Fine Fools Design Process
So most of the time when Paul is doing what he does best (sending 100 emails out a day, turning supermodels into baby mamas) I don’t usually ask “why”. When we started talking about how Jack of All Blogs was blowing up and taking off, the subject of it’s design obviously was at the forefront of our conversation since it was so plain. I once said that Instablogs suffered from DLWD, or Default Looking Weblog Disease, and I’d be damned if something associated with 9rules suffered the same malady. And with that I hit the drawing board.
And it hit me back right in the face. The first design I put together for Fine Fools sucked big time — probably because I was under the gun with so much of our client work that the creativity was just not in me at that time. Just like a good boss should do, when I showed him a design that I’m a bit iffy on, he kicks me in the ass and tells me to try harder and that’s just what Screezy did. Plus he said if I get this design into Stylegala he’d buy me two bottles of Patron at SXSW, and if you ask some of our friends they will tell you just how much of a motivator that is. It probably won’t get into SG, but at least I tried my best :)
Other Network Designs
A few would say that 9rules isn’t a weblog network because we don’t own the content, which is fine, we don’t really like getting caught up in semantics. But not many can argue that Fine Fools isn’t a weblog network since we own the content, so one of the things I did was some competitive research — what are the other weblog networks doing with their site designs, and how can this FF template go 15 steps ahead and set a hard act to follow.
b5media has weblogs like Mischa Barton News and Play Girlz (disregard the tasteless ESRB rating picture halfway down the page); Instablogs is starting to redesign some of their blogs like Born Rich and Green Diary; and Weblogs Inc has blogs like Medical Informatics Insider. They’re all clean designs, but none of them really “stick out” in the way I wanted the Fine Fools sites to stick out.
New FF Design
As a designer, I really feel that a nice-looking site can contribute a lot to the overall experience. Here’s one of the new Fine Fools designs I came up with:
Like Paul said at the Fine Fools blog, this design is pretty far from the usual stuff I do which is usually clean and simple. This design is like a mixture of grunge and techno — the transparency effect of the red-over-orange picture overlay gives it a nice grainy feel (along with the vintage typeface) but then the sidebar is all modern and sleek. You don’t see many left-aligned weblog designs anymore, so I wanted to do something a bit untraditional since the content on Fine Fools sites is very untraditional. The orange background image is from sxc.hu and the body background is from squidfingers.
The Jack of All Blogs content is a bit crazy, so the design for it had to be equally crazy as well. The red/orange color scheme for this one will be color shifted in Photoshop for the other sites, so every single one will have a different main color and header image so it makes it a bit more interesting. The design looks 100% in IE6 and I only checked it once — no code refactoring necessary ;) Now that’s what I like to see!
Scrivs Steps In
Sorry you had to listen to Mike ramble on and on about how cool he is, you know how it goes with these designers, put them in the spotlight and they just can’t walk away. When it came to trying to figure out how to go about branding the Fine Fools Network I was having a bit of trouble simply because the sites range in content so much that a common theme in my head wasn’t going to be possible. However, since they were under the same Network I did want a design that unified them yet was customizable enough so that each site wasn’t the exact copy of Jack of All Blogs.
To me Fine Fools is an extension of 9rules in the sense that you blog for fun (and maybe a little money). So many of us have gotten lost in the pro-blogging hoopla that we forgot that blogging can actually be fun and enjoyable. There are no requirements to how often you write, you set your own rate and you get paid for what you put in. We don’t hound our writers to write specific entries to garner traffic. I started this network on the side as an experiment that I didn’t want to burden with requirements that made blogging a chore. The name says it all, Fine Fools.
But again how could we put these ideas into a design? I can’t speak for the public, but to me the 9rules branding was a homerun in the fact that it made us distinct and recognizable. Sure that was our intention from the beginning, but when it comes to branding you never really know how things will turn out. You can follow your own formula, but can rest assure that the public will follow their own. I was getting too caught up in trying to figure out the formula to make lightning strike twice instead of just going with our gut instincts.
I grew so frustrated that eventually I told Rundle to “just do whatever”. When he showed me the design you are seeing I wasn’t sure how to respond. While I loved the look I didn’t think it would work well across a number of sites, but the longer I looked at the more it grew on me. The content on Fine Fools sites is of good quality in my opinion and could stand on its own in any design, however great content deserves a great home and I believe this is what we have now.
Fine Fools is genuinely a foolish network with regards to both content and design now and I couldn’t be happier. Now let’s see what other things this crazy CEO can mess with…
Very nice site redesign. I agree that it is a very fine home for the fools. Not only is it more aesthetically pleasing than the previous design, it gives the site some real identity and makes it feel more substantial. Perhaps most importantly, it makes it seem that some real thought and time went into the design which shows that the blog is important to those who maintain and write for it.
Also, Squidfingers has some excellent backgrounds. I have used them in a number of projects.
By Joe Lencioni on November 22, 2005 1:57 pm
I definitely think it’s a design/theme that will polarize people. Either you will like it or you will hate it. I do worry how it will effect the more professionl-minded sites such as I Like Cameras, but we will see.
