This project was a bit new for me – a UFO focused blog/news source, but I had some ideas churning around and was eager to get started. I felt it best to stay away from the typical sci-fi look, so there are no cheesy UFO images or alien faces in this design!

After a few very rough sketches, I opened up Adobe Illustrator and got to work. What I came up with was a stylized, yet unobtrusive theme that allowed for the reader to focus on the articles without being distracted by design elements. Two of the ways I achieved this was by using a light gray for the section outlines and a predominantly white background, while the headings and post-text were a significantly darker charcoal gray. This allowed the content to sort of ‘pop out’ at the reader .

The sidebar content layout was of particular focus. A lot of blogs (and I’m not going to name names) have so much going on in their sidebars that it makes navigating the site a bit of a headache. Without using a bunch of separating lines or background colors, I stuck to the use of padding, margins and colors to separate individual blocks.

This site was built on top of Blogger for use as a CMS. I have worked with Blogger in the past (see my Deirdre and the Sorrows design) and admittedly, its kind of a pain – mostly because unlike WordPress and other popular content management systems, Blogger uses it’s own propriety code. Because of this, Blooger blogs are not W3C compliant and do not validate. All Blogger sites suffer from this. That said, I managed to create a solid 3 column theme without running into any major bumps along the way. And in Blogger’s defense, it is a very good, banner-less, & free blogging and CMS service, allowing users complete customization.

You can find the blog here.

The Band:

Deirdre and the Sorrows is my music project with roots in Irish folk, Western, Bluegrass and Americana. Having been active in the Minneapolis Rockabilly scene in the mid to late 90s, I developed a deep appreciation for its sister influences and discovered that the part of Rockabilly I really liked was the Billy more than the Rock.

I write all of my own material – from beginning to end, something that many people are not fortunate enough to do. It is often difficult allowing (mostly) only my own input, but in the end I am rewarded with compositions that reflect exactly what I had hoped to convey – without argument and without upset.

The Design:

I wanted to give a modern-retro feeling to this site, sort of like Rawhide meets The new millennium, and for the most part, I think I have achieved that. I am a huge fan of decorative designs, and they are used prominently here, as are my beloved orange tones and weathered touches.

When I have some more time to focus my attention on Deirdre and the Sorrows, I will begin the logo design process and make it available for those interested.

The Name:

The name comes from Irish mythology and a play Deirdre of the Sorrows by John Millington Synge which is based on the same story. I had first heard the story in 1998 and also saw a small Chicago production of the play by Synge, shortly thereafter. It was deeply inspiring.

You can read more about the story, here.