Blog Design: DIY or Hire a Designer?

by Elizabeth, Delightfully Tacky

There are different routes to go when it comes to your blog design. You can do your design yourself, hire someone or a company to design your blog, partially design your blog and have someone else design specific parts (like your header or background), or you can find a pre-made template online. A lot of your decision depends on both your ability to design your blog yourself, your commitment to searching for online tutorials on HTML, or your financial ability to hire an expert to do your design and formatting for you.

I currently design blogs for Freckled Nest Design, and I have also used a blog template and designed my own blog by figuring out stuff using online HTML tutorials, so I've been involved in many of the options available. The first thing I did when I started my blog was start customizing it. I googled something like "vintage blogger layout" and found something that looked good and uploaded it. After that I pretty much tweaked it endlessly using HTML tutorials online until it became what it is today. Figuring out HTML and doing your own blog formatting & design takes a lot of time and work, sometimes frustrating. So, while doing your own design work is cost effective, it can also be extremely frustrating and time consuming.

Another option is to hire someone to design your blog. This is a great alternative for someone who doesn't necessarily have an eye for design and doesn't have the time to spend trying to figure out the behind the scenes HTML to make a design come to life. It is an investment, however, so if you don't have the money to spend on having your whole entire blog made over, consider the option of getting just a few items designed for you. You can give your blog a mini facelift by having a designer give you a custom header or a fresh background at a cost that's considerably lower than having a designer do your full blog layout.

If you have the time, energy and a good eye for design I would say go for trying out your own blog design! If not, take a look at some designers and find one that you think would fit your needs!

Blog Design: Adding Theme

Blog Design: Adding Theme by Tieka, Selective Potential

One of my favorite things about a blog design is when bloggers incorporate their themes into their design. It's all apart of including you in your design. As you all know, blog design is the first thing we notice when we click on a blog. We are instantly connected to the blogger... all in the images, colors and fonts they use. For my blog, I had a difficult time thinking of incorporating my themes into a blog design. My themes are personal style, love and adventures... so what kind of design went with that? So instead I started looking to other aspects of my life that could influence my design. We live in a small quaint beach town, so I knew I wanted to incorporate a beachy color pallet. I also love bold, strong, clean logos, and Helvetica is such a big part of typography (my favorite subject in college!) so I went with that for my header. I also wanted to include a more down-to-earth, girl next door feeling, so I included a handwritten font. You have to put thought behind every element of your blog design. Every detail counts!

Think about your themes. Think about what makes you you. Here are some great examples of blog designs that incorporate the blogger's theme and personality.

1. Andrea of Blonde Bedhead

Andrea has a personal style blog that is very urban. She wears a lot of black and white, leather, studs and loves taking her outfit pictures in a city style setting. I designed Andrea's blog for her... and I took into consideration everything that makes her unique. She's also a great photographer, so we knew we wanted a powerful image for her header. With the urban font, the bold header and the black and white color scheme... we had Andrea herself reflected perfectly in her blog design.

2. Kristina of Pretty Shiny Sparkly

Kristina does a great job of incorporating her theme and blog into her layout. Her layout is clean, crisp, easy to navigate and entices you right away with a great header that reflects her. Her blog is all about things pretty, shiny and sparkly. So she incorporates a glittery image for her header, a pretty girly pink and purple color scheme and uses these elements in many aspects of her blog design.

3. Grace of Money Smart Fashion

When I worked with Grace on her blog design, I made sure to get every detail on what her blog was about before we started. Since her blog is about personal style, being smart with finances and accomplishing financial goals... we wanted to directly reflect that in her design. We went with a "money" green color scheme to start. Since her blog is about finances, but it's still about fashion, we used a girly header font so the design didn't seem too strict or "responsible". We also wanted to find a way to reflect accomplishing financial goals, so we took the header idea of saving money to reap stylish rewards. We also used her "tagline" right in her header. Everything her blog is about is directly accomplished in just one quick look at her blog design.

I hope this session helps you define what your blog design should be like! Now that you have a better understanding of your content and your themes... it should be easier to think of a blog design. If your themes are generic (like growing up, going to college, personal style) you'll have to get creative. Think of your college... maybe you could take color inspiration, font inspiration. Think about where you live and your surroundings. Use your favorite colors. Think of a favorite food and use it as an element in your design (cupcakes, cookies). Think of everything you love. Something could trigger a great design that totally reflects you!

Blog Design: Branding

by Elizabeth, Delightfully Tacky

Your blog design has a lot to do with your personal branding. You want your design to immediately communicate who you are and make a statement. Think about actual brands and how they've done this. There are things like colors, fonts, design elements, photography and more to consider. Consider that you aren't necessarily branding a company, but it's more accurate that you're branding yourself. I kind of consider Delightfully Tacky and myself to be one and the same. I am Delightfully Tacky, essentially.  Especially as a personal style blogger, your blog and your brand is mostly about yourself, so you want to be really intentional about how you go about presenting your "brand."

