It’s been a busy week in the world of custom blog design, I have finished up a few new blog designs and I’m really excited to share them.  I always post my latest designs on my portfolio page, but I feel like in the new year I’m going to go more in-depth in some blog posts about how I come up with ideas for custom website design and blog designs.  To start, I feel like the biggest part of being a blog designer is actually being an artist.  When I was in elementary school, other kids used to pay me to draw things for them (like animals and Lamborghinis) and eventually my mom figured out that art might be my thing and signed me up for art lessons.  Now, I am by no means a fine artist, I haven’t picked up a paintbrush in years, but I guess those early lessons helped out (as did ballet because I still have decent posture for someone who is legitimately over the hill and fantastic turnout!) but I always tell people when they ask that it’s having an artistic eye, first and foremost, which you either have or you don’t.  So generally what I do is ask clients to fill out an inspiration form that gives me an idea of what I will use for their blog design template.  One of the biggest elements of the inspiration form is the client’s personal style.  I usually ask clients to let me know what other blog or website designs they like that I have done, I never copy what I have done for someone else, but everyone has their own aesthetic and usually it falls into categories, for example their style might be simple and chic, rustic, hipster, feminine, that sort of thing.  I also ask them what their blog is about. The goal in blogger design is to focus on the blog content, I always tell clients that their blog design is like putting the makeup on a blog.  The basic blog structure doesn’t change, the idea behind a custom design is to enhance it, make it eye-catching and frame the content.  Also a blog design needs to be eye-catching and memorable, most people only visit a website or a blog for 3 seconds before they decide to stay or leave (short attention spans, anyone?!) and my job is to make sure that the artwork is engaging and that the design conveys the message of what the blog is all about.  I look forward to sharing more of my blog designer tips with you in future posts, so stay tuned!