A few articles back I wrote about the start of the upcoming redesign of this site, The Design Cubicle. Well, things are definitely getting much, much closer now; the smell of a completely fresh redesign is in the air! I thought I would give you all a sneak peek into what I’ve been working on for the redesign (for those of you that have not seen small teasers on Dribbble) and some of the new design decisions I’ve made and thought about along the way.
First off, let’s have a look at some exclusive sneak peeks…
Feel free to share your thoughts about these little snippets in the comments below. Positive and negative criticism is welcomed; just be classy about it.
Some words on the redesign
I’m looking to have this fully launched by (hopefully, some point) in the month of May. As of right now that date is right on schedule. The closer the design gets to finalization the quicker I’ll have it up and running. I’m also thrilled and excited to be working with the talented and awesome Trent Walton (personal website) and Paravel teammates who will be handling all back-development on this redesign. I’ve been really grateful to be able to meet some really great people online (through Twitter, Dribbble, etc.) and I felt Trent and his team would be the perfect fit (look forward to some pixel-pushing magic on this redesign!).
One of the toughest (or I should say limiting) factors of this redesign is having to fit within old (this versions) formatting limitations since I have nearly 275 articles and images prepared that were suited for a specific size. I had to be sure to take into account for this older formatting; mostly the 500px wide content area, which only left me with around 450 (or so) pixels to stay within page width standards to plan other elements. Also, I wanted the redesign to suit my particular design tastes. I feel that many of the more popular blogs out there have the same “big name” feel and flow to it, while I’ve always thought of my blog to be a bit more personal than others with similar subscriber counts. In a way, I’m bringing this design back to basics of which I started it.
It was time for me to custom build my home. This version was modified from an existing premium template with customized plugins; as a designer I needed something to claim as my own. Also, having started out not fully expecting what this blog would turn into today I would have planned a bit differently. Over time I’ve seen what works well and what doesn’t on my site, as well as areas of interest (or non-interest) of my readers. These considerations were also taken into action for the redesign.
The overal redesign will be much more open, allowing content to breathe more, thus improving the overall readability and usability of this site. Once I fully launch the redesign I will go into much more depth about the decisions I made and elements I took into consideration and why. Don’t want to give away too much upfront. :)
In other news
If you haven’t heard about the newly launched Design-Swap yet, it is a website promoting collaboration between designers started by new friends Yaron Schoen and Trent Walton. I’m excited to announce that myself and Dan Mall (Twitter) are up for the first swap. I’m definitely looking forward to collaborating with Dan on this swap; a designer and friend whose work I greatly admire. One of my favorite designed sites on the web that he happened to design and art direct is Housing Works; a great example of beautiful imagery, hierarchy, content flow and layout.
Be sure to check out Design-Swap, its beautifully designed website, and upcoming swap between Dan and myself.
BrianHoff.net featured in upcoming inspiration book
I’m also excited to announce that my portfolio site, BrianHoff.net, will be featured in the upcoming book—due out in September—The Web Designer’s Idea Book Volume 2: The Latest Themes, Trends and Styles in Web Design. You can pre-order your copy now on Amazon if you like. If you are not familiar with the book, Volume 1 is a great addition to your book collection packed with 250-pages of beautiful examples of web design.
Stay posted shortly for more upcoming news on the redesign. The site will most likely be down for about 2 days before the launch goes live, but I will definitely keep you all posted before that happens. I will also be giving away some pretty awesome prizes on the launch so make sure you don’t miss it by grabbing our RSS or Email updates.
