Step 1. How it looks:
So our example web page is going to be based on a simple blog theme, with a WordPress blog-like structure similar to that of the default WP themes. It’s going to look something like this:
The idea here is not for you to reproduce my example, but for you to be able to follow along and apply the techniques to your own designs, hopefully learning a thing or two about the underlying concepts.
Step 2. Photoshop
We’re going to keep the Photoshop use here to a bare minimum, Usually I mockup an entire design in Photoshop before coding, but here I’m just going to generate a basic layout, and worry about the content later. This is an example of a different workflow, it will make more sense as we go along.
Page Layout
As I wrote above, i decide to make website 950px wide, with right sidebar’s 250px wide and main content 700px wide. I think its optimal size for our web blog.
So, create new PSD document with Width: 1100px and Height: 1000px, with background color: # 556666
Create body background with gradient color from # 8aa295 to # 556666;
Create Header with width: 950px – gradient color from # ff8d00 to # d80e00;
Main Menu with width: 950px – background color # 000000;
Side bar – background color # edeeee
Bottom Menu with width: 950px – background color # b8fafd;
Copyright with width: 950px – background color # 000000;
Font Character
- Login/Logout
- Welcome text:
- Font: Verdana
- Font Size: 12pt
- Color: # FFFFFF (White)
- Link color: # 333333
- Text decoration: underline
- Welcome text:
- Header
- My Blog Name:
- Font: Verdana
- Font Size: 30pt
- Color: # FFFFFF (White)
- My Blog description:
- Font: Verdana
- Font Size: 14pt
- Color: # 000000 (Black)
- My Blog Name:
- Main Menu
- Menu Links
- Font: Verdana
- Font Size: 18pt
- Color: # cccccc
- Link color: # cccccc
- Text decoration: underline-none
- Menu Links
- Content
- Article Title
- Font: Verdana
- Font Size: 24pt
- Color: # 000000 (Black)
- Autor
- Font: Verdana
- Font Size: 11pt
- Color: # 666666
- Link color: # ff3300
- Text decoration: underline-none
- Publish Date
- Font: Verdana
- Font Size: 11pt
- Color: # 666666
- Content
- Font: Verdana
- Font Size: 14pt
- Color: # 333333
- Link color: # ff3300
- Text decoration: underline-none
- Blockquote
- Font: Verdana
- Font Size: 14pt
- Color: # 333333
- Font style: italic
- Tags
- Font: Verdana
- Font Size: 12pt
- Color: # 666666
- Link color: # cccccc
- Text decoration: underline
- Article Title
- Sidebar
- Sidebar Titles
- Font: Verdana
- Font Size: 14pt
- Color: # 666666
- Sidebar Text/Links
- Font: Verdana
- Font Size: 12pt
- Color: # ff3300
- Link color: # ff3300
- Text decoration: underline-none
- Sidebar Titles
- Bottom Menu
- Bottom Titles
- Font: Verdana
- Font Size: 14pt
- Color: # 333333
- Bottom Text/Links
- Font: Verdana
- Font Size: 12pt
- Color: # 339999
- Link color: # 339999
- Text decoration: underline-none
- Bottom Titles
- Copyright
- Copyright text
- Font: Verdana
- Font Size: 11pt
- Color: # cccccc
- Copyright text
Conclusion:
In this tutorial we made simple design for our new blog site, next lesson we well add PSD design to HTML code.