This month we will be taking about blog design. As a blogger I know how important it is to have a clean , professional layout after all your blog layout is like a shop window if it is not presented well then people will not go in and its the same with your blog. If it looks crap no one will want to explore your blog or return to it. I recently came across a new blog The Beauty Revolution and my instant thought was how lovely the blog design was so I contacted Sarah and she has kindly given her five tips regarding blog design. These tips are brilliant and I have taken a lot of advice from them.
Sarah's five tips are :
Colour Scheme – For me, colour scheme is one of the
most important (and most difficult!) decisions that you need to make when
designing your blog. Before you’ve decided on a colour scheme, you can’t really
start designing your blog at all! You can use as many colours as you like, as
long as they all look good and work well together, but as a general guideline,
I would recommend choosing between 2-3 colours. Not only will this make it
easier for you to stick to your colour scheme throughout your whole design, but
I also feel that using only a few colours gives your blog a clean, elegant
feel. However, if you feel that you want to use more than 3 colours, go for it!
Just make sure that all of your colours go well together (for example, make
sure that they are all light colours, or pastel colours) and be careful to
coordinate where you’re using your different colours (don’t overuse one and
forget about another halfway through!).
Headers - Your header is another super
important aspect of your blog design. You want your header to be striking so
that it catches the reader’s attention! First of all, you need to decide on the
size of your header – you don’t want it to be so big that it dominates the
page, but at the same time, you want it to be big enough to read easily. Try to
keep your header design quite simple – this doesn’t mean that it should be
boring, or lacking imagination, just that it should be direct and to the point!
Personally, I think that the most effective headers are usually black and
white, with just a pop of colour, however, don’t be afraid to incorporate the
colours you have chosen for your colour scheme into your header – coloured
headers can be just as effective ! Just make sure to spend some time trying out
your colours (or images!) together to work out what looks best.
Backgrounds and Buttons – Okay, I’ll start with backgrounds.
When you’re choosing your background colour (or image, if that’s what you
fancy!), make sure that your font will still be visible and easy to read
against the background that you choose. For instance, don’t use a dark coloured
font on a black background – it’ll be almost impossible to read! Designing your
blog buttons (such as twitter and Facebook buttons) is pretty straight forward.
Just make sure that they are big enough to catch your reader’s attention (but
not so big that they dominate your page!), that they are a colour and shape
that work well with the rest of your design, and that they are strategically
placed on your blog – voila! (Oh, just a quick little extra – if you don’t have
the time or skill to design your own buttons, there are plenty of pre-existing
buttons online. Just type ‘social media buttons’ into Google images and take
your pick!).
Don’t be afraid of HTML! – Don’t be put off of designing your
own blog by the whole concept of HTML – it’s not as scary as it looks! I was
scared to play around with my blog’s HTML in the beginning because I was
worried that I might do something wrong and mess up my blog – but don’t panic!
It’s super simple to save a copy of your blog’s current HTML template and
revert to that if anything goes wrong!
Google is your best friend – Literally. Everything that I know
about designing my own blog, I learned from tutorials that I found on Google. Want
to change an aspect of your blog, but you’re not sure how to? Simply type what
you want to do into Google, and before you know it, you’ll have hundreds of
tutorials (many of which have been written other bloggers) at your fingertips!
All you need is a little patience and you’ll be on your way to a beautiful blog
in no time!
Do you have any blog design tips ?
Great post, Sinead! I absolutely agree to your tips, especially the last part. My readers tend to ask me how/what did I do to achieve a certain effect/design when it comes to my blog theme, and though I love helping them out, I wish they would ask Google sometimes for help. :)
ReplyDeleteYou should also add Consistency in your tips. Like when you post photos, make the width consistent because irregular width looks tacky.
xo Kisty
kisty.net
Great post and tips! and I agree, I think blog design is so important in attracting people to your blog :D xo
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