29 Nov 03

Well-Designed Weblogs

For details, please see Well-Designed Weblogs: An Introduction.

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  • Fairvue Central

    screenshot

  • Yellowlane

    screenshot

  • Notmyself

    screenshot

  • Technically Working

    screenshot

  • Weblog Wannabe

    screenshot

  • Overcaffeinated

    screenshot

  • seriocomic

    screenshot

  • BigWhiteGuy

    screenshot

  • Antipixel

    screenshot

  • chokeSPEAK

    screenshot

  • Vysnu

    screenshot

  • Laughing~Knees

    screenshot

  • 456 Berea Street

    screenshot

  • 24.org

    screenshot

  • StijlStek

    screenshot

  • Thijs van der Vossen

    screenshot

  • Clément Hardoüin

    screenshot

  • Dionidium

    screenshot

  • Biroco

    screenshot

Note: Screenshots were taken between November 26 and 28, 2003. All sites were rendered using Mozilla Firebird 0.71 on a 12.1" 1,024 by 768 pixel monitor. The operating system was Windows 2000 Professional. Images have been cropped, scaled down and saved with lower resolutions and color depths than those of the original screenshots.

Filed under: on November 29, 2003, 5:13 pm  

48 Comments (skip to form)

  1. Gary

    Comment on November 29, 2003 at 6:48 pm

    One more for your list. The server is running very sloooow today. http://flrant.com.

  2. Anne van Kesteren

    Comment on November 29, 2003 at 10:17 pm

    I like the following weblog really much: http://1976design.com/blog/.

  3. Lars Holst

    Comment on November 29, 2003 at 10:38 pm

    Thanks Gary. I have to confess that the site you refer to wasn't an immediate favorite. The colors are a bit mismatched, and the text in the header graphic is slightly blurred. But it has grown on me. What I really like is that it has a very distinctive style. Weblogs that manage to look good while not looking like anything else are hard to come by. I'll consider it for my next list, which I'm planning to post as soon as time and availability permits.

    Anne, I actually found that site just minutes after I posted my list. I like it too. Those weather graphics are fantastic. It's a good example of how a single design element can do wonders for an entire page.

    I've shortlisted it for the next round.

  4. Peter

    Comment on November 29, 2003 at 11:33 pm

    I enjoyed your selection, Lars. Antipixel and Dionidium are among my regular reads, and I was pleased to look at the others.

    In my own blog I aspire to readability and good design: http://marquis-kyle.com.au/mt/.

  5. moonshake

    Comment on November 30, 2003 at 8:16 pm

    great list.

    i think todd dominey's whatdoiknow.org is a beauty.

  6. Lars Holst

    Comment on November 30, 2003 at 11:09 pm

    Peter, thanks. I stopped by your blog, and I have to say that you've been most successful in your aspirations. Your blog epitomizes the "less is more" approach to design, in its best sense. I love the photos, and the way your design makes them stand out. And you have one of those names that look really good in print. Nice to have your title included there as well. Very functional. Another one for the shortlist.

    Moonshake, thanks for the prop That is a beautiful weblog, I agree, and one that I visit frequently. However, the reason What Do I Know isn't included is because I was (primarily) after the slightly lesser known weblogs. This is also why you won't find the likes of stopdesign, // hicksdesign, etc, listed. Of course, this is a very subjective assertion, and some of the sites I listed are very well known by a lot of people, I know. But subjectivity is inherent in any list of this kind. Anyway, I forgot to mention that.

  7. Egor Kloos

    Comment on December 1, 2003 at 1:01 am

    Always good to see good sites get the thumbs up from fellow bloggers. And this is certainly a good line up.

  8. sergio

    Comment on December 1, 2003 at 3:59 am

    Wow. This was a great and very nice surprise. Thanks a lot Lars! The list is great. I'm checking out everyone in there, and I'm duly amazed.

  9. Zoka

    Comment on December 1, 2003 at 9:37 am

    you should add sashadesign.com to this list.

  10. Giles

    Comment on December 1, 2003 at 1:59 pm

    Nice range of blogs on show, good job Lars! I wish mine made it on your list!

  11. Matt

    Comment on December 1, 2003 at 2:24 pm

    Good stuff, Some nice sites on that list.

    However, I would be interested to know what reasons you have for including Fairview Central on your list. I've never visited it before (as far as I can recall), but it's a nightmare to understand what the hell is going on. The site scrolls left and right (I don't have a new M$ mouse with the sideways wheel, so this is a real pain in the ass), sometimes up and down (however my mouse wheel won't scroll those bits). Becuase the content is arranged like this you can't get an overview of the available areas without losing sight of other bits.

