One of the beautiful things about Canada is that it is truly a diverse society. From the food we eat, the clothes we wear and the music we listen to, Canada passionately incorporates aspects of all our many backgrounds. No where is this more evident than in the designs we create. To celebrate Canada’s birthday, I thought I would share some design inspiration from North of 49. 

(Note: I’m posting this today because I will be at the cottage tomorrow! Happy 1 year, Sara and me!)

From harissonsantos.com.

From LG2 Boutique.

From FRESHFAUXX.

From the guy who created CSS Zen Garden.

From SmashLab.

Happy Canada Day, everyone!

Many times design is less about the grand, and more about the minute details. In this short series, I want to share some great design elements. These are the parts of design you aren’t supposed to notice, and yet many times they make the design. In part one of this series, we’ll be looking at date displays on blogs.

When the blog emerged as a social tool on the web, one of the highlights of the technology was the ability to update on a regular basis without the need to mess around with code. Because of this ability to regularly update, it was important to indicate when each update was made. On many blogs, this is done simply with a sentence in the form of “Published on xx/xx/xx,” or, “Posted by John Smith at 12:00am.”

In the following examples, the display of the post date is somehow creatively displayed. Rather than simply a sentence in the content, it is an enhancement to the overall design. In some cases, the date display is a work of art on its own.

antiphrasis.com

blog.seanklassen.com

conceptplusdesign.biz/blog

ilovetypography.com

jasonsantamaria.com

lindseybreeden.net

thinkingserious.com

viget.com/inspire

I am sure there are many more great examples, but hopefully these will inspire you to take some time to think creatively and strategically about how something as simple as the date display on your blog entries is designed.

“It Ain’t Easy Being Green” - the heartsong of frogs and oil companies everywhere. However, there is another type of person who, if the following websites are any indication, don’t have the slightness trouble with the colour green.

According to Wikipedia, green can have contradictory meanings. In some cultures, it may symbolize hope or growth, while in others it may be associated with death, sickness, or the devil. Whatever the meaning, in a world where the word “green” is such a huge buzz word designers seem to be painting the theme in the mind of the consumer. Here are just a few green-themed designs that I’ve found lately.

Green Base

The following designs use green as the base colour. Most produce a clean, modern look, however there are a few that use it in a grungier manner.

Green Highlights

The following designs use green as a highlight for logos, links, etc.

Right now in London, there are several discussions happening regarding drive-thrus. On one side, fast food companies argue that it will hurt business, while environmentalists argue that the earth is paying the price.

Well, I think I’ve found the argument to end all arguments for this issue.

What would become of the Crystal Wedding Chapel, Canada’s first drive-thru, Vegas style wedding chapel?

This week I started putting together a new theme for my blog. As I posted earlier, the one I was using just wasn’t cuttin’ it. So, starting from scratch, I built this new theme. For now, I’m calling it “Munctional.”

There are a lot of things that I love about this theme, including the About section at the top, the layout of the footer, the position of the date stamp, and much more. I hope that these things aid the use of the site, and I’d love to hear your thoughts as to how everything works/does not work, and where you see potential for improvement. I’ll be posting about some of the cool features and details that I have incorporated in a little while.

There’s a few things I’m still unsure about, mostly the link colours in the main section, as well as the colours used in the footer. What I’m thinking about doing is doing a few colour schemes and giving you the ability to pick what scheme you like using a style switcher, but that will be a little while from now (as I’ve never used a style switcher before).

Until then, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the theme as it is now. I guess you could call this the beta version. At least, I will. It sounds so much more hipper that way.

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but the current theme (white background, 3 columns) is a theme I downloaded just so I could get blogging again. From the time I started using it, I began to notice more and more things that I didn’t love, and felt a stronger urge to design my own theme. I also wanted to design a theme that could be used by anyone.

Well, I’m about 90% way finished my first goal, and will have a public version out likely by mid-July. I’m tentatively calling it “Munctional,” as I wanted a strong, minimal, functional design. I’m not stuck on the name, so if you have any suggestions, let me know.

For now, here’s a sneak peak at the layout: