Site Update: A New Theme

Writing about changes to my site theme feels a lot like writing a big "I don't have anything better to talk about" message; it feels like running around telling everybody about my fantastic idea to get rich without having anything to show for it. The truth of the matter is, all the talk in the world means nothing without action. I'll make this brief.

The site update is part of the rebranding I'm working on and it's meant to simplify my writing outlet. The new theme (a modified version of Cleanr) has larger fonts and less clutter.

There is something very motivating about writing a blog post with large font; it makes me feel as though I'd better get to the point and not putz around. It also encourages me to improve my writing. I'm all for getting to the point, so I really like the effect of this new theme.

Besides the new theme, I also updated the About and Contact page, changed the URL (using raamdev.com instead of raamdev.com), and changed the permalink structure (instead of /year/monthnum/postname/ I'm using /postname/).

While changing the URL may seem like a trivial task, it was a delicate process. I had to ensure all links redirected to their new location so that I wouldn't lose pagerank in Google (a large portion of my traffic comes from Google searches). I also didn't want to break any other incoming links to my site that exist on the Internet.

If you're interested in the technical details of how all this was done, check out my latest post on Solid State Raam.

Here are the obligatory before and after photos:

Before

Modified version of Grid Focus - November 2008

After

What do you think of the new design? I love feedback, so if you have any suggestions for things you'd like to see on this site, please share them in the comments!

Write a Comment

Comment

  1. I like it – nice and clean. I think a sans-serif font would be nicer for the content tho – but that’s just me. I think sans-serif suits a minimalistic theme better because it literally means ‘ no-frills’. Conversely, serif fonts reek of pretension to me… I think this is why serif fonts are favoured for formal and academic purposes.

    Like the social buttons on the right!

    • My previous theme was using a sans-serif font, so I wanted to try something new. I really like the way large serif fonts look. (Perhaps I like it because of that “academic” feeling it gives, I’m not sure.)

      Typography is such an interesting field! Thanks for the comment, Ali!

  2. But on the other hand serif fonts are kind of minimal seeing as browsers tend to load them by default unless you specify otherwise. And it doesn’t ‘reek’ as much as I made out just then.