Once, Suzie and I went to Venice for the Carnival. Deciding to go in style, we roamed downtown Tel Aviv in search for suitable fancy dress, until we stumbled upon a wonderland of theatrical costumes called Arlecino. While trying on some of their fabulous clothes, the costumer who was helping us told me that large men can get away with wearing colors that smaller men might find too feminine. She was having me try on a pink satin coat that would have made me look like a queen-size Barbie-bed. If it had fit.
The costume I finally took was a manly middle-ages get-up, but I’m bringing this up because, well, I’m clutching at straws for some authority to support this new blog color scheme.
I fiddle with my blog design from time to time, but rarely put in the effort to actually do a proper overhaul. This design was based on several points:
- Wide-screen design, i.e, no sidebar, because I. reads (used to read?) this on a computer screen set to 800×600 resolution. Notice that nearly every blog theme you see has a fixed-width box in the middle with the content in it. Usually with a sidebar or two.
- A font that wasn’t Verdana or Arial. Not too many options there, but I found I like Georgia.
- One idea for the full-width design was to have a fixed background image to add interest to the page. The image I used, that horrible picture you can’t get rid of (as G-ster called it), is a detail from a photo of me Aya took with her digital camera. I was mesmerized by the high resolution, showing every prick of stubble, straying strand of messy hair, wrinkle lining my tired eye, etc. I sorta liked the Photoshop-mangled result.
I tried to find colors to match the image, but didn’t like using jello magenta or mucus green. I liked they grey text, and a color that goes well with gray and red is…well,
Pink.
Now, the only people who will notice my blog’s design are people who don’t read my entries through RSS or Livejournal. That is, Israel, my bro, my mum and dad. The first two don’t like this one bit.
I actually think it’s rather nice.
Anyway, I’ve got another color scheme I’m experimenting with, and I’ll probably switch soon. Just not right away, because I hope to lure at least one of the people who read this entry through RSS or LJ to visit the blog and get a blast of the Pink.
3 replies on “Pink in Space”
I actually really dig it.
So… Pink…
1) Your blog is not you and can not “get away” with stuff on account of YOUR size.
2) I still read this 800 pixels wide, and I can tell you that your blog has its own size issues. Had it been a man, surely the pink dress would burst by now, but being a Web page it makes do with a horizontal scroll bar.
The text itself is readable without scrolling (which is a very nice change), so I guess the fault is in that huge DISTRACTIONS headline with the pink background that only manages to backdrop the first nine letters. The ONS spill out of pink and out of screen.
Still, I am touched by your consideration (or as Guyster would probably put it – “by your being a big homo”) and even honoured enough to use the Anglo-Saxon Putz spelling. Yes, all your blog readers are now pussy-whipped by me by proxy – and in pink, no less.
3) The fixed background is interesting as a concept (horrific as the actual Mucus-Jello result is), but that silly fixed sidebar is horrible and keeps getting in the way of other stuff (like this very text I am typing now – I can’t even see the words “text I am” because someone wrote something (equally unreadable) pink atop them.
The frame around it has an interesting lens effect. I wonder if that’s on purpose.
4) The Mucus-Jello horror I kinda like, but only because I like horror, which is exactly what it is.
5) The worst bit, by far, are the light-grey over pink buttons. Then come the pink of the links, that’s just a bit too orange to inspire anything but nausea. The pink on the textareas is almost nice, in a metrosexual kinda way (no real homo would dare).
6) Bottom line, if you enjoy it, you should tell the Guyster and me to get stuffed. And do martial arts while you are at it. Maybe they give you pink belt.
I.