By Scrivs on November 22, 2005 2:03 pm
One of the other nice things about the design is that its red. It’s a great time of the year to come out with a red design. now all we need is a little bit of green to go with it.
these guys did some great work. it makes me feel that much better about fine fools. i only expect big things from this network.
By Liberalcowboy on November 22, 2005 2:03 pm
It’s always great to hear “Just do whatever” and have people actually be happy with the design you come up with. I can speak from experience that when you have free creative reign, it turns more into a labor of love than a job, which is of course a two-edged sword, making it doubly disappointing if the design is rejected. ;)
I love the Fine Fools logo / button too. Good mix of script and serif fonts, and I dig the little divider too. Good job Mike. The only suggestion I would make is to center it in the browser, but I know that can be a pain sometimes, trying to get textured backgrounds to match up.
By Nathan Smith on November 22, 2005 2:37 pm
Are you just starting to talk like Bo Jackson or did someone else write this post? Need some attribution maybe…
By Mike D. on November 22, 2005 3:26 pm
Hey Mike -
While I can’t honestly say I like the approach to the layout, I do like the way the colors play off each other, really like the red header and the treatment you did for the Fine Fools logotype — I see alot of potential there.
One comment about begin 100% in IE6, check the line spacing on your header tags. The header under the post for “Google Base” is too tight.
Otherwise, like the “risky” design you’re taking here.
BTW: The 9rules site is looking much better in IE as well.
By Mark on November 22, 2005 3:29 pm
Thanks Mark, my girlfriend took the Windows laptop home for the holiday so I’m unable to check it out in IE6 again till Friday. I’ll definitely look into that though.
By Mike Rundle on November 22, 2005 3:33 pm
Scrivs, you said:
“You can follow your own formula, but can rest assure that the public will follow their own. I was getting too caught up in trying to figure out the formula to make lightning strike twice instead of just going with our gut instincts.”
Then you said:
“I do worry how it will effect the more professionl-minded sites such as I Like Cameras, but we will see.”
I guess my confusion lies with why the focus would be more on having a unified theme that making each blog (since you have 100% control of them) cater to the unique audience they have. What works on Jack of All Blogs is not supposed to necessarily work with I Like Camera’s or Damn I’m Cute. Blog networks don’t seem to push the envelope where design or special features to a blog are concerned. They used to but not anymore. Not saying you shouldn’t do the unified theme - go with what feels right to you so you have no regrets.
Mike - I like the design. For me the best designs came from when I told the designer to do “whatever” and in each case it is something I never would have come up with myself. :)
By Tyme on November 22, 2005 4:56 pm
Tyme: I understand your confusion and I was always under the belief that in a blog network each blog’s design should cater to the audience and the brand of the blog. However, quality design takes time so it was a decision whether to roll out a design once a month, while launching new sites and doing other projects or come up with a theme that could easily be moved from site to site in a minimal amount of time.
To me the decision was obvious.
By Scrivs on November 22, 2005 5:02 pm
I really wish I had the time to give each FF site it’s own unique theme, but I just don’t. That would have been the ultimate solution, but at the rate that Scrivs drops new FF sites into the network it just wasn’t feasible.
We (I) also have a hard time farming out design to others just because my standards are probably unnaturally high, so the task for designing FF had to be done on a set timeline to fit into our other schedules without disrupting too much client work :)
By Mike Rundle on November 22, 2005 5:22 pm
Mike - your unnaturally high standards are what makes your designs so good! You have a way of putting things together that would not seem to work in theory but when you see it…it just works.
That said - both of you misunderstood what I meant LOL…but I get where you are coming from. :)
By Tyme on November 22, 2005 6:44 pm
When I first saw the ff button I thought it said Fine in Fools. Two inspections later I realized that those are three little slashy things… not an italicized “in”
Other than that little visual belch I think I like it.
By sunshine on November 22, 2005 10:21 pm
I personally like the idea of one template design for the entire FF network. In fact, the difference of color within the network will add uniqueness the template, so it will not be identical, but it’s nice that it’s identifiable still.
In my own group, I first went with the uniqueness of each design, but it’s so much easier having the same basic template for each. I’ve got 3 blogs myself using the same template right now. Although I like to think that each is “HART’icized” so they are not identical.
I think that’s the way to go. You didn’t need this design change, but I think it’s going to work out great for FF.
By HART (1-800-HART) on November 23, 2005 1:51 am
I hate Mike Rundle. But only because he can sneeze on a keyboard (that isn’t connected to a computer) and come up with a better web site design than just about anyone else.
Bastard. I love you man.
By fajalar on November 23, 2005 9:51 am
Love the new designs, guys. Today I was pleasantly surprised to pull up Successful Blog and see the new design applied over there. It’s good stuff, and I think there’s a personality on the pages now that wasn’t quite there before. New look, same great content!
Although I realize it’s a LOT of work, I’d like to see some of the blogs get individualized looks…not just color schemes, but overall presentation. Maybe some of the bloggers (who have design skills) could do a special design for their own sections of fine fools. I dunno, if I was blogging for FF, I’d want to :-P
By Chris on November 24, 2005 12:15 am
I think the site redesign looks awsome. Mark always makes great sites we except for maybe the first one he created lol.
By Ashley Bowers on November 26, 2005 7:10 pm