    Still, some of the design is nice. :-|

    Cheers, Matt. :-)

  12. Lars Holst

    Comment on December 1, 2003 at 3:15 pm

    Egor and Giles, thanks for your thumbs up.

    Sergio, thank you. Your weblog displays a rare blend of beautiful colors, well-thought out layout, good content, and artistic skill. I like how you've managed to incorporate so many different structural elements, yet managed to keep it organized and easy to navigate. And I see you've finally enabled comments. Nice going!

    Zoka, that is indeed a good-looking site. It will have to be placed on the now near mythical shortlist. It's very pleasing to see it grow through the input received here.

    Matt, I wanted to include a brief motivation for each weblog. Not doing so was simply a matter of being short on time. I could have waited, but decided to post the list anyway, and let people form their own opinion.

    In regard to Fairvue Central, my initial impressions were somewhat similar to yours. I was in fact principally against horizontal scrolling sites because, as you indeed point out, they render most scrolling wheels unusable. And I still am, with few exceptions. And those are basically the ones you see listed here (Nikolai Nolan's Fairvue Central and Clément Hardoüin).

    Nikolai gets away with it for a number of reasons. First, because the main navigation is fixed. You're never actually really lost. Also, on my screen, the "netlog" is the only part of the content requiring additional vertical scrolling. Second, a vertical layout is given as an alternative (see bottom left), effectively rendering your objections more or less invalid. Third, because the information is well-organized and clearly structured through descriptive headings. Yes, there is nested navigation, and that may be confusing, but it just worked for me.

    This is not to say that I encourage designers to routinely break conventions (Nikolai's site should have a "Don’t try this at home kids!" warning sign attached to it). As most people, I do not wish to relearn navigation every time I visit a new site, nor do I wish to spend more than a few seconds looking for the latest post's date and title, or the author's contact information, etc. The weblog design I generally prefer is in fact the now almost defacto standard two-column layout in use here. But occasionally, someone does break with convention, and does it very well. I definitely rank Fairvue among those; an out-of-the-box thinking site that challenges the way we design our weblogs. Every once in a while, that can be very useful. Besides, what it possibly loses in usability, it makes well up in aesthetics.

    I hope this answered your question Matt, and, again, I really wish I could have done this properly for all sites.

  13. Karen

    Comment on December 1, 2003 at 5:59 pm

    This is a great list of well-designed blogs. Thanks for sharing, and I'm looking forward to seeing your next list, too.

    You should also consider blog.sanityofsam.com for your new list. I particularly like that she has a wide variety of skins that you can choose from, using the color swatches in the right nav. (Or just click on these links).

  14. Roger

    Comment on December 1, 2003 at 6:04 pm

    Thanks for adding my blog to the list. I have to admit it was a (pleasant) surprise :) .

  15. Chris Owens

    Comment on December 1, 2003 at 9:26 pm

    Thanks Lars… I feel honoured.

    Admittedly my blog has suffered since I started Uni again but I hope to get a re-design sorted over XMas and also start providing some proper content.

    Thanks again!

  16. Jeff

    Comment on December 1, 2003 at 9:37 pm

    I like this site a lot:

    http://ashidome.com/blogger/.

  17. Jeff Walden

    Comment on December 2, 2003 at 7:28 am

    Firebird 0.7.1 for Windows? I thought that was a Mac-only release.

  18. Lars Holst

    Comment on December 2, 2003 at 9:12 am

    Karen, thanks. Lovely. Shortlisted.

    Roger and Chris, no need to thank me. You did all the hard work. I just took the screenshots : )

    Jeff, that's a very distinctive looking weblog. I'm not so sure I like it as much as you do though. That graphic is a bit too much in my face, the relative widths of the sidebars when compared to the center column are too large, and as a result the main content has a hard time grabbing my attention. Looking at the individual posts, I would have liked to see the date and title more clearly marked, and some additional bottom margin added on the latter. But then again, it may be one of those designs that take time getting used to. Bonus points for the New Order quote though.

    Jeff W, you are right. I have changed it to 0.7. Thanks for the sharp eyes!

  19. Matt

    Comment on December 2, 2003 at 4:21 pm

    Lars,

    Many thanks for taking the time to reply to me comment in such depth. :-) Like you, I was in a bit of a rush when I posted it, and after re-reading my comment does seem a bit sharp.

    Still, even if I select the alternative layout (which isn't really obvious unless you know it's there) my mouse wheel doesn't scroll the page (the main content).

