Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with blog and design

Print is dead; help me replace it

TochterAusElysium — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 09:16:34 -0800

What's the best platform for a local community news and events site? I've volunteered to set up a site which will serve as a news source, events calendar, and community hub for an area encompassing three or four small cities. I've done personal blogs, and a single-area blog in Blogger, but for this larger project I'd like to expand my options. Is Wordpress a better way to go?

Are there other platforms I should look at? I know Ning is dead or dying (or so I've heard) but it seemed to have the flexibility to do something like this. I don't mind learning a new system, but I'm not a programmer, so I don't feel ready to build a site from scratch. Ideally, there is a pre-existing community news platform that I can customize to be exactly what is wanted.

Also, do you know of any local blogs or community news sites that are well-designed and useful that I could look at as reference?

Many thanks in advance!

blog 1.0

milkdropcoronet — Mon, 04 May 2009 10:03:26 -0800

Hi all, trying to get a super simple text blog going, but it seems really complicated -- even for someone like me, who is between clueless and tech-savvy on the web know-how spectrum... I have my heart set on this design: http://demo.plaintxt.org/, inspired by another personal blog here.

I have a free Wordpress account but can't figure out how to get the new theme to work.

As you can see, I'm really looking for a text- and content-centric design that says more "stripped down minimal geek" versus "bubbly shiny web 2.0 widgetwitter" :)

Perhaps I'm not geeky enough to deserve such a thing! I wish I could outsource this project for a quick, easy fix! Any takers? We could barter!

Where to find a custom Wordpress theme designer?

Elminster24 — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 19:09:33 -0800

Help me find a professional and inexpensive Wordpress theme designer for my small law firm client's redesigned website. I can't seem to find one anywhere! I have a small law firm client that is looking to redesign their website. I'd like to have it created on the Wordpress platform to make it easy for them to update and add content on their own.

I've been checking on WarriorForum for freelance designers but so far no luck. Where can I go to find a good freelance Wordpress theme designer who has a strong understanding of what is needed to make a nice law firm site (and not some crappy theme I could buy for $5 off any old theme site)?

Of course there's a catch...I need this done cheap ($100-200 max) as I am eating the costs of this (long story, don't ask).

I would be providing the designer with a full strategic creative brief, architecture and direction throughout the project but want someone who can do a competent job on the coding and making it optimized for search.

Where can I send out requests? Also, if you fit the needs here, post a link to your portfolio and I'll be sure to take a look.

I'm not opposed to outsourcing this to India via Rentacoder or eLance or something like that, but I've never used them and have no idea how to tell if a company is reputable or not or whether they'll be able to do a good job and have a good understanding of english.

Ideally I'd like to find someone locally in Chicago but they'll probably charge a lot more.

Blog Archaeology!

johnbaskerville — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:47:33 -0800

Would anyone be able to help me uncover remnants of a 1999 era blog called Evol Star or something to that effect? Details inside. The blog was before the height of LiveJournal and MySpace, and it was run by two girls who may or may not have lived in Texas. I always assumed they were roommates. There interests seemed to drift between the Gorillaz, Noam Chomsky, design, and, again, maybe Texas. The girls were hip and featured quite a few photos of themselves and their flat on the website.

There were quite a few introspective, twentysomething styled posts about adult life and that sort of thing, and I, much younger at the that, always thought their blog was the coolest thing out there. Any chance anyone knows what happened to these women?

Google, the Wayback Machine, and MySpace have failed me. My Google-Fu is decent enough, and I would think, given the content that I remember, that these two would have kept on with their internet lives.

Wordpress themes for legal websites

Elminster24 — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 13:05:40 -0800

Where can I find a free Wordpress theme to use on a lawyer's website? My father is a lawyer and I'm helping him redo his website. There isn't a ton of content on it, mostly just a couple pages of text and then some news items and some images.

Based on that, I figured it would be good for me to set him up with a Wordpress-based site to help make it easy for him to add/edit new pages and news items without me needing to update actual HTML files for him every time.

