Like Gandalf long before it, Coriolistic Anachronisms is currently shedding its dark cloak and will soon emerge purified and dressed in white.
I have always preferred a dark theme for photography which it seems to highlight well. However this blog is at least half text and typography is easier to fine-tune on light backgrounds than on dark ones. Since the main VMP site and the new print shop have now adopted the white look, this will make for a more unified experience.
The 2014 redesign so far revolves around a minimalist approach and this will remain true on the blog. I will finally do away with the conventional vertical formatting that has plagued the blogging world for too long. With the majority of computer and LCD displays adopting a cinema-like horizontal shape, it is beyond me why we keep formatting our blogs in a tall and narrow column that wastes 50% of the screen’s real estate on each side.
The sidebar will be collapsed off-screen as it really plays a minimal role anyway. Gone from default view will be the typical blogroll, calendars, links to this and that, copyright notices, etc.
With post content almost filling the screen, a much bigger font will be chosen, making reading easier and better matching the look and feel of a paper book page. In-post images will also start growing since average internet speed is also improving.
The blog will now be AJAX-loaded, which means that rather than reloading a new page every time you navigate to a new post or category for instance, only the required content is fetched, making a full page load unnecessary and speeding up the page draw. This is an experiment I have been meaning to make for a long time as the complete reloading of a blog that is made of many constant sections like the menu, header, sidebars and footer bothered me. Why not keep the main structure loaded and simply change the content that must.
But the great power and fluid beauty of jQuery will still show through slideshows and new sliders designed to make a visit to the blog a more visual and interactive experience.
All this involves programming that is already well beyond my coding ability and I will once again use a pre-designed theme that I will modify to suit my needs.
That’s the plan in any case, and while the transformation is well under way, things are often changing as progress is made or lacked, and the end result could still be a surprise. Stay tuned!
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