Blog Creativity gets a redesign (#)

It has been three months since I launched this blog with a quickly whipped-up theme, and a redesign has been on the cards. While the previous theme was acceptable, I didn’t really feel satisfied with it. The feed subscription area was in a mess, the sidebar was too cluttered and there was no space for ads (though I’m keeping this theme ad-free too).

Enter Flickz. The funny-looking name aside, it has been designed from scratch to be fast loading, SEO-optimized and to support text-heavy articles (most posts on this blog are text-heavy). There are no eye-hurting colors or bold text here - just light and soothing elements to help readers focus on content. It has ample whitespace breathing life into the theme, subscription area in the header (leaving the sidebar clean and uncluttered).

The navigation bar looks familiar - it was inspired by Daily Blog Tips. The subscription area might also look similar, but I set out to solve one problem that DBT has : no subscription box in the header (where the feed icons reside).

Oh, and if it pleases you, this theme was built completely using open-source software (GIMP and Notepad ++). Next: building a theme on Ubuntu. I have to configure a local server on Ubuntu first, though.

I have been contemplating a release of the current and previous themes to the public (screenshots below), but do not know whether the effort will be worth it. Will you try/use the themes if I release them? Drop us a line in the comments if you would like to grab the theme.

Well, what are you waiting for? See the screenshots below, click through and give me your views in comments.

Before: The old theme

After: The new theme, Flickz

August 4th, 2008