That said, can anybody recommend good places to look for FREE or INEXPENSIVE (that being ~$50) Wordpress themes that do not have animation/Flash components that would be good for a lawyer's website? I'm thinking simple and elegant.

He's an environmental/OSHA lawyer as well if that helps narrow things down.

I am able to modify the code to incorporate his images and make basic changes but I don't want to be redoing the entire layout. I need an easy way to add a Contact Us form on the homepage as well if anybody knows of any good Wordpress widgets for that.

Thanks for your help guys--I'm happy to answer any additional questions you may have as well.

Show me good blog designs.

pineapple — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 12:08:35 -0800

Form plus function, please. Recommend some blogs that you like for their successful combination of design plus usability. I have been tasked with providing a list of well-designed blogs for review, to a colleague of mine who is heavy on tech skills and light on design, and wants to take a submersion course in those who are doing it right, right now. Content comes first, so we are seeking sites that execute well at pretty-but-quietly-effective wrappers -- instead of design for the sake of showing off one's design's skills.

(I have already seen this AskMe and this one, but the former was really seeking good content, and the latter is almost three years old -- I plan to peruse it but expect that the designs that were cited for goodness in 2005 have likely changed today. I also checked previous threads with tags "blogdesign"; the responses are obsolete IMO)

Open to all suggestions, but special appreciation will be given to those where the site ticks some or all of the following boxes:

Conveys the blogger's "brand" quickly and effectively

Easy-to-read posts, where the headlines and meta-data are distinct and don't distract from the content

Clever use of categories, tags, or whatever system the author is using to demonstrate the different topics of post

Effective incorporation of graphics and photos

Has the blogger solved content-variety problems without overwhelming the reader? ie. does the site manage to present "regular" blog posts, and also longer essays, and also those micro-sidebar-one-off things?
Some element of timelessness: is the design going to age gracefully? Or is it laden with what will become the Comic-Sans and shiny rounded-corner gradient buttons of its time... immediately dating itself as having been launched in 2008?

Effective handling of advertising, if applicable

Avoids "overdesign," where every element is some custom icon, the header is five inches high and crammed full of visual stimulus, and the decorative fonts are practically unreadable. You know the type.

There is potential for sites-which-are-not-blogs to be worth mentioning here, but the most helpful answers will be ones that understand that we are looking for design that complements a very specific site purpose... which is blogging, or otherwise providing short chunks of outward-looking content on a regular basis. For example, the site designs at Overstock, Etsy and the New York Post might ring all your bells, but would be of little use here.

Your commentary is exuberantly welcomed: why you like it, what works for you about the site, what the blogger seems to have "figured out" that other people haven't. Or what you maybe have gleaned, as a regular blog consumer, about the direction that design is headed. Or blog designs that you don't like, as long as you can articulate why in a constructive way that is relevant to the bullets above (A slamfest isn't productive, and I can certainly find generically bad design myself).

Thanks, MeFites! I look forward to the collective brilliance of your thoughts.

float, padding, margins, wrappers, %0px1.2em!11!! oh my!

iamkimiam — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 11:03:55 -0800

I'm going crazy trying to adjust my blog template. It seems that when I change the browser window size, the body, sidebar, and header all move independently. If I make the window wider, the right edges of the sidebar and header do not align. If I make the window less wide, the whole sidebar crunches into body text (fine) and eventually gets kicked off the side by the body (not fine). Ideally, I'd like them all to line up, move/scale together side-to-side, and not get kicked around. I know this has to do with adjusting float, padding, margins, wrappers, percentages, and pixels. I've been tweaking with the variables, hitting preview, observing changes, for way too long. If somebody could please help me fix this, or point me towards an easy tutorial that won't take up too much of my time to decipher, I'd be forever grateful. Thanks!

Blog is in my profile, but I would be really appreciative if it were NOT linked to in this thread. Thanks!

