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The Quiet Man has a new look. I was playing around with Blogger’s layout feature late last night and got a little carried away. Uploading a picture into the title header turned into a complete redesign.
Nothing has changed except the look, and I’m certain it will change again. I’m still tweaking the colors and fonts, fine-tuning the dummy template for fluidity. (Just this morning I adjusted the color of the background and links.) In an effort to stay true to me and The Quiet Man, I am striving for subtly, humility. I want everything to have its own place and unique look, yet make sure nothing stands out or calls attention to itself. The eyes have to browse casually, effortlessly, over the layout and not be drawn to any one thing. Perfection is a struggle, but it’s achievable with effort and time.
The one thing I hate about Blogger is its layout feature. Sure, it gives you the freedom to customize the look to your liking, but unless you know web code you’re confined to modifying the shitty templates. If I could I’d let the stylist inside me go wild.
At first impression, when the blog loads, I’m immediately annoyed by a few things: The all caps title, the font of the title, and the position of the heading picture. I don’t know if you noticed, but the picture is not properly centered. Ideally I’d place it smack dab in the middle and confine the text limits to its edges. (By nature I love symmetry, straight lines. Everything needs to be level, even, and “plum.” It comes from my dad’s side. My relatives are notorious for pointing out crooked pictures hanging on walls and nudging the frame up or down to correct the imbalance. As a kid, when my family drove around town admiring the new houses being built, my dad, a carpenter, would scrutinize the frames, siding, and stairs. “That’s not plum,” he’d announce, and point out the shoddy workmanship with a callused finger.) The photo is, however, only left justified and may push beyond the right margin. Last night I resized the image in Photoshop about 10 times so it wasn’t too big. The larger versions spilled over to the right side, making the top look lopsided. The left edge was always aligned with the text.
The all caps title looks like shit to me. It’s too bulky. The Daily Iowan adopted an all caps byline during my sophomore year and I hated it. The font sucks, too. Despite all it’s wonderful features — the translations, the satellite mapping, and intelligent search capabilities — Google’s blogging service has a whopping six fonts available: Arial, Courier, Georgia, Times, Trebuchet, and Verdana. No Helvetica, Impact, or — my personal favorite — Futura. On top of that, the only style options are bold and italics. Pitiful.
There’s no way to resize or edit the feature boxes (the posts, information, links), no way to condense or loosen the text, no way to adjust the spacing between lines or paragraphs, no way to rearrange or move things. As a graphic design tool, the Blogger layout feature is antiquated, obsolete. Well, either that or I have unrealistic expectations. In defense, it’s supposed to be simple and fool proof, easy to use and self explanatory. That might be ideal for some people, but I’m used to better. Is it too much to ask for an online equivalent to InDesign? Probably, but I can always dream.
Nothing has changed except the look, and I’m certain it will change again. I’m still tweaking the colors and fonts, fine-tuning the dummy template for fluidity. (Just this morning I adjusted the color of the background and links.) In an effort to stay true to me and The Quiet Man, I am striving for subtly, humility. I want everything to have its own place and unique look, yet make sure nothing stands out or calls attention to itself. The eyes have to browse casually, effortlessly, over the layout and not be drawn to any one thing. Perfection is a struggle, but it’s achievable with effort and time.
The one thing I hate about Blogger is its layout feature. Sure, it gives you the freedom to customize the look to your liking, but unless you know web code you’re confined to modifying the shitty templates. If I could I’d let the stylist inside me go wild.
At first impression, when the blog loads, I’m immediately annoyed by a few things: The all caps title, the font of the title, and the position of the heading picture. I don’t know if you noticed, but the picture is not properly centered. Ideally I’d place it smack dab in the middle and confine the text limits to its edges. (By nature I love symmetry, straight lines. Everything needs to be level, even, and “plum.” It comes from my dad’s side. My relatives are notorious for pointing out crooked pictures hanging on walls and nudging the frame up or down to correct the imbalance. As a kid, when my family drove around town admiring the new houses being built, my dad, a carpenter, would scrutinize the frames, siding, and stairs. “That’s not plum,” he’d announce, and point out the shoddy workmanship with a callused finger.) The photo is, however, only left justified and may push beyond the right margin. Last night I resized the image in Photoshop about 10 times so it wasn’t too big. The larger versions spilled over to the right side, making the top look lopsided. The left edge was always aligned with the text.
The all caps title looks like shit to me. It’s too bulky. The Daily Iowan adopted an all caps byline during my sophomore year and I hated it. The font sucks, too. Despite all it’s wonderful features — the translations, the satellite mapping, and intelligent search capabilities — Google’s blogging service has a whopping six fonts available: Arial, Courier, Georgia, Times, Trebuchet, and Verdana. No Helvetica, Impact, or — my personal favorite — Futura. On top of that, the only style options are bold and italics. Pitiful.
There’s no way to resize or edit the feature boxes (the posts, information, links), no way to condense or loosen the text, no way to adjust the spacing between lines or paragraphs, no way to rearrange or move things. As a graphic design tool, the Blogger layout feature is antiquated, obsolete. Well, either that or I have unrealistic expectations. In defense, it’s supposed to be simple and fool proof, easy to use and self explanatory. That might be ideal for some people, but I’m used to better. Is it too much to ask for an online equivalent to InDesign? Probably, but I can always dream.
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