I've got brand new design, yay! (regular visitors hit reload in your browser)
This minimalist design is based on Hemingway, and I called this one 'Nomad'.
Always wanted to have fluid width theme (if only we could vectorize fonts!) so almost everything will stretch to accommodate for your screen space.
The original font I used is Lucida Grande, but everything seems to work nice: Georgia, Tahoma, Calibri
I was anxious to have it online (I accidently deleted the only copy of my Blue grace tweakd style so there was no turning back yikes), so you will witness some live tweaking the following days.
So, what do you think?
See also:
Posted in: Rants
TAGS:background color, but minimalist blog theme, minimalist blog, minimalist blog design, minimalist blog layout, minimalist blog navigation, minimalist blue designs, minimalist book layout, minimalist design, minimalist design layout wordpress, minimalist home design, minimalist web design, minimalist website design, minimalistic blog design, minimalistic designs blue, new minimalist
Hi! My name is Vladimir Prelovac. I am a computer engineer by profession and an adventurer by state of mind.
46 Comments
Too bad I am going to change it again soon :)
Hi Vlad and everybody !
You really improved this design! I almost like it now! Wow!
Hey Daniel, I think you are right - added a light background to the header to make it more distinguished.
Looks nice, liked this theme from the beginning as I found my way to your site few moments ago. There are things that could be made better (header could have some kind of light background color or some another visual clue so elements of it would stay together in better way), but this is still quite refreshing compared to many other visually overloaded blogs.
Well said. minimalism is me, at least for this moment.
Odlicno, svidja mi se dizajn.
Well... it certainly came as a surprise and quite a change from the previous design. Hence the magnitude of negative comments, maybe :) I personally love graphically richer website designs, but that's me. This, however, is your website and I think it represents who you are and more importantly, what you do. I do miss the beautiful photos in the header :)
To je to, ne diraj više ništa ;)
simple, pregledno i jasno
Vlad, I'm an avid reader of yours on email, so rarely visit the site, but i clicked through to check out the new design. I hate to say it but I'm not a fan.
Bandwidth rates are increasing around the world, so page load times are becoming less relevant (especially if you're using plugins for mobile visitor experience). These minimalist design websites tend to appeal to coders because they're clever / clean / quick to load from a code perspective, but to everyone else.. they're just visually boring.
Whilst I can personally vouch for your content's ability to captivate, consider that in advertising they say you have seconds to grab someone's attention before they move on. Finally, remember the old saying... "a picture is worth a thousand words".
kr,
Dave
Today I added more colors to headings (each category has its own color), and also changed to verdana font.
You're right Vlad, I didn't say why I don't like the minimalist design. It's just that I like colors, buttons and pictures. But I appreciate your work and your articles. Hopefully I discovered it before you changed the design :)
Anyway, continue the good work !
response to Michel {seesmic_video:{"url_thumbnail":{"value":"http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/I0ajCnZaXj_th1.jpg"}"title":{"value":"response to Michel "}"videoUri":{"value":"http://www.seesmic.com/video/FxDtO0O8zu"}}}
Excuse my poor english {seesmic_video:{"url_thumbnail":{"value":"http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/GahsiLOscQ_th1.jpg"}"title":{"value":"Excuse my poor english "}"videoUri":{"value":"http://www.seesmic.com/video/eLn9IoaNcm"}}}
Hi all!
I felt like I needed the change. The new design is also much lighter then the previous one (home page of only 21K compared to 250K of the old design). Which means its faster to load and browse.
I feel the navigation is not perfect yet so any suggestions in that direction are welcome.
How do you like the 'Recommend this post' feature?
Is the footer clear enough - can you find the old stuff?
Does sidebar need any more information?
Hey Vladimir,
I admire your "adventurerness".
It's also nice to see your video comments on the site now.
It looks like you're sitting on a throne in the video.
I guess that's only appropriate as you're a WP KING!!
Keep up the innovation and great content.
Sincerely,
dedicated lowly WP Peasant
Dick
Hi,
I am a regular reader and subscriber of your blog as well as the user of a number of your plugins. The new theme is clean and tidy, but, in my opinion, a little bit unattractive. Personally speaking, I like the old theme Blue Grace (possibly because I used to use it on my site in the past). However, things need to change time from time and the new theme is a welcome. I think a bit of graphic at the top in header will make it more attractive. And I think excerpts are a bit too short. Better to have longer excerpts so that people will read more. With a little tweak in design, I believe your new minimalist design will shine.
Vladimir, your minimalist design is starting to grow on me. I also admire your adventuresome spirit to break away and create something new. I use your Blue Grace design and have enjoyed "tinkering" with it.
Keep up the good work, and thanks.
Goran: Povecao sam h1, u pravu si. Manji mi se sidebar trenutno ne svidja. Redizajnirao sam opet home page (design is fun!)