Personality-Based Design/Arts/Fashion Blogging - new trend?

divabat — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:02:05 -0800

Is there a specific term/genre that defines bloggers such as Gala Darling, Nubby Twiglet, Queen Gilda, Doe Deere, This is Star, and Agent Lover? Has anyone tracked this? I've noticed a few of those sort of blogs recently, sharing similar things in terms of aesthetics and content:

* Young female, using a glamorous pen name
* A mix between personal life, recommendations of products/people, and how-tos based on everyday life (such as How To Be Fabulous)
* Plenty on design, fashion, style, culture, trends
* Blogger likely to be an artist or other creative person
* Promotes the blogger itself as a brand
* "Things I Love Tuesday" (possibly started by one of those bloggers)
* Similar layouts

A few of these blogs cross-link to each other, but other than that I don't see anything that suggests they're part of a collective or tight group of friends. Rather, it seems to be a growing sub-trend of blogging, and I was wondering if anyone else had noticed this and/or done some research on these blogs.

They're like camgirls in the sense that there's quite a bit of voyeurism into their personal lives, but it's not constant. They're seen as icons and inspiration, and have enough followers to even sell products with their branding (AFAIK Gala Darling lives on Adsense income). When I was a teen, random-content-heavy personal sites, often with vector illustrations, were the Big Thing; this seems like an outgrowth of that.

Is there a name for this? Does anyone else fit this aesthetic?

How to find a good wordpress designer?

teststrip — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:33:32 -0800

I'm seeking recommendations for a wordpress designer. For a culture/design/style blog. Fresh & modern look desired. Assume I would like someone to do all of the work (back end & graphics)! Who's good out there? Where's a good place to look?

Two Blogs, One Site

Bageena — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:59:06 -0800

My wife and I want to start a blog. Amazing new idea, right?! Anyways, we're bored and we have too much free time, so we want a place to write down or show things we think are funny. I used to keep a blog on typepad, so I'm familiar with using a service like that, but how possible would it be to setup a website where there are two blogs on it, running side by side? I hope you can kind of imagine what I'm saying; a header at the top, some gradient and grungy background or something, but split down the middle with two areas to write on - one for her and one for me. Would this take some kind of insane code that would be impossible for a complete novice like myself to write? Please help. Or hey, if you're a web designer and want to help me, I'll draw you some artwork. I'm half decent. I mostly just want to know if it's possible and any links to websites demonstrating it, anyways. Thanks!

Turn of dates in iWeb 08

wavejumper — Sun, 04 May 2008 21:54:44 -0800

How do I get rid of the date showing up in iWeb 08 blogs? In iWeb 06 you could easily turn them off, I remember, allowing you to use the "blog" template for all sorts of other kinds of non-dated subdirectory webpages. What I'm talking about just to clarify is that under the title of each blog entry on your main blog page in the '08 version will show up the date or time in some form. You can choose different versions of it (i.e. March 4th, 2008 as opposed to 3/4/08) but I can't seem to turn it off! Any hints or hacks?

Someone must be blogging about blogs, right?

lhl — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 02:02:39 -0800

Is anyone out there publishing analysis or actively tracking interesting developments/trends in blogging in terms of the emerging patterns in the form and functionality of the blogs themselves? The type of stuff that I'm thinking about is like Luke Wroblewski's Blog Interface Design 2.0 article (2005) or the posts on blog layouts that Jonathan Boutelle was doing (2005-2006) - the examples here are focusing more on the nuts and bolts, although I'm also open to coverage/discussion of more macro-trends (flare, codes, tumblelogs, migration onto social networking sites, etc).

Barring that, if anyone's seen anything really interesting in the past year or two, post away.

I will write about penises too

barrakuda — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 09:48:30 -0800

I want to blog. Got the host (Dreamhost). Got the blogware (Wordpress). Have an idea (Magazine for chicks). Don't have anything else. Help. I want to start a blog. A blog that essentially would be a web magazine for women. Problem is, I've never blogged before in my life. I'm kind of lost when it comes to using Wordpress. I don't really like any of their stylesheets (a word I picked up yesterday) and was wondering if I could design something of my own. I don't know any programming languages. I probably don't know what I'm getting into, but I do want to blog.

So help me, what are some resources I should read? Is there something in particular I should learn? Where do I go to learn how to design a stylesheet? And what should I know and learn if I want to be serious about this blog? Any links, online courses and tips would be greatly appreciated.

