Last week i was hired to make a directory design for www.ultimateblogdirectory.com The old design looked

like a design from ‘95. The client wanted something fresh yet web 2.0 and simple(check picture). First of all i started thinking about a color combination so i decided to use a combination of green/blue/yellow/grey/orange and the usual stripes.

Check out his preferences:

It needs to be 3 column with the right and left columns available for adds and sponsored links.

Center colum would have categories, on the front page the center should have a place for ads or featured sites above the categories.

It should be a rounded web 2.0 style.

At the menu i designed a light blue hover that really blends into the design.

For the logo i used a cut lemon and added mirror effect to it, making it the symbol of the directory.

The coder didn’t design it quite as it is in my design, but in my opinion he did a good job although he omissed some elements, but 2 things that really matter are that the theme is XHTML and CSS valid

You can check out a working demo at www.ultimateblogdirectory.com

How did the Styleicious template get created?
Well yesterday and today i didn’t have much custom work to do, i finished all the custom designs that had to be finished and i got myself a big mug of coffee and yesterday night i started working on the template. The template is finished(the design itself) BUT to make sure everyone likes it and to improve it more i posted it on Digitalpoint for some reviews and suggestions. You can check out the thread at Stylicious Reviews The template has a very sleek look, and will have implemented lots of exciting plugins and features.

Lets check them out more detailed:

great looking web 2.0-ish logo

2 columns for you to have place to put extra content

WidgetBucks and Adsense READY!

widgetized sidebars

AJAX rating system

Thread tags

Tag Cloud

Recent posts and recent comments display

AJAX based Poll system integrated

great looking post display and commenting system

XHTML & CSS Valid

Great hover effects!

And last but not least : it will be 100% compatible with Wordpress v 2.3!

You will be able to download the template starting from 24th October(Wednesday), if the release gets delayed you can be sure that i will let you know.

Update(25th october):

The release is delayed to 30th october due to some problems. I had some problems at designing, but eventually everything came out right. The template is being coded as we speak, lets hope we won’t have any more problems.

Update(30th october):

 The release is further delayed due to coding problems(problem with the coder…needed to change him). But now i’m working with a good friend who tends to add more ajax features to it.

Read more in The Delay Thread 

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If you are interested in hiring me for a custom job feel free to send an email to slayer@webarea.ro

I recently started working on a new wordpress theme that i will release for free, it will be very web 2.0 styled and will be packed with lots of plugins and ajax features.

It will have 1 column on the left side and will look very sleek and professional.

I will NOT put any sponsored links on the theme, only a link-back to my blog as usual.

Any feature suggestions are welcome, regardless to say that the template will be wordpress 2.3 compatibile!

I made this template long ago, at first i wanted to sell sponsored links, but that sort of failed…these days no one wants to sponsor a wordpress template, because on wordpress.net they don’t accept sponsored themes anymore, so here i am releasing it for free to the public!

The template is fully functional with latest wordpress release!

The unique logo and the blended elements make it unique, clean and good looking.

I don’t think its necessary to say this but i will say it anyway: the template is XHTML valid!
It doesn’t contain any sponsor links, the only link is a linkback to my blog, so if you use this template please leave the link intact.

If you have any suggestions please leave a comment, any comments and suggestions are welcome!

Preview:

You can find a fully working demo at http://slayer.webarea.ro

Download:

Theme download link: http://thaslayer.com/downloads/misille2.zip

Alternate Download link:

http://slayer.webarea.ro/misille2.zip

I got really bored of the default logo modified so i decided to make a special web 2.0 looking but still trendy and professional logo for my webmaster forum . So i started checking fonts and gradients and well..it took me quite a lot till i found my desired fonts and I imagined a concept in my head, and then i started working on it. Grey and bright grey variations with a blue bar so i needed to think something that would fit. Blue is a must in a context like this, but i wasn’t really sure about the other color, i tried from red to white but none really it except orange so i went with it, i combined all together and edited the “w” and the “b” antennas and in my opinion it turned out unique, and brandable.

Any comments are welcome!

As promised here’s a preview of the templatye i made for nordicbots.com new website, you will be able to check out the full version as soon as the template will be coded. I had some discussions with Petyyy and its most probable that i will have to do some changes(because of the many elements in the box-es). Maybe dropdown menu’s, maybe AJAX, this will be decided later.The template is pretty web 2.0-ish(not completely). I really like green(mostly apple green) its one of my favorite colors so thats why i chose it, in my opinion the design turned out better than i expected meaning that i’m very satisfied also with it. What matters is that nordicbots.com will have a new and fresh face :D. The nordicbots staff wants to keep the website simple but to make the elements visible as possible and to have a user friendly navigation bar. As soon as some updates pop up you guys will be the first to know so stick around because there are plenty more interesting things to find out

Well, yeah…yesterday when talking to soczol i offered my services for free. Said and done. What would he like?…a “bright fresh design” he sais. I start asking him about color combinations and stuff, he encourages me “do it as you like, anything better than our current design is welcome”. For a designer its pretty hard to fulfill the client’s requests if he gets so few details and no sketch. I started working on the design yesterday, made the top part of the page(the header) and today i added the news elements and the footer, and of course i showed it to him. He totally liked it and gave me a GO to finish the template.

What color combinations did i use?

I used bright green and bright gray combinations with white background. It looks pretty web 2.0-ish but still it aint completely web 2.0 . Hopefully i will finish it today and tomorrow i will post the design i made, and then you can compare the old design to the new one