OK, so here’s what’s going on here. I’ve been hugely inspired by the color scheme of Chaotic Soul (the best dark theme I’ve seen to date) which was created by Bryan Veloso. So, most of the colors with this redesign are taken from there. Also, the Trebuchet MS font family was used because it looked so good on Chaotic Soul.
I designed this site to be somewhat akin to Kottke’s site in that it’s a more refined tumblelog with a sidebar. I say “refined” tumblelog because unlike my previous attempts at a tumblelog I will not generally be just posting up links with a little thought next to it. My goal is to, like Kottke, produce more original content than a simple link-log.
You won’t see many images posted here. You won’t see many chat snippets. My goal is to create a site full of quality content. Enjoy.
P.S. – I should point out that most posts will not have comments enabled. This is by design. If a post has comments enabled you will see a little comment bubble in the lower right hand corner of the post →
P.P.S. – I’m still working on getting it to render properly in ie7. Hang tight.
36 Comments
I like!!
But ya know… I think the swirly lacy thing at the top right corner could use a punch of hot pink… like a shadow or something. just a thought.
That\’s not a bad idea.
I love it Ben! One of the best dark designs I have ever seen! I am jealous!
Thank you, Will.
Suh-weet … I like it very much.
Likin\’ this design as well. Really dig the dark comment form too. =)
Not to be a grouch (though I love being a grouch), shouldn\’t that background be that manga
I don\’t know, John. The pink frills seems to juxtapose well with the masculinity of the rest of the design.
I like it, now if only the text was a bit bigger. I guess there\’s always ctrl +
I can\’t stand like light text on dark. Otherwise I\’d say this new design was extremely slick…
~
I like light text on dark
.
i really like this! good job!
I like it Ben. I\’m glad you settled on the Kottke style blog, it\’s what I\’ve settled on and to be honest seems to be the best medium between blogs and tumblelogs. Seems to be sometihng with going dark these days
I agree with the kottke thing. Honestly, I feel like I\’m a late-comer to the darkness
.
Lookng good Ben.
Looks great!
Sweet design man!
Wow, this is really nice, big change after having a predominantly white site for so long. Its all so clean and neat, Love it.
[...] Ben’s been at it again! [...]
Shawn\’s being sarcastic. Look at his site. =) Light text on dark.
Once again… so freaking envious. Great design Ben, I love it.
@Ben: Yeah, I figured that
@Nick: thanks
are you kidding me, this is an amazing re-design ben!
Thank you, Wess
I like it. Really digging the color behind the sidebar.
Nice design… in fact, a little TOO nice. This looks very similiar to my own as-ye-unreleased/unfinished redesign… in fact enough so that it\’s back to the drawing board for me… ah well.
hmm, my previous comment was slightly misleading… I didn\’t mean to make it sound as if I thought you \”stole\” my design or anything (I haven\’t even shown it yet!). Just that your nice redesign reminded me of my own redesign enough that I\’m going to change it up now. =)
Rock!
aww.. sad day! Apparently I missed the pink frilly thing.
but I like the blue frilly thing. Good job!
@Derek: Coming from you, that\’s a huge compliment.
@Jesse: I didn\’t even know you were redesigning
@Anna: Yeah, the pink looked really good, but was a little to \”BOOM\” for me.
Love the: colors, logo (really love variable font weights), divider lines, font, blue swirl (and how it comes into the foreground a tad).
I\’m unsure about the margin below the sidebar. It seems a little fat because the height doesn\’t (appear to) have a meaningful relationship with anything else on the page.
The other nitpick is how the sidebar links (articles, about, etc.) don\’t line up (or not line up) in any meaningful way with the left column. And the space below them is larger than the space above, which makes the first issue more apparant to me.
Everything else seems so specifically and deliberately layed out, so those two (pretty minor) issues seem especially clumsy and arbitrary.
I should be so lucky to have your problems! Great job!
Good eyes, Zack. Thanks for that feedback.
Love the new design!
How did you make the blue \”frilly thing\”?
Did you delete my comment?
@Jeff: It\’s a combination of a Photoshop Brush and some creative use of gradients.
@Zack: I\’ll look through my comment spam, see if Akismet caught it by accident. As a general rule I don\’t delete any comments unless they\’re spam. Now that I think of it, I did see a comment in Russian that I deleted the other day, was that yours?
Oops, my mistake. I was subscribed to two threads and didn\’t see my more memorable one here, so I thought I got censored by the Man, sorry man.
No way bud. It\’s a very strict rule of mine that I don\’t delete comments. Not a problem though, no offense taken