Frank Schulte-Ladbeck

A blue toned two columned theme for a cooler small business website

Iliked the jellyfish theme, but it was a rather large file, and I did not think that it was the best option for all users. I still wanted a theme that could be used to display photographs/images well, but not be entirely black. I took a look at more photography sites, and I have to say that the black themes are better suited for showing off those works. White background themes were alright, but I focused more on the images when there was a black background. Still, I found the problem on every site, that there was writing that I could not read.

When jotting down ideas, I conceived of a site with a red background where the red was intense on the top of the page, but it slowly faded to a lighter red at the bottom of the page. Still thinking about businesses that need to display images, I decided to try my idea in blue. This brings me to the Voyager theme (the song Voyager from the Moody Blues as a title inspiration).

After completing the theme, I thought it might be good for any business wanting a different look to their site. Green toned themes are popular because of the interest in green marketing, and white toned themes are quite common; however, I thought this theme provides something different.

Features:

Header: the navigation menu is above the header with the title placed in the center and a slogan aligned below. The header is 175 pixels high by 800 pixels wide, in case you want an image in there. Navigation menus are multistaged, so that parent pages can have “children” listed under them to avoid crowding on the menu bar.

Columns: two. I am still looking at three columned themes, but I feel that two columns, one for the post, one for the sidebar, work better. The sidebar is to the right. The side bar is a bit larger. The theme was set for 800 pixels width to better fit on all monitors.

Footer: the footer is de-emphasized in this theme by having it blend into the background of the sheet. I am still leaving the RSS feed symbol there, for you to move. For people using this as a personal blog, remove the pages listed that have more to do with businesses, like “Terms of Use”.

Sidebars: a Web 2.0 feel with rounded edges, but they are moved closer together. The background is a blue-grey to contrast it from the theme background. The titles are not highlighted to put more focus on the content.

Additional: this is my first theme that incorporates a stylesheet for printing. The blog title, the post, and the comments will print.

Have fun with it. Download Voyager.

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