New Chapter
One of the hardest decisions that I had to make with this blog is determining when it is the right time for a redesign. I loved my previous design, but I felt I could do better. I felt I needed to provide a better experience for those of you who were kind enough to come visit and like this blog.
Well, in this blog post, I’d love to present new look and pointing out some major updates.
The Design
It all started in my head 2 months ago and then was transferred to sketches on paper first and then into Photoshop. I spent too much time in Photoshop as I kept changing the look and feel of the site over and over again, but at the end I was very pleased with final result.
Logo & Header
Content Area
Post Area
Contact page is completely redesigned and now contains information about webexpedition18 and list of all authors and guest writers.
You will also see brand new and improved comment section if jump down to leave a comment!
With the old site there was no proper 404 page. As you can see here I finally customized 404 page.
All the coding was done by awesome and generous people from CodeMyConcept. They did super job converting design into a hand coded, pixel perfect WordPress theme.
THANK YOU GUYS!
The Design
Your Feedback Is Much Appreciated
Please feel free to share your honest thoughts and criticisms about the new design. Tell me what you think, what you like and what you don’t like about the design.
66 Comments
ADD COMMENTSergei Tatarinov says:
October 13, 2010Nikola, this is just breathtaking! This new look has a WOW factor and produces a very very strong impression! The whole theme and style are shockingly ! The layout and overall look is terrific! Typography is gorgeous! Go Go WE18!
Nikola Lazarevic says:
October 14, 2010Thanks Sergei!
Teylor Feliz says:
October 13, 2010Beautiful Design!!!
Sergei Tatarinov says:
October 13, 2010Seems like I missed a word. Fixed:
*The whole theme and style are shockingly [put here any laudatory adjective] ! :D
Maria Fidalgo says:
October 13, 2010Great redesign!! I love it
Pablo Lara H says:
October 14, 2010Great Nikola!
I loved the site, the small illustrations and I must say it is very elegant.
Congratulations!
Nikola Lazarevic says:
October 14, 2010Thanks Pablo. Glad you enjoy new design and those small details.
David says:
October 14, 2010Congratulations on the new design Nikola! Excellent work!
Nikola Lazarevic says:
October 14, 2010Thank you so much Mr. David! I really appreciate You find time to jump over and take a look.
Thanks for accelerating site to the max!
Ben Crawford says:
October 14, 2010Hey Nikola, love the new look. Very elegant and like the old school newspaper feel.
Nikola Lazarevic says:
October 14, 2010That is exactly what I try to achieve – old school newspaper feel. Thanks Ben!
Boris Rasonja says:
October 14, 2010I’ll need some time to adapt but at the first look your redesign is special, refreshing and what I find the best – it’s not a customized copy – very original! Congrats:)
Nikola Lazarevic says:
October 14, 2010Thanks Boris!
Appreciate your kind words!
Antonio says:
October 14, 2010great work Nik!
Nikola Lazarevic says:
October 14, 2010Grazie amico mio :)
Nikola Lazarevic says:
October 14, 2010Thank you guys for positive feedback!
I put a lot of hard work into it and I’m glad you like the new design.
Lam Nguyen says:
October 14, 2010Awesome, Nik! I love this style, especially the typography. Congratulation for the new generation!
Nikola Lazarevic says:
October 14, 2010Thanks Lam!
Tony says:
October 14, 2010This is definitely an improvement over the previous orange-themed design. One thing I didn’t like very much is the area above the fold, namely the logo. It’s kind of plain, and the logo on the left is difficult to read the text. Other then that, everything is much better than before.
Nikola Lazarevic says:
October 14, 2010Hey Tony, I appreciate the kind words and I also appreciate your thoughts on header design. I will try to find the right way to make header area a bit exciting.
Starr-Anjelica says:
October 14, 2010Love the new redesign Nikola very elegant and classic looking. Keep up the great work. ;)
Nikola Lazarevic says:
October 14, 2010Thanks Anjelica!
Smashing Hub says:
October 14, 2010hi
how are you!
thanks for opporunity for writing a review about your new design.
overall awesome, but if u can test a background of cream green or white.
otherwise looks fine
Daniel says:
October 14, 2010Fantastic redesign Nikola, it feels retro and modern at the same time, I presume we will be seeing more custom posts like this in the future? Very nice!
Love the footer!!
Nikola Lazarevic says:
October 14, 2010Hehe I also love footer so much and yes there will be more custom posts in the future.
Thanks Daniel!
Michela says:
October 14, 2010Hi Nik, I love this new design
Bravo!
Nikola Lazarevic says:
October 14, 2010Grazie Michela, I appreciate your thoughts and really respect you as a designer who has the same passion for retro design as I do.
piervix says:
October 14, 2010Wow! Great work my dear friend.
Your vintage style has a great communicative power. Congrats!
Nikola Lazarevic says:
October 14, 2010Grazie Pier! I hope you will like this and your comment is the proof.
Madalin says:
October 14, 2010This is an out-of-the-box redesign…I love it…great work,man!
djavupixel says:
October 14, 2010Hi Nikola!
I like the new style which is kind of a retro modern. You took some big fonts and also some big bold fonts to catch attention. This isn’t disturbing which is good :)
The footer font is not the same as the rest or am I wrong? It seems to me to be a bit different.
The icons of people are really funny and good :)
Now for fun do you have shares of apple? At the bottom of the page is written “made on apple”? Steve Jobs will be happy with you :)
Nikola Lazarevic says:
October 14, 2010Hahaha I don’t have shares on apple :)
I’m thrilled that you like the design.
TwitterBackgrounds says:
October 14, 2010Love the new design :) It kinda has a newspaper and retro feel to it, great concept. It really is gorgeous. I also like the new tagline “never stop exploring”, very true in design matters.
