Winter06 Wordpress theme

June 3, 2006

I’ve just made live my new Winter06 Wordpress theme for this blog. My inspiration/ideas came from a number of sources -

  • The weather - it’s cooler now and winter has officially begun here in New Zealand but thankfully there’s been many blue sky days to enjoy. I wanted the blog to feel airy, cool but not too cold.
  • Interior design trends - vintage and patterns are trendy again. I think this is a great swing and patterned wallpapers are balancing out the plain boring painted walls look. I’m reminded of the brown patterned wallpaper in my parent’s hallway as a little kid but the new trends are more than just pure retro - there’s an air of class (rather than cringe) in the new designs which are coming out.
  • Tired of Web 2.0 designs. Well not entirely, but every day I see more and more sites following the same trend so I figured I’d follow a slightly different trend here on my blog. (But yes, there’s still some subtle gradients in the mix.)

I’m not that happy with Wordpress’ in-built search function/results pages so I’ll probably tweak this amongst other things.

See also
Comments

  1. Looks awesome!
    The layout is fantastic, the gradients really separate the content nicely and the navigation is really well thought out. The way you have organized the archives seems so obvious but I havent seen it done like that elsewhere.

    I really like your pattern elements as well!

    This version is a triumph.

    Oh yeah - thanks for the splash at the bottom as well.

    — Gareth, June 3, 2006

  2. Personally, I much prefer this design over your last one. It’s got a great color scheme and great design elements. As always, I’m suitably impressed.

    — Nick, June 3, 2006

  3. I love this design so much Rachel, Awesome Work.

    — Cam, June 3, 2006

  4. Thanks for the kind comments :)

    — Rachel, June 3, 2006

  5. Stunning stuff

    — Darren, June 3, 2006

  6. Wow! I didn’t realise how the commenting worked last night, this is awesome, works an absolute treat!

    — Pete, June 3, 2006

  7. Nice! Makes me want to take some color out of my blog. But it’s summer here…

    — Anne, June 4, 2006

  8. Wow! looks smart.

    — SepehЯ, June 4, 2006

  9. Quite a change from the previous. I’m mixed on this one. I’m used to seeign something vibrant and sharp. I guess there’s always time to try something new.

    Then again, I may be somewhat biased as the weather out here in Seattle is sunny warm ;)

    — Derek Punsalan, June 4, 2006

  10. Looks awesome! The best blog design I’ve seen in a long time. I love that it’s different to the 2.0 cliche.

    And yeah, patterned wallpaper rocks!

    I think you’re going to start a bit of a trend and more people will start going for a design like this.

    — Andy Howard, June 4, 2006

  11. You are always a great source of inspiration!!!

    — Simone, June 4, 2006

  12. Great work again Rachel! I am glad you went with this one rather than the other theme you previewed in your ‘Winter closes in’ post.

    The only thing I am wondering about is the ‘Recent Projects’ section in the footer; are you going to fill it up horizontally as well? It just looks a little bare next to the great floral pattern.

    Well done again though.

    — Ben Bishop, June 5, 2006

  13. Love theme. Find it difficult to understand why it is different from your home page when they link so clearly

    — Erno Hannink, June 6, 2006

  14. Haven’t got around to updating the home page just yet - but it’s on my long to-do list after I get back from holiday :)
    I’ll also be putting more things in the footer.

    — Rachel, June 6, 2006

  15. Love the design Rachel. The simplicity of it, by way of the colours, or lack thereof, together with the empty spaces, are a great combo.

    My redesign is coming soon, and I will take some notes from your design :)

    — Mark Forrester, June 7, 2006