    I do agree with you about the design aesthetics though. Without people breaking the mould and designing away from the norm, things never move forward. Sure, there may be teeting troubles, and some ideas are best left on the drawing board, but innovations are always good.

    Thanks again,
    Matt.

  20. Matt

    Comment on December 2, 2003 at 4:22 pm

    …and please excuse my abismal typing! :-D

  21. Ed

    Comment on December 5, 2003 at 1:58 pm

    Crowded with info, but nice: http://wesleyclarkweblog.com.

  22. tomcosgrave

    Comment on December 5, 2003 at 4:24 pm

    If I may be so bold, here's my own. I'm submitting because I haven't seen anything else like it, in terms of the art that inspired it.

    The front page changes every month, and this is reflected in the archive.

  23. Frank

    Comment on December 7, 2003 at 10:56 am

    One of my favourite and most read blogs: http://diveintomark.org/. Worth reading and nice design.

  24. amano.ncr

    Comment on December 8, 2003 at 11:31 am

    why is my blog not in this list?

    polyblog 2.

  25. Rachel C

    Comment on December 16, 2003 at 6:20 am

    Hi! Found your blog via someone who has linked up to my blog design showcase: cre8d journal: Blog Design Showcase.

    – we have some in common and some different ones :)

    .: peace
    Rachel

  26. Lars Holst

    Comment on December 16, 2003 at 11:15 am

    Matt, thanks for your input.

    Ed, nice to see a political weblog mentioned. Seems more and more people are using the format to get a political message out, including the politicians themselves. As evidence, there's a very extensive selection of "Wesley Clark Friendly Blogs" listed on the weblog you point to, and I have seen equally extensive lists of Howard Dean supportive weblogs.

    This is all great, and in the long run weblogs may have a significant effect on political campaigning, and the quality of information and debate, perhaps even to the extent where the amount of funding needed to run a successful campaign is reduced.

    However, from a purely aesthetical point of view, the Wesley Clark Weblog doesn't really stand out. I like the header, but the rest is a pretty standard three column layout that does the job fairly well in the center column, but less so in the sidebars. The information there is unorganized, and the serif fonts are a less legible choice for small font sizes. I also find the background a little dark; overall, the design would have benefited from lighter colors. A weblog should also be designed so that it is easy to find information on the publisher. This is especially true for a weblog with a political message, assuming of course that credibility and openness are important to that message. Perhaps I didn't look hard enough, but I could neither see who's behind it, nor contact any of the individual posters. This is a major drawback. Also, If I was to look "under the hood", i.e. at the markup with its layout tables, spacer gifs, and lack of separation of structure and presentation, there would be more objections. But that would be off-topic for this post.

    Tom, that is indeed a very unique style. I like it a lot, except for the "cut-out" shape of the graphics. I find that it detracts attention from your art, and before I noticed that all the graphics use the same shape, it also had me confused as to whether it was part of the image, and had any meaning. Does it represent anything in particular, or is it just cosmetics?

    Frank, thanks. The latest diveintomark redesign was a success. However, Mark's weblog wasn’t included for the reasons I gave in comment #6.

    Rachel, thanks for the prop. Yes, we have some in common, and at least one on your list is probably going to be included in the second volume of my list. I like the short descriptions you've written. Paul Scrivens of CSS Vault does that too, but I'm not sure I'll have time to do it properly myself. I also like your What makes a good blog design? write-up, particularly the last point on originality. It is anything but obvious. It is also perhaps the most difficult one to discuss, particularly when many bloggers would be better off using a standard template than trying to be creative on their own. I plan to publish something similar with the next volume. Overall, a very good selection, and I look forward to see it expanded.

  27. Rachel C

    Comment on December 17, 2003 at 9:48 pm

    Thanks very much Lars — I look forward to seeing your next list too :)

  28. Michael Donner

    Comment on December 18, 2003 at 2:12 am

    I found this while trying to find some jedi stuff on the net. Well, it's not a Star Wars site, but I think the design is amazing. And it seems like a new blog: http://mindtrick.net.

  29. Vishnu Gopal

    Comment on December 19, 2003 at 2:04 am

    Nice surprise to find me included here, thanks Lars!

  30. Pablo

    Comment on January 8, 2004 at 8:44 pm

    Great list! Thanks.

    Some Weblogs that I like:

  31. jul

    Comment on January 18, 2004 at 11:13 am

    thanks for this great list of blogs. But, in France, we have some goods too! visit some at http://l2j.free.fr/.

  32. Blair

    Comment on January 29, 2004 at 8:50 am

    I like a lot of the sites mentioned here, in particular biroco.com. Here's a shameless plug for my own personal site: doepud.

