blog design: diamonds & pearls

A short time ago Ashlie from Diamonds & Pearls contacted me through twitter with a query for blog design, and via email she described to me the ideas that she had for her blog. Girly, clean lines, dusky pinks and pale calming colours. We discussed these elements further and feeling how she wanted to portray them in her design I began coming up with concepts of layout, background, headers and buttons that slotted together to create this all encompassing subtly girly look.

what i did ♥
created numerous header concepts using web and non web fonts with all sorts of different patterns and colours, sourced and edited a polka dot background Ashlie asked for, simplified usability by removing unneeded buttons and other widgets cluttering the page, created button concepts for a main menu and finalised their placement, created a giveaway button that complements the menu buttons, made all widget and menu links that go to another site open in a new window and transferred the full blog design to diamonds and pearls admin then ensured full ease of use for Ashlie.

 

After

Before

what Ashlie said ♥
"I have wanted a blog makeover for quite a while. I felt my blog was very childish, squished together and just generally not to my tastes. A quick plee on twitter and I was pointed in Abby's direction. I was quite nervous about contacting Abby of Abbzzw designs at first as I thought I was going to make a fool of myself because she obviously knows all the correct terms for everything to do with a blog layout. I on the otherhand know nothing so after a few hours of "Oohhh shall I, shant I", I finally bit the bullet and sent an email. Honestly I don't know why I worried so much because she was soo lovely and very helpful. Although I felt I had written a complete bunch of gibberish, Abby said I was actually very clear about what I wanted. After a few more emails, Abby knew exactly what I wanted and she had some amazing ideas for my blog. I was constantly kept up to date with what was happening and changing and I was even given a link to a 'test blog' which was so exciting to watch everything changing. Abby sent me numerous headers, fonts, gadget headers and although she had gone to a great deal of effort, she still stated if I didn't like any of them she would start from scratch. Thankfully I fell in love with the first one I saw. I couldn't tell you everything that was changed on my blog, because like I said I don't have a clue about anything to do with blog layouts/internet design, but I can tell you my blog is now a million-billion percent better. It is easy to get around, the pictures are huge like I have always wanted and it is the perfect colour scheme to suit my tastes. Also Abby's prices are very affordable. I have been on blog design sites before where the prices start at £90+ and I didn't pay Abby anywhere near that. I definately recommend Abbzzw designs to anyone who is wanting a blog makeover, you will not regret it!!"