Potrebna je samo mala vizuelan diferencijacija (bar po meni):
- H1 posta uvećati
- umanjiti veličinu fonta sidebara
Ništa više, ostaće minimal, ali če biti ne IA gradacije ;)
@Goran: Ubacio sam jos neke navigacione elemente ali akopreteram vise nije minimalizam :) Daj konkretne predloge.
@Domainer: It's exactly one sentence I will test other layouts as well.
V,
Another suggestion.
You need to add more words to perk their interest to read more.
A couple words is not going to get them to read further.
Uh, sviđa mi se, pogotovo Comments sekcija, ali ovaj "ravan" dizajn čini da se u gornjem - Post delu teže snalazim. Mislim da nedostaje malo "grafičke hijerarhije" da bi se povećala čitljivost.
Technically, I think this theme is great. I'm sure Vladimir put a lot of good stuff under the hood.
But design wise, it's nothing to write home about. It's uninteresting and bland.
However, I'm sure a lot of folks will like it enough to use it.
Guys check it again, I am satisfied with the progress and this is nearly there. Don't forget to hit refresh.
Did you hit reload in your browser Brian - you might be seeing the old css file.
Sorry Vlad, not so sure on this one.
I was so close to e mailing you to warn you that your site was down..... looks like a wordpress site that has no access to the css file.
But, like much of your stuff, I'm sure it will grow on me and I'll end up hacking it to bits.
Brian
Hi Vladimir,
I'm going to go against what most people are saying:
I LOVE YOUR NEW DESIGN.
It's not quite there yet, but I adore the direction you're going in. Perhaps playing with font weights is something you could try, or using different fonts for headings and body text.
All in all though well done mate!
I love it!
Clean, highly readable, beautiful use of colour.
New redesign is up
- added color
- added sidebar navigation
- added footer navigation
- all links from the all theme are connected
You may need to hi refresh in your browser.
Hello, Prelovac! We are your fans in Brazil! Sorry the bad English, I am Brazilian and I never spent much of its language.
Use and love of your beautiful Grace. This is not minimalist evil, but is not as good as Grace. A complicated thing is to find the links, because everything was different "too much".
Something very cool is this fluidity. Really good. Actually thought and elegant, but too minimalist for a site with so much content ...
Hé hé!
I like the video!
But I **REALLY** don't like that theme. I can't understand how you can defend that design when you did such nice things as Amazing Grace. The only good thing is the fact that it display on the total width of the screen.
Please Vlad, stop that joke!
New Design {seesmic_video:{"url_thumbnail":{"value":"http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/dnLSpgIuxx_th1.jpg"}"title":{"value":"New Design "}"videoUri":{"value":"http://www.seesmic.com/video/qeRZBCKLAU"}}}
I am a regular visitor of your website, but don't find the new layout readable. I took me a while to get used to it and find the new blog posts. Sometimes I prefer reading news on a website, and that is what I had with the old design. But with this design I think I will only read your posts in a feedreader.
Furthermore: Where is the book announcement? In the old layout it was an eye catcher, but now I need to search that you actually wrote a book.
Let's make it simple...
I HATE THAT NEW DESIGN
I like your comments, although many are not in favor of the new theme.
I really do not want to be known as the guy who made 'Grace' theme (like those tv actors known by their shows). It's time to move on.
It's still now final, I am tweaking it. Give it a chance
Vladimir, I loved the Grace themes -- they are by far the best! And where did the forum go?
I agree with the point that it is too much white area.
Plus, the greyish/black font makes the white more pronounced.
Maybe, more black.
And, one more color font scattered about for contrast.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
It is so much different from blue grace that it makes it feel strange.
It might grow on me. :)
Hi Vlad... I admire you so much, and don't want to make you sad... but truly, I don't like it. Someone already said, too minimalist. Years ago when the grocery stores first began offering "generic" foods, the packaging (at least in Denver, CO) was like this. Stark white, black fonts. And that is what this reminds me of. I am gently suggesting that you return to the beauty of Grace. Think about branding. Think about what you've worked so hard toward... and people DO recognize you by Grace. There's little for the eye to do, here. Nothing leads you on to the next visual adventure, and yes, your Grace site was excellent for the visual cues that enticed folks to venture further. Once a person clicks on down to the bottom of these pages, the light gray of your footer area is a relief. Even that amount of light gray gives the eye something to do. The one thing I DO like however, is this fluidity! I am guessing that images will play havoc with that. Vlad, I miss Grace. Bring her back.
Leanne
I really dont like it! It's too minimalistic - I'd like to see some color in here!
I liked it and would like to download it, so where is the downloading link
If it's messy you need to hit refresh to reload the CSS.
The font site uses is Lucida Grande, but I really like Georgia too. Lucida more techy, Georgia more personal.
Looks very nice clean but with liquid layout bit too much whitespace on widescreen.
How about Verdana or Georgia?
Raja Sekharan
it's a little messy...
I am intrigued to see what happens net; unlike seven I like Arial; looks promising.
It's refreshing to see the new design, but the typeface is not that attractive to me :D