I just launched a Schema, new site about design.

The idea of a design blog has been swirling in my head for a while now, especially since design list blogs have come to such prominence recently. I’ve said it before, I don’t think this trend (!) can last, at least for web designers who want to take their craft to the next level. This niche in web design has grown out of proportion, because it is easy — both to write and digest. I sense that there could be a movement to take back that platform. Schema is an attempt to add to that voice. I don’t know how far it will go, but I hope to join the conversation.

Time really flies. It’s been over 2 years since the last redesign and about 1.5 years since the last post. Needless to say, this blog needed something fresh. So I thought I’d bring in a new design, and follow up with some new content. I have to be honest, though, Simon Collison’s redesign really motivated my own redesign — I’m even trying his CSS3 drop shadow effect. I only hope the redesign can be half as good as his.

Technical Stuff

The blog runs on the awesome Textpattern CMS as usual. I’ve added a few simple animation effects, thanks to Color Powered. This also marks my first site using Typekit — I used a combination of League Gothic for most headings, and Calluna for the the body text. The site makes liberal use of alpha transparencies and CSS3 effects.

Some New Content

Much of the activity in the web design blogosphere has been replaced by round-up lists and tutorials. I can only think of a few sites that still focus on web design with some predictable frequency. I don’t know how much I can add to that, but I hope to do a small part. It’s been a while since I’ve written anything longer than short emails — I think it’s time to practice writing again.

More To Come

The site most likely doesn’t work well in IE, and in IE6 I plan to serve a simpler version. A mobile-friendly version is also in the works.

So here is the new site, for better or worse. Let me know what you think!

When I first started this blog, I wanted to it be more of a professional blog. But somewhere near the outset I took a step in a different direction, and this site quickly lost focus. Perhaps that’s why updates here are few and far between. I hope to change that, because I’ve recently launched a new design-focused blog/portfolio, which had the honor of being linked to by my design hero, Cameron Moll.

Hopefully this new blog will let this blog be what it was all along: a personal blog, nothing more. It’s also possible it will cause this blog to wither away for good. I guess we’ll see. Either way, check out the new site: A Simple Cell.