Inspired by our previous discussion, I prepared an art studio/blog layout.
I haven’t been able to develop the individual sites as much as I would like to (in terms of adding content), but there is enough there I hope to give the basic flavor, and to hopefully get some critical feedback.
Here is Hanneke’s new blog.
Here is my Mother’s blog — she filled it up herself, which shows that the software works for others as well as for me ;-)
Here is our family blog (a variation designed for a group of people).
Here is where you can go if you want to make your own blog. Here are some configuration instructions (without which it won’t function like those above).
I’d be happy to configure some of these blogs for others as well (it takes only a couple of minutes).
I’d be interested to see a screen shot of Hanneke’s blog from a Windows computer. I think there is a difference from what I see on my Mac.
The new sites are free. The software is all Open Source, based on Open Source software distributed by WordPress MU. You can download it from the site mentioned above and do what you like with it. Everything will get much better. This is only version 0.2 of the template Theme. The functional core is solid WordPress, however. I only adjust the layout and display organization. The blogs should function as solidly as anything on the internet (famous last words?)
The Theme is compatible with WordPress 2.0, so you could try it on your own regular WordPress installation if you have one.
To anticipate one comment, I realize that artists want to be able to make their sites look unique. In fact, I’ve found a nice way to let individual bloggers modify the color, size, font of text and of the header and the background color. I have not included this feature in version 0.2 for simplicity. I’d be curious to know what are the first things you would change about the colors, fonts, etc…
I would start by changing the font of this blog for example … this last one is very hard to read and understand making it a bit undesirable. Sorry to be honest but has anybody felt the same?
Haneke that design looks simple and sophisticated. It shows your art clean cut without distractions what is very important.
Angela,
Please never apologize for web design criticism. That is priceless. Only, which sight are you talking about, Art & Perception? Is the problem a new one or has it been like this for a long time. Does it improve if you increase the browser default font size? Can you see a site that you find a better example of font that you could recommend?
Let me stress, we all see the web site differently because of our different computers. This makes the design work difficult. I don’t have difficulty reading Art & Perception on my Mac at the moment. But some time ago there were some complaints and Rex made some improvements that seemed to fix the problems for those that were experiencing them.
[Below I use a larger font. Does that help? Is it too big?]
Please please please tell us what you don’t like. That is the only way we can make the site good for everyone (or as many people as possible). I will set up some sample sites with different fonts for you to compare.
Thanks again!
[Another version…]
Please please please tell us what you don’t like. That is the only way we can make the site good for everyone (or as many people as possible). I will set up some sample sites with different fonts for you to compare.
Thanks again!
Serif seems like a nice clean font
Karl the last font was perfect, nice size and clear!
I didn’t know Birgit Was you mum, I assumed she was your scientist sister, thats lovely!
I’m struggling mightily with the blog that Karl set up for me. Later I may publish it. But I just found the configurations info, so I thought I’d play with that first.
I’m enjoying the process and I’m thinking that I might use this as a temporary gallery that would give me more flexibility than I find in my current website.
I think there’s a glitch in the site you set up for me, Karl. The “blog” page isn’t working and I can’t find it in the Pages list anywhere. Therefore I can’t delete it to make another which does work. I think you mean “blog” to mean “post” which I can do, only the posts don’t show up when I click on blog.
I seem to have resolved most of my other confusions, although I am always stunned at how slow I am at figuring out the protocol. And how I do love it when something works!
However, tomorrow is another day and I have painting to do to keep a clear conscience. Nevertheless, I’ll be checking back in.
June,
I understand why the blog page doesn’t work. It’s not a glitch exactly. It has to do with the initial configuration. I wrote you an email in which I say I will reconfigure a new blog for you, if you like. I really appreciate the feed back. I will improve the design so that configuration by users is not necessary, and the glitches that you experienced will not be possible.
Angela and Birgit,
I will make a page with a variety of fonts and the names of the fonts. Then we can see what everyone finds readable on their own systems. This is extremely important. I’m glad Angela brought it up.
I would like to give this a spin sometime this week. I loved the look of Hanneke’s site (of course the art is fabulous).. Thank you for letting us know.
Sunil
Sunil, I’ll set one up for you now and email the password to you.
-K
Making pages on the new blog system:
The way to make pages is to publish them from the dashboard. Then you should view them from there, copy the link, and put that link someplace like the studio. This lets you have as complex a page structure as you like. I use this on my blog for example, with two dozen picture pages linked to the studio. It is a bit of a mess at the moment, but that is an artistic problem. The code works fine.
I guess I’ll need to write that out in more detail, or have a page for the pages. Too late at night now (Holland time).
Karl,
Thank you for the information on making new pages to add to the static parts of the site. I was about to ask that very question.
My site now has “stuff” (not very artistic) on every page. It even has its first real comment, thanks to Karl, on the blog page. I’m almost to the point of actually trying to make the site look good, although I have to see what happens when I (try to) use Karl’s table html.
Right now, however, I’m going to smoosh some oil paint onto some canvas.