We need to question our design style sometimes, even if we end up in the same place that we started from. It’s a matter of taking something and turning it around so we can grasp what it is all about.

You’re probably already doing that, but if you’re not, here’s a few fun ideas where you, as the savvy web-designer that you are, will have to think outside the box. Or at least peak over the edge.

1. No images!

That’s right, design a site with no images whatsoever. The type is your only graphical element, and background colors of course. That means no cool logos, smashing menu graphics, or gradients in the background. Some sites do this so well today, so it’s not really that far off from the current buzz and whatnot, but it’s a challenge all the same.

2. Do a [insert least favorite color here] design

I’d like to say that it would mean that I’d be forced to do something in pink, but that would be lying. I like pink. Purple, on the other hand, feels tacky and meh to me, so that would mean that I’d have to do a design where purple is the dominating color. It is oh so easy to get stuck with those clean blues and greys, oranges, or whatever’s your poison. Speaking of which, I wish there were more green sites. I like green.

3. Monospace only

This one might be a bit tricky. All the main text should be monospace only, which means fonts like Courier and Lucida Console. Personally, I’m a sucker for monospace, but it usually isn’t user friendly enough. That’s something you need to tackle if you want to succeed here. Granted, this is more fun and cool, than actually useful.

4. Hardcore anti web 2.0

I’m not really sure what this means, but think dark rather than light, small pixel fonts, things like that. Mirroring logos is a no-no. The idea here is to really question all the things that are common today. The end result will probably be a bit much, but taking a little of the best from yesterday, and doing it by today’s standards (usability came second in the 90s and early 00s), might not only be interesting, it might even end up quite nice.

5. 640×480 pixels

I’ve got three high resolution screens on my desktop. My first computer didn’t. In fact, I believe it had a resolution of 640×480 pixels, which, well, that’s almost an ad format today… But what can you do if you’re pressed for space? Let’s cram a full fledged site into a small box and see how we solve things like navigation and such. If nothing else, it’s a good exercise if you should design a site for the iPhone or other mobile handsets.

I do things like these every now and then, for two reasons. One is because I really do think that we need to push ourselves a bit, and find new ways to do things. The other is because it reminds me why I got interested in the actual design: It’s fun. (And pays the bills too.)

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About the author: Thord Daniel Hedengren is a Swedish freelance designer and often hired blogger, as well as a web consultant. Visit his blog for more: tdhedengren.com

The idea is this: simply change your browser’s default background color to something like a vivid blue or striking red and keep surfing the net just like you normally would. Trust me, you’ll find tons of websites that don’t have a background color.

Here are my contributions so far (see my Flickr set):

Andy Wibbels

Dumb Little Man

And the piece de resistance:

dZone

Change Your Browser’s Default Background Color

So, basically all you have to do is change your browser’s default background color, simply create a new stylesheet, make the body background color something like magenta or vivid blue, or dark red (I use #990000) and use that stylesheet as your default one. And keep surfing and reading blogs just like you normally would!

And feel free to contribute to the Flickr group!

Cheers
Jon Phillips

However, I’m starting to turn to the widget functionality in WordPress. I’ve been looking at it for some time, and added it on client request of course, but never bothered with it myself.

It makes sense of course, I’m not averse to hacking some PHP code in my template files, while others might be daunted by doing so. So widget functionality in WordPress, while it can be a bitch and clutter up a decent design since there’s no telling what the users might put in there, actually has some right to exist.

That’s big from me, people.

However, just because widgets get to exist, it doesn’t mean you can go haywire with them. This might work:

• Recent comments, because we all love some debating.
• Recent posts, assuming it isn’t redundant, ie don’t place it at the top of the page on your front page displaying the latest posts already…
• RSS and other subscription functionality.
• About the blog info box, just keep it short and link a dedicated about page.
• Search box. This is a must, unless you have it someplace else.

This is more dubious, might work, but then again it just might not:

• Related posts. Yes, this is good stuff, but then again it can also be completely unnecessary. Use at your own discretion, and consider placing it on single pages only, with the content.
• Tag clouds don’t fit on all blogs. Do they fit on yours?
• Monthly archives. This is usually just as redundant as the calendar functionality. You don’t use that, do you?
• Lists of all your categories and pages. This might or might not be necessary, so don’t just put it in there because you use to.
• Latest updates from other blogs, including microblogs like Twitter and such.
• Last.fm and similar “I’m listening/reading/buying” stuff. It might be relevant, but probably not on a sidebar level of things.
• Flickr, Youtube and similar online content stuff that shows your latest updates. This might be relevant, but chances are it only is at times.

These things should be left out of the sidebar, and should probably not exist on your blog at all:

• MyBlogLog, “previous visitors came from” rubbish, and similar stuff that just clutter your design. They might serve a purpose, but make them pretty, or don’t have them at all.
• Badges. That’s a no-no, unless you make it totally pretty and cool. Most of us won’t pull it off, so if you really need to collect badges, do it in its own page and link it.
• Admin links. Bookmark them instead, they’re not interesting for your readers anyway.

