New Minimalist Blog Design

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?

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Posted in: Rants
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46 Comments

  1. Goran Aničić
    Apr 13th, 2009

    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.

  2. Rudy
    Apr 13th, 2009

    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.

  3. Apr 13th, 2009

    Guys check it again, I am satisfied with the progress and this is nearly there. Don't forget to hit refresh.

  4. Apr 13th, 2009

    Did you hit reload in your browser Brian - you might be seeing the old css file.

  5. Brian
    Apr 13th, 2009

    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

  6. Andrew Burnett
    Apr 13th, 2009

    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!

  7. Marc
    Apr 13th, 2009

    I love it!
    Clean, highly readable, beautiful use of colour.

  8. Apr 13th, 2009

    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.

  9. Ecletica.1@
    Apr 13th, 2009

    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 ...

  10. Michel
    Apr 12th, 2009

    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!

  11. Apr 12th, 2009

    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"}}}

  12. Ruben
    Apr 12th, 2009

    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.

  13. Michel
    Apr 12th, 2009

    Let's make it simple...
    I HATE THAT NEW DESIGN

  14. Apr 12th, 2009

    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

  15. Olga Slavkina
    Apr 12th, 2009

    Vladimir, I loved the Grace themes -- they are by far the best! And where did the forum go?

  16. Domainer
    Apr 12th, 2009

    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. :)

  17. Leanne Boyd
    Apr 12th, 2009

    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

  18. Matthias
    Apr 12th, 2009

    I really dont like it! It's too minimalistic - I'd like to see some color in here!

  19. Mukesh Dak
    Apr 12th, 2009

    I liked it and would like to download it, so where is the downloading link

  20. Apr 12th, 2009

    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.

  21. Rarst
    Apr 12th, 2009

    Looks very nice clean but with liquid layout bit too much whitespace on widescreen.

  22. Raja Sekharan
    Apr 12th, 2009

    How about Verdana or Georgia?

    Raja Sekharan

  23. aritoni
    Apr 12th, 2009

    it's a little messy...

  24. Chris Dornan
    Apr 12th, 2009

    I am intrigued to see what happens net; unlike seven I like Arial; looks promising.

  25. SE7EN
    Apr 12th, 2009

    It's refreshing to see the new design, but the typeface is not that attractive to me :D

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About Vladimir

vladimir prelovac Hi! My name is Vladimir Prelovac. I am a computer engineer by profession and an adventurer by state of mind.

"I would love to change the world, I just don't have the source code yet."

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