what does it take to just do a design for a blog?....

[krossfyter]

need advice on creating a custom design for a blog...

ive never delt with a design for a blog before.


i would like to get this done... just need to know what it would take from me. i use dreamweaver and fireworks. can i get a design done for this blog with these programs? i know nothing about making things functional.... just design wise.... just design thats it. thats all my job is to design something that looks killer... and i can do that... but im not html guy at all or code guy. i know a little but nothing that will be functional.

thnx for any help. im not asking for you all to do this for me... im just asking for advice or what this would entail from my end to do a design for a blog. basically trying to figure out if i can do this or not.

heres the blog code....

edit: working on getting that up.

 

[kgarner]

need more info. What system is powering the blog (WordPress, MOvable Type, etc.)? How familiar are you with CSS as most of today's blog engines use it pretty extensively for styling.

 

[krossfyter]

not much familar with css. will learn what i have to learn though. im going to find out what the blog is on. thnx.

 

[MontyZ]

.

 

[munkle]

As others have mentioned most blogging tools rely heavily on CSS. I use TextWrangler to edit my CSS, it's free and less cumbersome than DreamWeaver (which you can use as well).

You can check out other tools I use here.

 

[mnkeybsness]

I disagree with the above. Blogging tools don't rely on CSS, but rather, they make very good use of it. A blog can be done using old skool HTML with <font> tags and massive <table>s, but it is much easier to work with if you are using well-thought XHTML with semantic markup and clean CSS.

 

[krossfyter]

okay i just found out that that person who wants me to design thier blog knows html inside and out so i dont have to worry about css or anything like that... he just doesnt know how to make something look nice design wise. thats where i come in. i send him any design and he uses the html coding of it.

the blog is on blogger.


cant i just do a snazzy design by using photoshop and dreamweaver and then let him worry about the html part?.... send him a file with the images or pics ive utalized for the design concept etc. do i have to have some respect of html?

 

[munkle]

I disagree with the above. Blogging tools don't rely on CSS, but rather, they make very good use of it. A blog can be done using old skool HTML with <font> tags and massive <table>s, but it is much easier to work with if you are using well-thought XHTML with semantic markup and clean CSS.

If you're trying to be pedantic, then yes. A blog is essentially just a webpage, so yes it can be done with font tags and tables or any combination thereof. What I was trying to say, is that most (if not all) blogging platforms out of the box use CSS. To modify any templates is going to require knowledge of CSS. And knowledge of CSS is going to make creating your own template from scratch a lot easier as well.

 

[munkle]

okay i just found out that that person who wants me to design thier blog knows html inside and out so i dont have to worry about css or anything like that... he just doesnt know how to make something look nice design wise. thats where i come in. i send him any design and he uses the html coding of it.

the blog is on blogger.


cant i just do a snazzy design by using photoshop and dreamweaver and then let him worry about the html part?.... send him a file with the images or pics ive utalized for the design concept etc. do i have to have some respect of html?

Just do a mockup in photoshop, send him the relevant image files and let him do all the hard work

 

[michaelrjohnson]

cant i just do a snazzy design by using photoshop and dreamweaver and then let him worry about the html part?

Yes, you can. But you'll be far more successful if you had the ability to do his job as well. (not that you would do his job, but that you could) It's very important for you to have an understanding of what the limitations of the code are, otherwise, you will back yourself into a corner by designing things that can't be done (easily, or well).

 

[MontyZ]

.

 

[michaelrjohnson]

Creating templates for Blogger is about a 2.5/5 on the difficulty scale. It's a pain to work with their proprietary code in development, but if you don't, the template won't render anything. That being said, I've done it before. My blog: blog.michaelrjohnson.com is just a Blogger Blog, but it's basically been heavily modified.

2.5/5 - Extensive CSS knowledge required.

 

[krossfyter]

alright sounds good guys... thnx. im just going to go ahead and create a mockup on photoshop and see what the other guy says.


are there some things i need to consider when doing a design mockup for a blog on photoshop? css is not a problem... any other issues?

 

[munkle]

alright sounds good guys... thnx. im just going to go ahead and create a mockup on photoshop and see what the other guy says.


are there some things i need to consider when doing a design mockup for a blog on photoshop? css is not a problem... any other issues?

Basically you don't want a site to be too laden with graphics. It's easy to get carried away when using Photoshop and whilst it may look fantastic on paper, the toll on your bandwidth and your visitors patience (depending on their connection) may prove otherwise.

And of course the design should be centered around the content

 

[krossfyter]

Basically you don't want a site to be too laden with graphics. It's easy to get carried away when using Photoshop and whilst it may look fantastic on paper, the toll on your bandwidth and your visitors patience (depending on their connection) may prove otherwise.

And of course the design should be centered around the content

werd... perfect balance of form and function.

i like my designs minimal so this should be okay.

 

[krossfyter]

okay so now most of that is clear to me... next issue... pay.

about how much should i charge for this? whats the rate in your area?


im not into an hourly rate... just flat rate.


i know its not that much... i just dont want to overcharge the guy... im not like that. im a reasonable person when it comes to doing business.

just want to know the standard rate for something like this. thnx for all the help guys.