Also, if any women out there want to voice what they want to read about... My assumption so far is to write a bit about fashion and beauty and health, but also female heroes, travel, interesting books. I feel that most female magazines treat themselves too seriously and their readers as empty-headed consumerist bimbos. So if you have an opinion either way, tell me what you'd like your favorite mag to look like (links to interesting female blogs appreciated)

Super easy, foolproof web design and hosting?

krudiger — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 18:41:40 -0800

I need an easy (free or very cheap) way to make and host websites. I've been using blogger since it is free and easy, but I'd ideally like more of a website format, rather than a blog format (no comments, and being able to keep my main messages right at the top). Any advice appreciated. I'm extremely clueless when it comes to webdesign and hosting. Which is why blogger has been so nice. I've designed this blog at:

www.pickingupafterthepeacock.blogspot.com

for a campaign i'm working on (i'm not trying to be self promotional, just so you get an idea of what I'm trying to do.) I'd like to do this kind of thing often, but could really use an easy way to make and host a website. Any help appreciated.

logo design blogs

chuckforthought.com — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 13:47:04 -0800

Logo design blogs? I'm interested in seeing updates and new logos out there. I googled and couldn't find sites that specialize in blogging logos.

Where can I find a weblog designer for Typepad?

IndigoSkye — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 11:55:46 -0800

Where can I find someone who can design an advanced typepad template for my blog for a reasonable price? I've been doing the 'blog' thing since 1999 using various platforms and hosts. But I've never quite mastered the vagrancies of CSS and MovableTyple MarkUp Language and now I don't have the time to. I have a moderately successful blog, in such that I have a lot of regular readers and am considered something of an expert in my subject, but I fear its design is holding it back. In fact, I've been getting lots of reports that it doesn't work well in Safari or Mozilla. I need someone who can take the design to the next level while still being usable across many platforms. I'm willing to pay for this service, but my budget is small. So I'd like to see examples of design work before making up my mind.

Does anyone have a designer with experience working with advanced typepad templates who they would like to recommend?

Blogs with great designs?

TunnelArmr — Sat, 31 Dec 2005 17:57:31 -0800

What are some really well-designed, cool-looking blogs? I'm starting up a blog, and I don't want it to look like a blogspot-esque, cookie cutter site. I want to get creative with it and have a layout that makes people ooh and ahh. I'm using MT, so I have quite a bit of flexibility, but I need inspiration. What blogs do you guys consider really aesthetically pleasing and elegantly designed? I want a fairly zen layout, but not too minimalist, since I will have a number of different content areas. Thanks for your help!

Where can I get a RSS feed for photos that's NOT flickr to put on my blog?

riverjack — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 15:46:23 -0800

As a pretty prolific photographer and new blogger, I want to make my photos an important part of my Typepad basic blog. I'm looking for some kind of service that will let me upload my photos and then create some kind of (ideal) RSS feed or (less ideal) HTML code that I can put on my blog to show the 20 most recent photos or so. I need control over the feed or code to make the thumbnails or images the size I want to fit in the design. I've tried flickr and I'm less than impressed by the inability to change the size of the photos in the feed. I don't want to use a flickr badge - I want the user to see all the photos as they read my blog entries. I'd also like to prevent having large amounts of added "ads" on top of my photos advertising the service I'm using to provide the photos. The reason I'm looking for RSS is that I'd like to be able to set it up and not have to mess with it later. So when I upload new pictures, my blog will automatically update itself with the new photos. I'm open to other suggestions on how to accomplish something like this using a different method than RSS. If it comes down to it, I suppose I can handle manually changing the page, but it needs to be pretty simple (eg: copy and paste a page of text from one web page into my blog sidebar).

How do you become an internet phenomenon?

adrober — Tue, 06 Jan 2004 16:34:19 -0800

How do you become an internet phenomenon? I am a writer who wants exposure and my friends keep telling me to start a website. I've started many a blog--all dismal failures--and need perhaps good advice on how to (a) construct a unique, functional website that is easy to post on and (b) get exposure. Figured this was a good place to ask. Thanks!