Don’t get me wrong; I like Garland. It’s sleek, it has an easy-to-configure color scheme, it works well out of the box. And it’s identifiably Drupal, which, though sometimes thought to be a criticism, is not a bad label for the blog of a Drupal developer, such as the blog you’re reading.
At the same time, I’m interested in spending some time creating a unique theme for my blog. I develop eight-plus hours a day, and it’s time I eat my own dog-food. Granted, I haven’t actually done any design work in over three years, but I do have some background with that.
So I’ve been looking at some of my favorite blogs to get some ideas. And discovering an interesting trend.
Chx’s Drupal4hu is simple, with little clutter on the screen, but very identifiably Drupal oriented.
Jame’s Walker’s walkah.net features his most recent blog post, with a listing of the next few post titles beneath, and again, little clutter.
Then there’s Neil Drumm’s Delocalized Ham, which evokes a manuscript on paper. His design is a testament to his recent study of Typography, which will also figure into my future directions.
So I’m not entirely sure what I’ll do for a design quite yet. But I believe that these simple blog designs highlight the most important element of a blog, the written word.