and link treatment as the main article for consistency.

It sends the message across that you are good at what you do.

it looks beautful.

Maybe include some of the top design style under the white side bar to connect the top and the bottom of the site more?

really nice color choices. the orange is a good highlight color for this design.

Interesting layout.. Not the one we see daily.. Love the brush work at the header and colours are easy on eyes.

for the footer you can add a border like some brush or a wave border.. as it looks too plain right now..

Otherwise I like it... nice work.

concept is very good - accent on details good idea grungy background in harmony with other elements. I think only that footer should be like header i mean not so apart with fluent transition from grey to dark

I love the grunge effect at the top. The little illustrations are really interesting and something about them feels elegant. That said, the layout is a bit awkward. I feel that the content area should be moved up a bit, as it starts too far down the page. If you are set on the background grunge effect being the star, I'd recommend incorporating it somehow in the main content bucket. That way, your content is up at the top where it should be, but your artistic ability will also show through. The other elements on the bottom are also feeling a bit awkward. They feel somewhat choppy. They are aligned at the top, but then the bottom of the buckets are not aligned. Though the content in each bucket may vary in length, I'd recommend making the buckets themselves uniform in height.

I think it has loads of potential. I agree, the main body content needs to be moved up the page. I like the grunge look to it.

First off I love this type of design. We have a very interesting conversation going on about the 2.0 web design and its place. For personal sites you need to brand the site with your personality. If you are an illustrator then you have certainly told me about you. I am a photographer so my site is heavy on the photos I make. I do not think you need to say "blog." This fits into something I learned a long time ago. If you are a comedian make me laugh and I will think you are funny. Dont tell me you are funny show me. So if this is a blog just show me. I would move everything up a bit but if you have a reason for the length then that is ok. I am not a guy that believes in all the baloney about scrolling. This is the web people know you scroll. Imagine with me when the first person invented the book or magazine. We never say today how will anyone see my ad or story. People know what to do flip the pages. And so it is with the web if you have interesting content people will scroll. I would consider blowing out the imagery at the bottom. Take a look at vimeo.com and what they do with the footer area you might even consider making the image and footer blend together in one seamless area and not have that hard line. Use pngs. The world has moved on past jpgs and gifs. Transparency on the web is very cool in this environment. Have you considered the image at the top with the women as a place to put your top story of the week. The area to the right offers such a place. It could be a link or a snippet. The comments about the courier are interesting. As a system text it works to read your posts and fits this type of design. As a graphic font I do not think it works with your layout. You have a mix of fonts there in the logo area I would see if you could just select one and change the font style (bold, condensed, stroke, etc). I would urge you to explore a non traditional font family. myfonts.com or chank.com has lots of stuff that would work for not much money. You might also want to offer the viewer some idea of the area of design you want to focus on. Purpose and meaning are some of the words that come to mind. You could place links in the top illustrated background that might say "illustration" "grung brushes" "fantasy art" "women in graphic novels" I have no idea what you are up to but your images reflect my suggestions in that last sentence. I strongly believe a site needs images and text to smack the viewers brain into what is going on here, show me and tell me. Another big design conversation is extraneous imagery. Many of the usability pros point out that images offer nothing to the viewer unless they are product images. I understand their point but disagree when the site uses images to visualize the emotional connection to the viewer. My advice is to make sure your images have such a strong connection to the viewer that if you removed them the site would by nothing but text garbage. The images must have value in their presence on the page. Nice site good luck!

THIS IS THE BOMB! I would only change one thing..I'd balance off the content areas a bit more...probably just the ones at the bottom...

As I mentioned the illustrative work is awesome.

To me it looks like you focused mainly on the graphics and the actual purpose of the site was an afterthought. I think if you re focused on exactly how the blog will function and what/how you need to present information to your users to have a meaningful experience then the design will look more complete.

Quick example would be the fact that your headline is so big and doesn't really leave much room to display actual article content that would grab the reader.

Great work so far!

I think the site looks good. You are creative and it is just a start of what more you can accomplish.

It is a decent design, but in my opinion it needs improvement in following areas

1- Padding surrounding post images (both main and other posts) 2- Article title is too long, which has eat up all the white space which H1 needs 3- Create sufficient amount of white space surrounding H1. 4- improve design of other posts boxes

I love the use of white space. And I do think you hit your target market - the designers and such!

Great job!

Okay, i am noob, and they force me to review this kind of layouts. Seriously, please.

It is stunning. For me ;-)

Perfect colors and design but too much valuable white space on the page. I would shrink it a bit.

Hi,

I like the spirit of your work, a little bit grungy but readable and clear. I'll just put some social sharing acces (Twitter, Facebook foer example) and an RSS feed. This functions could be be on left side, and if you work on the graphic, it could be balance your blog deleting this empty space in the left.

Last thing : I'll put some title for each section : Highlitght, posts etc.

Bye

Beautiful design! The details are definitely what makes this an eye-catcher. I actually find myself a little annoyed that it's not live so I can explore a little more :)

I think that the type choice for your article headings could be a little better. The variation of stroke width and all caps makes it difficult to read. Also, as much as I love the detail at the top before the entry, I also can't help but feel that it's wasted space. Something to try, perhaps: move the title for the featured article into that space and reverse the type. Just a suggestion.

Also, the three boxes at the bottom...it bothers me a little bit that they're not all one height. Nitpicky, perhaps.

Overall, this looks amazing, and I'm looking forward to seeing the concept come to life!

Overall it is very strong.

I have a few critiques: 1. Remove the Courier. It feels dated and lacking purpose. Reducing the number of fonts will also reduce clutter. 2. Consider the H1 size. It mirroring the site logo reduces impact of both the logo and the header; especially with them both being in the same font. 3. Consider alignment of H1, its copy and its relativity to the content below it.

I'd be interested to see how the other pages are going to work. For instance, is the "Of Interest To" functionality going to appear anywhere else that the footer? It almost seems tied to the search or navigation of the site. Like, what does "index" and "archive" mean to somebody perusing the site? just something to think about. Overall, like I said, strong design just focus on the end user and their experience.