Nine Point Oh, or Sangria

Holy crap, it’s finally up. I am very proud to introduce Version 9.0, a design that has been about two months in the making. At least 17 designs were scrapped in the process, including a few that made it all the way from scribble to Photoshop mock-up to fully-functional website. If you’d like, you can call her Sangria — the link colors remind me of oranges and red wine.

I wanted the site to be outfitted in a look that stays out of the way of the content, but is extremely designed at the same time. That’s what I feel I have achieved with Sangria. I realize that these days a lot of people remain within the confines of their feed reader, but I hope that the new design encourages them to pay the site a visit every so often.

A couple months ago, while brainstorming in my notebook, I jotted down phrases like “emphasis on beautiful typography,” “minimalism and lots of white space,” “let the content speak for itself.” After weeks of revising and perfecting the design, I feel that I have finally reached those goals. Taking advice from “Design is in the Details” over at A List Apart, I obsessed over every facet of the site, analyzing it at various times and in various settings, removing anything deemed unnecessary or superfluous. I am very happy with the results and can’t wait to start filling the site with fresh content.

I plan on writing a more detailed recap of the design process in the coming days, so keep an eye out. I learned so much over the last two months, and would love to share that knowledge with the rest of you.

If you guys come across any bugs or glitches, I’d greatly appreciate it if you left a note in the comments. On many occasions, I didn’t make it to bed until the sky had begun to brighten and my brain had started to fry, so I know there’s a mistake or two somewhere.

That’s all for now.