Logo Design Blog

Daily Blog Tips had an article in June about designing a great WordPress theme. The fact is, you don’t need to start from scratch. There are several minimalist WP themes that are Open Source, which you can tweak and build upon. Even if you don’t use WordPress, the following tweaks can be applied to any type of website or weblog platform.

1. Change primary background color.
2. Change background behind content blocks.
3. Change hyperlink color based on whether the link is being hovered, has been visited, unvisited, etc.
4. Change article title font size.
5. Change article sub-heading font and font sizes.
6. Change the font size of navigation link anchor text.
7. Change the background color of nav links upon hover.
8. Change of the font and size of article body text.
9. Increase leading (whitespace) between lines.
10. Increase whitespace between paragraphs.
11. Increase or decrease number of columns.
12. Increase or decrease total width of page.
13. Add a blog logo.
14. Add/ remove a banner graphic.
15. Add/ remove a footer section and/or graphic.
16. Improve navigation blocks.
17. Reposition a navigation column.
18. Combine multiple navigation columns into one.
19. Change comment backgrounds - possibly alternate colors.
20. Alternately indent comments.
21. Number the comments.
22. Change blockquote font.
23. Change blockquote font size.
24. Add background color to blockquotes.
25. Add a blockquote border.
26. Change default positioning of blockquotes.
27. Add custom quotation marks to blockquotes.
28. Customize bullet lists and icons.
29. Add article posting date. (Try a little calendar form like the posts on this blog.)
30. Add author name, with or without a link from their name to their own website.

No doubt there are loads more tweaks. Can you think of more? I covered some of these in more detail before - improve your site’s look with 15 easy tips. After you’ve customized your theme, don’t forget 5 types of visual content you can use to visually brand your site’s style.

• Improve Your Site’s Look With 15 Easy Tips
• 9 Reasons to Use a Grid-Based Web Page Design Framework
• By Design: CSS Tutorials, Page Templates and More
• Five Easy Ways to Improve a Web Site
• Website Design - Template based or from Scratch?