dbushell.com v4

Eagle-eyed viewers may notice that dbushell.com is looking a bit different!

I haven’t gone for a full overhaul just a little realigning, better typography and a new logo-thingy. My old design has served me very well over the last year - it was featured on quite a few design blogs. But it was looking a bit dated.

Habari to WordPress

When I designed my website last year I rebuilt it entirely on the Habari blogging platform. Habari destroys WordPress in many areas (probably most) but the lack of documentation makes it very inaccessible for non-programmers. So after a heated debate with myself I reluctantly installed WordPress 3. I suppose it really isn’t that bad. The minimalist inside me cries at the amount of unnecessary HTML and CSS that WordPress loves to chug out by default. Sure I can go in and change that stuff, but trying to do anything the non-wordpress-way is an exercise more annoying than vuvuzela band practice.

I had immense fun trying to keep all my old URLs the same. Hope Google likes it. I may return to Habari one day, but for now I’m back with the crowd.

Web Standards

The new design takes full advantage of CSS3, especially @font-face embedding. Say hello to Droid Serif (now one of my top five typefaces), and League Gothic (because who doesn’t like it?). There’s some fancy stuff going on in the forms too - I’ve yet to test this in IE though! I’m just glad I’ve got rid of Cufon.

Logo thingy

I’m calling it a logo thingy because it isn’t quite a logo. I don’t need a logo. I haven’t had one during the last 4 years my site has been live. Anyway it’s full of modern cliches so I’m sure it’ll change at some point down the line.  It did get a fairly positive reception on twitter and Dribbble so for now it can sit up there.

Design and Layout

A big reason for the redesign was getting my blog and portfolio pages more unified. I’ve reduced the clutter and kept it simple. A good tip for any designer is don’t be too ambitious! Less is more (as they say), but more importantly - less means less to maintain. I’ll probably be adding to my portfolio soon (I have actually been working for the last two years you know). Any maybe a bit more CSS flare to come.

So what do you think? Leave a comment below if you like the changes, or if you dont!

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