Nikola Lazarevic says:
October 14, 2010Thanks and Never Stop Exploring!
Marko Randjelovic says:
October 14, 2010Looking great, buddy! :) Glad you found the time to finish the new design.
Nikola Lazarevic says:
October 14, 2010You saw idea for design long time ago buddy, I’m so glad you like it
Mihai O. says:
October 14, 2010Great design! You did a great job until now so I wish you good luck in the future :)
Catalin says:
October 14, 2010Wow, awesome stuff Nikola! Keep it up!!
Nikola Lazarevic says:
October 14, 2010Thanks Catalin :)
Sunalini says:
October 14, 2010Nikola, your new design is sure gonna catch more eye balls. I like the overall design but my fav is 404 page. Awesome
djavupixel says:
October 14, 2010i did not thought of checking the 404 but not did and it is nice :)
the goold old tv :)
Nikola Lazarevic says:
October 14, 2010So you love 404 page, awesome!
I finally designed proper one. Good to hear some thoughts on 404 also.
Thanks!
paul says:
October 14, 2010Nice job Nik, I like it! Nice job on the social media sharing stuff. I understand the goal of making the design look more “newspaper” oriented, but it feels like things could use some color? What’s the dude in the footer smokin’ — he looks awfully happy! Overall, I dig the new design…
Nikola Lazarevic says:
October 14, 2010Thanks Paul! I couldn’t find right solution for adding more color to design, and my heart was demanding pure and clean design. Maybe as time goes by I will figure something to add more color :)
Glad you liked it!
CodeMyConcept says:
October 14, 2010We are proud to have joined Nikola on this journey…
This is what good networking does, it creates relationships and good friends.
Good luck on everything and cheers on the new design!
Love
Your friends at CodeMyConcept
Nikola Lazarevic says:
October 14, 2010None of this would be possible without you guys. You did a perfect job on coding this and you should be proud!
Thanks once again! CodeMyConcept Rocks!
Mars says:
October 14, 2010wow, this is so cool design, magazine look, love et
Ben says:
October 14, 2010Absolutely awesome! Your redesign has a sweet retro feel. Keep up the great work!
Laura says:
October 14, 2010I love it! It’s so bold and exciting. Great Work!
Nikola Lazarevic says:
October 14, 2010So many positive comments :)
Thank you so much guys! It looks like I have a winner here :)
Rocky says:
October 14, 2010Absolutely breathtaking, shocking and refreshingly new!!! Superb thinking Nik!!! I really loved the footer, especially the Write for us section. Its looking cool… The typography used is really good. The 404 page looks really good, a real eye candy!!!
Great job Nik!!!!
Nikola Lazarevic says:
October 14, 2010Hey Rocky, I’m so glad you like new look :)
Micha says:
October 14, 2010Great Design!!
Radu says:
October 14, 2010I agree with everyone else, it’s a good redesign. But enough praises xD let’s get to the stuff that’s not so awesome: the one issue I have with the new design: too much bold. I get it, the headings are meant to draw your eye to them; but, please, oh, please could you bring the font-weight down a notch? It’s very in your face and distracts from reading because of the powerful contrast throughout the website.
Other than that little quirk, very nice job!
Nikola Lazarevic says:
October 14, 2010Thanks for the constructive criticism Radu. As always, I appreciate your thoughts and really respect you as a designer.
I will definitely try to fix too much boldness.
I’m really glad that you liked the design overall.
sarah says:
October 15, 2010Hi Nikola, i really like this theme (i’m falling in love with vintage/magazine style).
Congrats :)
Shawn Ramsey says:
October 15, 2010Excellent job on the redesign, Nikola! I particularly like the overall typography of the site and the fonts you’ve chosen. I do however agree with Radu on bringing the font-weight down a notch. Other than that, I think you’ve done an excellent job. Congratulations on the redesign and the new chapter of webexpedition18.
Simone D'Amico says:
October 15, 2010Amazing work my friend. :)
You’re a fantastic designer!!! :)
Franco says:
October 15, 2010Well Nikola, you have made an excellent work, I really like the new style and layout of the blog, And it`s nice to see something different from what we all do. Congrats!!
Francesco says:
October 17, 2010A fantastic job Nikola, i really love the new style. Keep up the great work my friend! :-)
Design Blog says:
October 18, 2010I was shocked when i came back to your blog. wow.. amazing, and i really love this kind of design. the layout is so good. you have done really hard work on this to get some awesome result. :D
Best of luck !!
- Esaki
Editor-in-chief
designi1 says:
October 19, 2010at first looking i was wtf nikolas as done here :D this just because i liked the last design (is shining with that orange colors).
well, but looking foward. I think you get tired from that shinning colors… and its understandable (you started ther).
In this days you´ve much more daily users then you had before and i completely support this re-design – it is 100% well done compared to the audience you got now. This relaxing and calm colours, wide screen page and a gorgeous use of the type titles i do think you´ve done the best design so far!
keep going the great work buddy!!!
José Pacheco
Federica says:
October 19, 2010Hi Nikola, bravo! Congratulations for your redesign, it’s clean and easy to read. I like particularly the attention to typography. Well done indeed.
Ken Kaminesky says:
October 19, 2010Awesome new look to Webexpedition 18 Nikola, bravo! I love the newspaper type look and feel to the design. It’s easy to read, clean, and elegant. Judging by the tons of comments above, I’m not the only one to think that the new look is fantastic.
May this be just the first step in a long journey of new success stories for you Nikola. Three cheers for the king of retro design ;^)
Lionel C Bethancourt says:
October 20, 2010Superb!
I liked the staples a lot!
Paulo Miranda says:
November 4, 2010Loved your new design, congrats!