    Cheers!

  33. Dick Ettema

    Comment on February 4, 2004 at 1:01 pm

    Why is Frotland also a weblog in the category one of a kind? Imagine you have 50 MB webspace but your provider doesn't support the possibility for pivot, moveable type and all the others. Even worse you do not understand how they work. Neither do you like Blogger and other prepared blog sites because you have to fit in their options. But you understand the essence of html, css and ftp. Are pretty familiar with Photoshop and Wordperfect (or Word). Your desire is to share your thoughts and feelings, cq. like to write. And you have something with zen and the art of simplicity and calmness. Why Frotland is also a weblog in the category one of a kind. But my favourite weblog is still: Brainstorms and Raves. And the brilliance of this site of course. Thank you for your presence as such too.

  34. Cueball

    Comment on February 12, 2004 at 7:27 pm

    I really like your site and the list of sites, I'd also like to shamelessly plug my own site.

    griffininteractive.net.

    Thanks!!

  35. notestips.com by Mike Golding

    Trackback on February 15, 2004 at 8:56 pm

    Well Designed Weblogs

    Volume 1 and Volume 2. The rest of us are just playing catch up. Mike

  36. eclecticism

    Trackback on February 22, 2004 at 9:56 am

    Well-Designed Weblogs

    Looking for some design inspiration? Good pointers to quite a few very impressively designed sites at Well Designed Weblogs Part One and Part Two. And no, I'm not on the list. ;)

  37. Creation

    Trackback on February 23, 2004 at 7:20 pm

    Will they ever be done?

    I'm back at school with my real design machine and this means that I have the potential for productivity! At the same time, I found a recent review of "Well-Designed Weblogs" (check volume One or Two) from eclecticism and this means I'll be pouring…

  38. LivingRoom >> A space for Life

    Trackback on February 28, 2004 at 11:28 am

    Well Designed Weblogs

    Well-Designed Weblogs: An Introduction is a great series of posts about… you guessed it - Well designed Weblogs. As part of the series are two volumes of well designed weblogs - aptly named Volume 1 and Volume 2 ( I…

  39. mindtrick - my mind my kingdom, my will my law

    Trackback on March 3, 2004 at 1:24 am

    Well-Designed Weblogs

    Looking for some design inspiration to change the look of your weblog? Good pointers to quite a few very impressively designed sites at Well-Designed Weblogs Volume 1 and Volume 2 created by Lars Holst….

  40. Sillybean

    Trackback on March 17, 2004 at 4:06 pm

    Design Inspiration

    CSS Vault Built for the Future Well-designed weblogs The Web Standards Awards…

  41. Yellowcat

    Comment on May 25, 2004 at 6:39 pm

    i love the design on this site (and not just 'cause I helped with the backend) check it out http://yellowcat.org/rebecca/.

    btw really enjoyed your list

  42. Vectormonkey

    Comment on July 27, 2004 at 5:20 pm

    Many, many thanks for a well-concieved site. I will doubtlessly waste many hours perusing the listed blogs as well as the sites mentioned in the comments. Great work, everyone!

    http://vectormonkey.com

  43. Serge, designer

    Comment on October 11, 2004 at 2:30 pm

    You really have a nice list out there. There are so many design blogs but only few deserve attention.

  44. Nick Lewis: The Blog

    Trackback on April 25, 2005 at 4:32 am

    Good Blog Designs

    If you’ve been thinking about redesigning your blog, but aren’t feeling inspired, than check out Lars Holst’s collection of good blog design. Stunning.

  45. Denis Perekhrest

    Comment on May 16, 2005 at 3:33 pm

    cool! look at my blog (http://inforedesign.com/). Can I be in this list (or next edition :) ?

  46. John Koetsier

    Comment on May 17, 2005 at 6:58 am

    I liked most of the blogs listed, but the first one kind of threw me for a loop with its really non-standard navigation and, worst of all, upside-down page titles. Yikes!

    Fairly un-usable design, I’d argue.

  47. Dave McBrian

    Comment on May 17, 2005 at 9:28 pm

    Great list. Also check out:

    http://blog.underafter.com

  48. Dr. Web Weblog » Blog-Archiv » Quellensammlung: CSS und Design Galerien

    Pingback on March 21, 2006 at 3:38 pm

    […] Well-Designed Weblogs Well-Designed Weblogs series is a subjective and non-scientific selection of usable and readable weblogs that are defined as having: An aesthetically pleasing design that has been accomplished through the use of stylesheets rather than layout tables, font tags, and inline images. […]

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