When my bro Ken decided to change his domain from What The Fat (here’s the theme I designed for him then) to something that he can use for a lifestyle blog, it took us weeks to come up with something we’re sure he’d stick with for a long time. And one afternoon, while we were on our way to somewhere (I can’t remember where we were going), we thought of Ken Avenue. Immediately, ideas for his blog’s design came rushing in.

I had big plans for the design, but Ken won’t stop searching for the theme he’d want to use or something I can get ideas from. That’s why I don’t have a screenshot of his old theme because before we finally settled in his current blog’s design, he switched to about probably 20+ themes.

So, here’s the final layout:

He wanted a plain white background, a narrow main content area with 2 sidebars on its sides, and a mix of black, white and gray hues.

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Last year, I was able to convince a close friend of mine to start blogging. To further push her to start her own blog, I promised her I’ll design a custom Blogger theme for her. Now, Notepad Corner is still sporting the theme I specially designed for the author, my friend Joy Blanca.

I designed her whole theme from scratch. The only ones I didn’t create myself were the vector of the lady on her header (which I had to edit to match the colors of her blog), the pens on the sidebar titles, divider and signature, and that piece of paper on the right side with the brief description of her blog.

I tried looking for a notepad theme that will suit her, but I can’t find anything that would fit my needs for what I wanted to do with her blog. And, so, I decided to design all the elements myself.

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One of my many services at my internet cafe and printing business here is printing invitations. I used to design scrapbook pages for friends and I also ended up creating custom invitation designs for friends and relatives so I thought I should be making money out of it since I feel like I have a knack for coming up with layouts most people enjoy, especially parents.

I have learned to use Adobe Photoshop on my own, reading tutorials online and applying what I’ve picked up right off the bat. Most people would think I learned all these design techniques in school, but really, I barely learned anything from the school I graduated from and I had to do it all by myself, including web and blog design. Something I’m truly proud of about me. (If I can do it, so can you! )

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C’mon, be honest. With dozens of sites that offer free downloads of fonts, I bet you have hundreds installed on your desktop or laptop.

Okay, I guess I’m just trying to find someone who’s addicted to fonts as I am. But, some may argue that my addiction to installing fonts on my computer can be justified by the fact that I’m a graphics / web / blog designer. And I use that excuse every time someone teases me to stop downloading more fonts already.

Did you know that the terms font and typeface are actually NOT synonymous or interchangeable? Check these Wikipedia articles on fonts and typefaces. They’re pretty interesting. But, to avoid confusion, I’ll just use font for this post. I don’t think I need to be politically correct here anyway.

As of today, I have 1,245 fonts installed on my computer. I have all sorts of fonts – serif, sans serif, script, ornamental, and even symbols / dingbats. Have I used all of them? No. Not yet, I mean.

Ever since I realized that I have this knack for playing with words or texts to come up with simple yet eye-catching posters, banners, etc., I started to accumulate more and more fonts almost weekly. My main download site is DaFont.com, of course.

Here are a few samples of my designs where I played with font styles, weights and sizes:

• A banner I made for our monthly comments contest over at Orange Magazine TV’s blog:

• The image, I borrowed from Deviantart. The quote, I read it somewhere.

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My brother Kenneth and I are both bloggers. He doesn’t blog as much as I do, but only writes posts when he feels that need to share his thoughts. We’ve got different blogging styles, which I find amazing. He’s younger, but his vocabulary is wider than mine.

Anyway, this post isn’t really about him and his writing style , but the design I made for his new blog. I also purchased a domain for him – WhatTheFat.net – for his own personal space on the web.

The Domain / Blog Title

I remember Kenneth coming up to me one night telling me he wants to start a blog where he’ll write about his struggles in losing weight. After some wordplays, we finally decided on WTF – What The Fat. I immediately imagined how I wanted the design to look like.

He was publishing on Blogger, but I later decided to move his blog to WordPress. It was after he decided to convert it to his own personal blog instead of just focusing on his weight loss journey. I moved all his old posts and, voila! Here’s the final layout:

The Colors

He wanted me to use the colors of his old blog. He prefers an earthy color palette and so I ended up using tan, beige, dark browns and gray.

The red color came from my idea for the header, using it to emphasize on the letter F. So, the color was used for parts of the theme that needed to be highlighted like the post title and sidebar titles.

The Header

The layout of the blog title on the header was conceptualized the moment we decided on that title. The rest of the concept came to me when he decided to make What The Fat his personal blog.

Again, the F is in red color to make it pop. And, if you look closely, the background of the header is actually filled with words starting with the letter F and are related to his weight loss journey and what Kenneth goes through in his personal life.

The Sidebars

To continue with the concept of the letter F being one of the main focus points of the whole design, I made the sidebar titles like this:

Well, the hard part is thinking of other words for Sponsors (Face Time), Archives.(Fast Rewind), etc. But, I think we did a good job coming up with alternate words for the widget titles, don’t you agree?

All in all, I’m pretty happy with the end result of my design. My bro loved it, too! I just wish he’d get to blog more often.

Check out my brother Kenneth’s blog – What The Fat.

What do you think of What The Fat’s design?

Share your thoughts at the comments section.
I KINDA only welcome constructive criticism. LOL

I’m still not done with the blog design for Joy of Notepad Corner. After her, I’ve got 2 more blogs on queue for makeovers. Then, I’ll post my rates and officially offer my services to all bloggers out there.