One important step to defining your branding is determining what kind of blogger you are and what sort of vibe you have. Some bloggers are more edgy and modern, others are more vintage inspired. What kind of image are you looking to present? Are you really high-fashion and edgy? Do you love bright colors and graphic, bold colors? Are you more into retro prints or scrapbook-inspired layouts? Really take some time to evaluate how to represent your brand. Once you do this, you can move forward with designing your layout and creating a branding that encompasses your web presence. This can even go as far as affecting how you edit your photographs!

A lot of my branding has centered around woodgrain and the background design of my blog. You can see how I've taken my blog design and translated it into business cards:

It includes both the wood grain and background image elements. I feel like it instantly communicates a lot about Delightfully Tacky, and anyone who knows my blog, can see that it ties back to the web site seamlessly. On the back I have all my contact info, and a photo of myself, which is pretty handy when you're handing your card out to a ton of people at conferences and meet-ups.  It's hard to tie a face to the business card/blog, so this helps the recipient of the card remember who you were!

Here are some things to think about when you're branding yourself/your blog:

1. What are your favorite colors?

Create a palette of 3 to 4 colors that compliment eachother which you'd like to be your main colors. You're gonna want to choose a color palate that you both like and something that works well in a design.

I chose more vintage 70's colors, but if you look at Tieka's blog, you see that she uses more neutrals. Some people enjoy a more light, pastel color palate, while others like bold, bright primary or neon colors. Whether it be jewel tones, or monochrome, choose a color palate that works in your favor. It's a good idea to limit the number of colors to no more than 5, just so the color story doesn't get muddled or too busy. Kaelah has basically three colors in her branding: pink, light blue and white. You can see how visually striking her design is and how it immediately communicates her branding.

2. What kind of fonts do you like?

Are you more into sans serif, clean and modern fonts, or more handwritten fonts? I'm kind of a typography nerd, so I always love a good font and I believe that they are crucial for branding. There are so many free font sites out there for you to pick a nice font for your blog (one that I use regularly is dafont.com). There's no reason for anyone to be using Curlz MT, Papyrus, or Comic Sans. Pick a main font, and then have one or two accent fonts. Tieka has Helvetica as her main font in her header, and then she uses the cute handwritten font for her post titles and stuff like that.

3. Can you define your blog's visual theme? Are you more into minimalism, or do you like patterns and more eclectic designs?

Since I like tacky 70's-ish things, I instantly gravitate towards gaudy 70's patterns and faux wood, which is why I chose those two elements to represent my brand. I really love how things in the 70's were kind of a little over the top, a little gaudy, and really kitschy. That's pretty much my jumping off point. You have to think of yours. What kind of environment describes you best, how do you want to communicate that to your readers? Do you want lots of texture? Do you want something give off a scrapbook/DIY vibe? Vintage, and if so, what era? Look at how Mandi has made her theme very textural and natural. There are layers of paper and handwritten elements. Notice how her theme is very different from Kaelah's but they both are extremely effective in communicating their respective brands.

4. Do you have a blog name yet?

If so, does it accurately sum up you and your brand? Does it quickly give your readers an idea of who you are? If you don't have a blog name yet, make sure you really consider how you want to be known. 

Your blog name is very much a representation of your brand. Think about how when you hear the word "Starbucks" so many images and thoughts pop into your head. When someone says your blog name, it should be the same (though on a micro-scale). I mean, so many people out there who read my blog know me as Delightfully Tacky, not as Elizabeth. So I would hope that my blog name communicates to them something about who I am, what my "brand" is all about, and what they should expect to see from my brand. Some great blog names are: A Beautiful Mess, The Clothes Horse, and The Coveted.

5. What sentence sums up your brand?

Think of a catchphrase or headline that would define your blog. As my high school english teacher would say, it should be short, sweet & to the point. Kyla's headline is "Daydreams from a handmade prairie life", Rachel's is "Vintage, Home Decor, and Big Messes", Julie's is "big hair, small wallet". As you can see, you get a pretty good idea what to expect from each person's blog based on that quick snippet. It's not totally necessary to have a sentence like that posted on your blog or in your headline, but it's a good idea to think of how you'd describe your blog in a quick, short sentence. It'll help you define the focus of your blog and be able to communicate that to others.

Remember that design elements should be used simply and in moderation. Don't try to mash together more than one theme, don't use a bajillion fonts or colors. You don't want your brand to be muddied with all these stories you're trying to tell. Figure out what you want to say, and then create a visual plan of action to simply, accurately, and effectively communicate that.