I might sound a bit harsh here, but it is because I am. Thing is, most sidebars (and footers) are filled with crap that just shouldn’t be there. Even if you take away the design and clutter aspect, you’ll find a lot of stuff crammed into the sidebar that just isn’t merited to be placed in such a premium position.

That’s the main thing, really, because stuff in the sidebar are almost always visible, and only the most premium important super duper stuff should be there. Your Flickr feed, last updated 3 years ago, don’t cut it, no matter how cute your cat pictures are.

That being said, every blog has its own owner and agenda. What won’t cut it for me is perhaps perfect for you, so don’t take this too hard. Just make sure you questions your widget areas, and not just the sidebar really. It’s way too easy to put a load of crap in there, just because it is so convenient.

Maybe I don’t like them widgets after all? What about you?

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About the author: Thord Daniel Hedengren is a Swedish freelance designer and often hired blogger, as well as a web consultant. Visit his blog for more: tdhedengren.com

As for me, 95% of every site I design is based on WordPress, one way or the other, which means I’ve got a default WordPress theme for my own usage. This default theme is written by me from scratch, and I’ve made sure that it is easy enough to modify. If you are a WordPress theme designer you could do that too, or pick any of the free open-source themes out there to base your freelance design work on. Some of you might prefer Sandbox, others will modify Kubrick (the default WordPress theme), and so on. It doesn’t matter, as long as it is a theme that you can bend to your will in as little time as possible.

Another area where you can save time by using default code snippets is the various scripts we use to make our sites more bling-bling.There’s a gadzillion jQuery tutorials out there, so collect the best of them for your fancy navigation menus, tabbed boxes, and so on. That way, when you need a dynamic element, you can just pull up your favorite jQuery code snippet. Or Mootools, or Prototype.js, or whatever’s your poison.

Naturally, this also goes for PHP scripts, ASP.net, and any other programming languages you might use in your web sites and applications.

In essence, here are some tips on how to store these code snippets for easy use:

• Set up a reasonable directory structure on your hard drive. I suggest using one folder for scripts, then have one for jQuery in that one, and so on.
• Store the code snippets in plain text files, using descriptive file names, like tabbed menu or wisiwyg textarea adaption. That makes it searchable.
• Consider setting up some sort of index file containing all your saved code snippets. That way, if you’re not sure wether you want to use this or that to do a specific solution, you can just scan this file for code snippets that do what you wan.
• Index hardcore style: Setup a local WordPress blog and put each code snippet in its own post, then tag accordingly. Would work with a wiki and whatnot as well, the functionality we need is tagging. There are software solutions to do this to files as well.
• Use a text editor that supports storing code snippets. My favorite is Coda.

It is all about saving time, and avoiding doing the same thing twice. If you keep track of all your nifty solutions and fancy hacks, then you’ll produce faster, and that means more time for other things. So, how do you do it?

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About the author: Thord Daniel Hedengren is a Swedish freelance designer and often hired blogger, as well as a web consultant. Visit his blog for more: tdhedengren.com

So here are 17 Premium WordPress theme stores, I’m sure you’ll find something you’ll like! And most of them offer developer’s licenses too! Very nice if you have many clients that are in need of WordPress blogs.

Here we go:

Daily WP

WordPress Designers

Quommunication

DIY Themes

Elegant Themes

Fly Themes

Press 75

Billion Studio

WP Remix

iThemes

Revolution Theme

SoloStream

Templamatic

Theme Forest

Theme Galaxy

Theme Spinner

Woo Themes

Your Turn To Talk

Have you ever bought premium WP themes before? Have you customized it? Any websites I forgot to mention in this list? Please share your thought! See ya in the comment section!

Creattica Daily

Design Disease

Komodo Media

Down The Fox Hole

The Loria Family

Lewro

Blogsessive

Chris Spooner

Design Work Plan

Adii

GoMedia Zine

Stylized Web

Jeff Croft

MonoFactor

True Blue Titan

Armen Thomassian

Kreestal

Tim Ferriss

MatBlogg

Positive Space Blog

Matt Bango

Viget Inspire

Jeff Saramiento

Pearsonified

Playground Blues

Your Turn To Talk

So, which ones are your faves? And why? See ya in the comment section!

My name’s Jon and I’m a web-designer, I’ve been designing websites for… wait! That sounded like I’m addicted or something! I guess I am, sorta.

Ok well, here’s a little intro so you get the idea of what this blog is about

I’ve been blogging for a little over 2 years now but I’ve been designing websites for much longer than that and I thought I could help fellow web-designers and developers so here’s SpyreMag! At first this blog was on SpyreStudios (which is my design business website) but I simply thought I could separate the two websites and write more. Which I couldn’t do on my company website.

On board we also have Ritu B. Pant, a good friend of mine, social media consultant and blogger! Together we will try to bring you the coolest stuff about web-design and development!

So, there you go! Please feel free to browse around and make yourself at home! Of course if you have any suggestions you can contact me anytime using the contact form on this site!

Cheers
Jon Phillips