30 August, 2007

A New Look


I was bored last night and decided to redesign the blog. I think it looks a little cleaner. What do you think?

The photo is from Velorution, a fun blog from a bike shop in London.

35 comments:

Anonymous said...

Switch back, please! The font is harder to read, I don't find the new look more intuitive in any way...
The logo/banner at the top of the page is a bit more elegant but I don't care for the rest.

Velo Orange said...

You might be right about courier font being harder to read. I just switched to times font, which is very easy to read.

Anonymous said...

The older version looked much better, IMO.

Anonymous said...

It's clean. The Times font is easy to read. It appears less stylish than your previous format and more commercial. The orange of the title and headlines needs to be burnt a bit. It seems new websites are becoming a trend in the niche.

Reference Library said...

I prefer the old, undesigned version. That said, tweak the colors and get the logo back on top and you're almost there.

I usually prefer the navigation on the right for most blogs, but I got used to VO's left side, so I'd revert to that.

Blogger's "minima" template is the best place to start. All my blogs are heavily tweaked versions of that template.

Unknown said...

Love the new format. Refreshing!

toddsch said...

Actually, I think it looks terrible now. It's now just like every other blog I've ever seen. I really liked the vintage "mod" feel of the old design, one of the things (besides the wonderful machinery and insights) that initially interested me when I first saw it.

Velo Orange said...

OK, so what do you think of the fish bike?

Unknown said...

I guess when you invite comment you're open to whatever may come. I always sign my name to my letters or comments, both negative and positive, and I appreciate it when others do the same.

Now that that's out of the way... Chris, you know I love white space, so I like the new look. But I'm sure there's a typeface between Times (easy to read but boooooooorrrring) and Courier (trendy but hard to read) that's a better fit (Palatino and Garamond come to mind).

You can't please everyone, obviously, one reason being that everyone's computer differs in the typefaces/fonts that are displayed. Remember that half your readers probably never saw the official Velo Orange font in the old banner b/c they didn't have Hafnium loaded in their typeface directory.

In short, don't sweat it. Makeovers are for the most part good. I'd be surprised if regular readers or lurkers stopped checking in b/c they didn't like the look.

Annette Najjar

Felkerino said...

Liked the old one better. Easier to navigate.

BTW, my Nitto S83 post arrived. Wow and I thought my Campy stainless steel post was nice. Gorgeous.

Ed Felker

Anonymous said...

Aw jeez, nobody will know the difference or care after a couple of days. Somebody show us your new or old bike pictures so we can critic and wish it were ours.

K Matthias said...

I surf everything from Linux and have a very limited font selection so only the basic fonts show up for me. If you need to headline something in a font other than helvetica/times/courier I suggest that you make a PNG or GIF of it. Until Annette mentioned it I had no idea the title bar was supposed to be in an interesting font.

As for the layout: do what makes you happy. We'll read your excellent blog however it's laid out! :)

Super cool fish bike!

Karl

Anonymous said...

I like the look.

Can I reserve a Fish bike?

Anonymous said...

I suppose the fish bike would have been useful for PBP this year...

Lesli Larson said...

Call me a retro-grouch--but I already miss the old page (especially the comforting orange color block).

LL

Reference Library said...

I think I just miss your face at the top of the blog. :)

And your new orange is too harsh. How about #D2691E or #FF8C00 ?

Anonymous said...

It looks better with your face further down.

From The Onion:
http://tinyurl.com/34fro5

Alan said...

Neil, excellent piece in the Onion.

Anonymous said...

The fish has to much trail and the blog should be in babelfish french.

Anonymous said...

Already miss the old one!
I think the response is overwhelmingly clear...
nv

Anonymous said...

A man needs a fish bicycle like a ...

Anonymous said...

Sheesh! I thought people quit whining about this sort of thing in, oh, the late Nineties or so.

I like the new design. The retrocarpers will get over it.

And speaking of carp, that's one cool fish!

Anonymous said...

Did someone say the fish has too much tail? I say it's well balanced by the pectoral fins. This is obviously a front loading fish in the French style. Some capers, lemon butter, a nice Muscadet...

Anonymous said...

Switch back, please. The Times New Roman is unpleasant and the overall concept lacks "orangeness".

Anonymous said...

This now looks like every blog on the 'net. Please switch back.

Signed,
Anonymous

Unknown said...

I like it. Maybe the background ought to be a bit darker. Otherwise, it is more like a broadsheet newspaper where the earlier version was a tabloid.

As I only visit when I am and home and relaxed, I prefer the luxury of the broadsheet.

Anonymous said...

The new site's OK, but I liked the old one better. Needs more orange!

Anonymous said...

As I did my thrice daily check on V.O. I noticed that there 27 comments on fonts and layout. Holy sh*t I thought, who'd have thunk that anybody cared. Then I thought, hell! let's go for the record.

Just trying to do my part...

Anonymous said...

Is the fish stainless or aluminum? Can I get it 700c?

Anonymous said...

Iffn it ain't broke, don't fix it! And the original wasn't busted.

Mike Schmidt
Stirling, NJ

K Matthias said...

Wonder how many of those "anonyme" posts are the same person?

Anonymous said...

I liked it better as it was before.

-- Steve Palincsar

James said...

Can I have some fish scale pattern Honjos?

Anonymous said...

Isn't that Grant Petersen riding the fish bike?

James Manou (Menlo Park, Calif.)

Anonymous said...

I like the fish bike- I saw it at Burningman again this year....