Yes, it’s only been about 10 days since my last redesign, but I’m already at it again. I always knew that the current design was little more than a palate cleanser… or a rebound relationship.

Ultimately, what it came down to for me was that I just hadn’t put the kind of care and attention to detail into the design that I really want. With blogs it’s easy to put 99% of your design energy into the header, and then kind of just let the rest of it fall together in the default structure provided by the blog software. In other words, a long, undifferentiated stream of posts on the home page.

Well, I’m trying to give things more structure, as well as making the new design both more functional and more fun. And yes, I’m reusing every design trend from 2007. Is it too soon for the shiny floor effect to seem “retro”? Hopefully the sparkles convey an adequate level of irony. No, they won’t be animated.

Due to the level of attention I’m giving this design, I’m not going to be able to finish it in an evening like most of my past redesigns. But I’m too excited about it to hold back just a teaser (the screenshot detail shown here). Plus maybe this will keep the pressure on me to actually finish it.

Update: “Is this it?” Yes and no. I’ve gone ahead and rolled out the new look and feel with the old page structure. So it looks like the new site design, but it’s not. The changes that remain to be made are mostly on the home page, and involve significant modifications to the WordPress theme templates. It’s another level of tinkering under the hood than the superficial design changes I’ve rolled out up to this point. And I want to take the time to get it right. I’d also like to see if I can really implement Helvetica Neue Condensed Black as my headline font, without having to embed it. So, for now, it looks different but acts the same. More changes to come…