October 20th, 2008 1:57pm
Suddenly Everything Has Changed
As you can see, Fluxblog has a new look.
I think everyone can agree that it was time. I will always have a fondness for Deric Holloway’s design, but I’ve been wanting to change the site for a long time, and the longer I waited, the more I knew the change had to be fairly radical. Ryan Catbird designed the new site, and I think he did an excellent job of bringing everything together in a way that feels clean, modern, and attractive. I am certain that you’ll find the new version of Fluxblog to be more readable, easier to search and navigate, and with the integration of the Fluxtumblr on the right hand side of the page, richer than ever in terms of content.
Along with the change in layout and design, I will also be experimenting with advertising in the near future. I never wanted to do this, and have resisted the temptation to have advertising on the site for over seven years now, but given my current (dire) economic situation, I need to at least give it a shot. I hope that you understand.
The ads you are currently seeing on the site are for Ryan’s record label, Catbird Records. If you are interested in advertising on this site, please contact me at perpetua @ gmail.com, and maybe we can work something out.
10/20/08 2:09 pm
You’re right, it was time for a change, though I’ll always love the old layout. Keep up the quality and this all shouldn’t matter anyway.
10/20/08 2:11 pm
looks great!
10/20/08 2:35 pm
Wow! Gorgeous. A redesign worthy of your clear style and sharp sensibility.
10/20/08 3:43 pm
Dude, the site looks fantastic! And I don’t see any problem with your advertising here - it’s your own blog, and you publish all of your writing here for us to read for free, so why not advertise? And plus from the looks of it it’s mostly music-related advertisements anyway.
Great job!
10/20/08 3:59 pm
Get money. Ain’t no one mad at you
10/20/08 4:34 pm
This is a stunning piece of design, Ryan and Matthew. Loving the tumblr integration, too.
10/20/08 5:36 pm
We the readers approve. Go Helvetica!
10/20/08 8:40 pm
Ooooh, me see pretty today!
10/21/08 3:17 am
As it is (this morning here on my screen at least) the Fluxtumblr is not so much on the right side, but at the top. Otherwise great & fresh & readable. Nice job!
10/21/08 10:47 am
Love the new design. I have been reading since before it was yellow - but i can’t remember what it was before yellow. In any case, the new one is great.
10/21/08 11:39 am
I’ll be honest… I really miss the old layout, but I guess I’ll learn to love this one, too.
Besides, as long as the quality of the songs and posts is still good, I don’t really care what your design is…
10/21/08 12:18 pm
Matthew’s ginormous pictures and videos in his Fluxtumblr stream were pushing the layout down on IE, Dennis– should be fixed now
10/21/08 1:51 pm
I love the new design.
10/21/08 2:51 pm
I love the new design. If I could suggest one thing though, you should change the background to a softer shade of white. The harsh bright white you have now is a bit blinding.
10/21/08 3:56 pm
Love the tumblr integration. Looks great!
10/21/08 4:22 pm
nice redesign but i miss the little fluxblog mascot girl.
10/21/08 11:47 pm
I am in love with the tumblr integration. Pretty please give pointers!
10/22/08 12:09 am
I miss all your links. They were a good jump off.
10/22/08 12:38 am
I like the new logo and the general layout - my screen doesn’t resolve Helvetica well, but that’s my problem more than Helvetica’s…I’ll deal with it - but I wonder if the main text might work better just one point smaller…? It’s good though - it doesn’t look like anyone else’s.
As for the ads: we’re all getting this for free, so why should we complain…particularly if the ads are for related stuff, like indie-label music.
10/22/08 12:37 pm
WOW. Love the look. I’m seriously, seriously jealous. Ryan Catbird, hook a girl up?
10/22/08 6:17 pm
Looks real nice, top work.
10/22/08 9:12 pm
Only a fool would call this new design an improvement over the old one. Hey, I have an idea–why not put the advertising on the right and the copy on the left since it certainly seems as though the advertising is what’s most important now. Sad, dude.
10/22/08 9:31 pm
Are you confusing the tumblr feed with advertising? There are only two spaces set aside for ads.
10/22/08 10:17 pm
I love the new design MUCH more readable…. didnt stop me though from ever coming and getting my news! keep it coming
xo publicity
kaytea mcintosh
10/22/08 10:32 pm
George, I still have a blogroll, it’s linked from near the top of the page. Here: http://www.fluxblog.org/blogroll
I changed the line-up a bit, it was overdue. There’s still some more things I need to put in there, but there’s some stuff that had not been there before.
10/23/08 9:21 pm
It’s very slick, bright and shiny.
That’s going to be a compliment in about a week or two.
10/25/08 1:34 am
Kudos to the redesign! Refreshing and sleek! Keep the good music coming!
10/25/08 4:49 am
LIke the new design, but preferred the java script pop-up comment section… it’s just easier not having to open a new page in order to read the comments.
10/26/08 3:51 pm
Looks great Matt. Nicely done Ryan, really beautiful.
10/29/08 12:53 am
I was a big fan of the old design, so this new one is a shock for me. I second J. Mason’s comment about the brightness of the white. I agree that the text in the old design was a little small, but the size here feels like overcompensation. Maybe it’s just how Firefox is displaying the type. Looks huge. I support your decision to run advertising. It becomes unrealistic at a certain point to expect people to always write for free.
11/1/08 10:22 am
Excellent to see the site refresh.
It looks like you’re using Wordpress…are you using the hosted version or the self-installed version? Either way, you can use the great plugin from OnePixelOut that lets you have that inline player. I say this because I’d love to be able to come to your site and just play the songs one after the other, only downloading when I really like it (which I often do). Here’s the plugin:
http://www.1pixelout.net/code/audio-player-wordpress-plugin/
11/2/08 12:58 pm
Hi Matthew - great, great NEW design!
You might want to consider -
1. placing a PayPal donation button somewhere prominent on your site. I’m sure there are a lot of people who are thankful for introducing them to the great music that’s in your site - as well as your insightful commentary.
2. have an affiliate account in Amazon or wherever the music that you’re promoting can be brought.