Tuesday, March 27, 2012

New ruv Blog Design ~ Hard Wood

Studio @ Liberty Village Toronto
Let me start by saying if you're using an old browser and the site looks like crap, upgrade your browser now or view the mobile version. Please don't comment it's broken in IE6 or something stupid like that. Cause I don't care... Nah, Just kidding, let me know if you see any problems.

In designing this the new version of my site, I was inspired by my new studio located in Toronto's Liberty Village (see my pic). The office itself is an old converted factory full of exposed brick and wood with a smoking fast internet connection, a mix of the old with the new. Kind of like my new design. For this design, i dusted off my photoshop and CSS skillz using some the latest tricks such as drop shadows for the text.

Here's how I did it for those interested.
  • (text-shadow: 2px 2px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9);)
Another big part of the site is the use of Google Web Fonts which according to Google, "makes web fonts quick and easy to use for everyone, including professional designers and developers."

It's actually a pretty cool service, the goal is to create a directory of core web fonts for the world and to provide an API service so that anyone can bring quality typography to their webpages.

It even has it's own font API service which runs on Google's servers. They are fast, reliable and tested. Google provide the service free of charge. It is possible to add Google Web Fonts to a website in seconds. Like what you're currently looking at.

Best of all, the fonts are Open Source. This means that you are free to share your favorites with friends and colleagues. You can even improve or customize them and collaborate with the original designer. And you can use them in every way you want, privately or commercially – in print, on your computer, or in your websites.

For your reference, I'm using the Font Didot for the body, Sorts Mill Goudy for the headers and Calligraffitti for the dateline.

Let me know what you think.

(If you're reading this post via RSS, go to ruv.net and check it out)

#DigitalNibbles Podcast Sponsored by Intel

If you would like to be a guest on the show, please get in touch.

Instagram