Nov 15, 2011

Blog redesign

Yesterday I shared a photo of my blog redesign for the crazyjoy challenge. This has been my little labor of love.

crazyjoy = business

Why the redesign? Well, I finally got around to redesigning my website and wanted them to have a similar look. For those that are new to this blog, I'm a graphic designer turned work-at-home-mom-freelance-designer. I love being able to be at home with my girlie and still have a creative outlet in the freelance world. Check out my website to find out more about what I've done, what I do and to see some of my recent work. I'd love to hear what you think.

One of the things I love about design is the concept stage. This is when a client comes to me with a name/idea of their business and need me to turn it into something visual. I sketch, sketch and sketch various ideas before narrowing them down and turning them into computer generated graphics. I love the hands on part of this step and wanted to communicate that throughout my website.

I drew every single graphic, logo, poster and photo for thumbnails. Like I said folks, this was my labor of love. I really love how the rollovers turned out on the site. Once I had it all up and running, I scrolled around for several minutes just watching the sketches switch to graphics.

Once I finished my website, it was time to redesign my blog. I really liked the feel of the old design: soft, girly and clean. And not that I'm not any of those things (those of you that know me giggle here), I just wanted a change and I wanted it to have the same feel as my website.

blogsketches

Here's a quick rundown of the changes, starting from the top.

New hand-drawn header and menu bar.

newdesignheader
  • I sketched out the frames, title and added some color photos to give it a little warmth and color.
  • I also wrote out the menu and scanned in took pictures of each word and uploaded them for a completely custom menu bar.
  • I also changed the background to a grid pattern I created in photoshop that matches my website.
New hand-drawn sidebar graphics.

newdesignsidebar
  • I sketched out several different frames and used those for all the sidebar links
  • I updated my website link to include the logo
  • I sketched out each of the social network logos for pinterest, flickr and twitter
  • New buttons for crazyjoy challenge and button for my blog
  • I also moved the search bar down so it's not at the top

That about sums up the changes. Now that I have all that set up I'll probably work on adding some rollover effects to match my website. What do you think?

6 comments:

  1. Girl, I am impressed that you sketched it all out. Awesomeness. I think the rollovers would be awesome for your blog! It would def. be consistent to your website although it pretty much is! If we lived closer, you could be a part of our Operation Dumbo Project that me and a couple of graphic designers have started! I'll tell you more in an email!

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  2. I love it! Looks great Leslie!

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  3. your new layout looks wonderful! i love all of the personal details that you did yourself. love it all!

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  4. Hey Lesley! I love the new website/blog design.

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I know it can be a little scary but go on, I'd love to hear from you!