During Chris’s two and a half weeks of Christmas vacation, we spent our time redesigning a few blogs. We had a grand time working together & making the interwebs a tiny bit prettier. I’ll be sharing a finished project each week along with a design tip (or two) for a better blog. Working with Farra of Daydreams and Things way back in December was a real pleasure. She was looking for a design that related to her chic aesthetic, but read differently than a regular magazine-style fashion blog. It was fun to stretch myself in more of an editorial direction and I'm really happy with the result. The soft coral breaks up the black and white space nicely and the light blue accents add more dimension than a light grey. Farra is an aggregator of pretty inspiration, so I wanted the design to play more of a supporting role in her blog. We kept it simple, and I love how it turned out. It's been a while since I've shared a blog/design tip! Here's one that Chris and I have been talking a lot about recently:

• Design Tip #6: Content First, Design Second •

When I work on a design for someone, I encourage them to keep posting while I'm working on the design. I can't always see the new direction by old content or no content. As a designer, it's easier to see if I need to make in-post graphics for the client (i.e. before & after graphics, numbers for round ups, etc), if they already have content rolling. So my advice if you're just starting in the blogging world, get some posts up! Get at least a month's worth of posts completed, before seeking out a designer. If you don't want it to be out there in cyberspace just yet, at least write those posts out in word documents so you have something concrete to show your designer. What kind of tips would you like to read about here? Next week we will be talking Pinterest, FYI.