Web design

Everything I have designed is a personal solution to a public problem, something encountered while blogging. I am neither a professional designer nor coder. Being an editor, I find myself more interested in the design of the actual words than what may frame them.

While my designs may seem simple, they are exceptionally clean standards-compliant XHTML and CSS, semantically rich and Microformats-friendly, and wholly accessible. A great deal of thought went in to the typographic details.

You may also be interested in my WordPress projects.

Barthelme: Inspired by the man; less inspiring possibly

The new standard for minimalist blog design

The original three-column minimalist blog design

A new type of theme for WordPress

The one-column theme for the content-centered blog

The original very plain text blog design

  • Barthelme

    Barthelme: Inspired by the man, but less inspiring I am proud that my favorite blog design is one I produced. This fluid two-column layout has a unique use of negative space that provides focus on the content. Barthelme was inspired by Margins, a short story by Donald Barthelme.

    Barthelme is available for WordPress and is free (as in speech) open-source software.

    Download Barthelme.

  • blog.txt

    The new standard for minimalist blog design An elastic layout that is minimal: just over 100 lines CSS. Its theme options menu provides six two-column layouts and three three-column layouts. Blog.txt was rated one of the top ten blog designs in WordPress for Dummies.

    Blog.txt is available for WordPress and is free (as in speech) open-source software.

    Download blog.txt.

  • plaintxtBlog

    The original three column minimalist blog design A rock-solid fluid three-column layout that became a WordPress classic. Originally featuring a special “blog summary” template, plaintxtBlog was a surprising success and inspired many derivatives, the original “minimal” three-column.

    plaintxtBlog is available for WordPress and is free (as in speech) open-source software.

    Download plaintxtBlog.

  • Sandbox for WordPress

    A new type of theme for WordPress The Sandbox is a unique theme known for the design of its XHTML markup. It is a powerful theme with rich semantic markup produced by dynamic class-generating functions. It is scheduled to be included in the WordPress core at version 2.4.

    Sandbox is available for WordPress and is free (as in speech) open-source software.

    Download Sandbox.

  • Simplr

    The one-column theme for the content-centered blog Simplr is the theme that I always wanted: an elastic single-column layout focused on content. Simplr is meant to be a one-post per page template and features a unique recent comments widget and breadcrumb navigation through archives, pages, and posts.

    Simplr is available for WordPress and is free (as in speech) open-source software.

    Download Simplr.

  • veryplaintxt

    The original very plain text blog theme My first theme for WordPress, veryplaintxt became the original “very plain text” blog design. I was inspired by the McSweeney’s design, in which I found brilliantly simple. The success of this fluid two-column layout inspired a streak of hyper-minimal blog design.

    Veryplaintxt is available for WordPress and is free (as in speech) open-source software.

    Download veryplaintxt.