Well, I got tired of waiting! Our new site is live, in all it’s glory and grandeur. And it’s bugs. In all it’s glory, grandeur, and bugs.
This new site is a complete departure from the old. It’s built from the ground up on Expression Engine, and features a whole new look and feel for us.
The redesign was spurred by the desire to more tightly integrate the blog content with the static sections (portfolio, services, etc). Each page now features a right hand column with either recent or related links. The idea here is that when you’re on the services page, for example, a list of related blog posts will display alongside the static content. This way, you always get to see our most up-to-date thoughts on the subject you’re looking at.
I also wanted to experiment with using some of the powerful new dom scripts making their way around the web. I believe that used properly, these scripts can add a lot of value to a page. For example, in an effort to encourage readers to peruse the recent and related posts, I’ve added an accordian effect. This achieves two goals – first, the user gets a surprise. And surprises are memorable. Second, it allows me to display quite a lot of information in a dense space, without making the page appear too heavy. It also may have SEO benefits.
Visually, the site takes its inspiration from the 20s and 30s. I was playing with the word Studio, and it just gave me a sense of that era. The design is obviously more modern, but the flourishes and typography harken to that time.
I decided to include the flickr images on the home page to help give a visual sense of the personalities invoved here at The Blog Studio. We’re an interesting collection of folks. Hopefully these shots will give you a glimpse into who we are.
The portfolio section uses Slideshow Pro to pretty good effect. It’s a super flexible tool – one I’m not done refining, btw.
That statement holds true of the whole site: we’re not done refining, not by a long shot. I just couldn’t keep this under wraps any more!