The Evolution of My Blog Design

I've been drafting this idea for a week now, playing with how I want to do it because I never saved screenshots of my previous blog designs. So just because I seem to have a lot of time on my hands, all the screenshots of my "designs" have been recreated for this project. [I opened a test blog and created the layout. That's also why there are no posts and no widgets on the side.]

After thinking about where I am as a blogger, I realize that I need to do a post in which I show you all my embarrassing blog designs through the years. And embarrassing, they are. I wasn't able to afford a designer so all the ones below are done by yours truly, except the current one which was done by the amazing Stephanie @ These Paper Hearts.

What you see might SHOCK you. It was pretty bad, guys. I don't know how I achieved this "niceness" but it definitely wasn't without YEARS of trial and error [mainly error.]

My blog is not new. I hate telling people my age because I didn't "get" blogging until years after I started. I don't completely get it, even now. There was just a lot I didn't understand and I was only introduced to the community a year and a half after I started so for that time, I was riding lone wolf.
So I won't be putting specific dates and now you know why.

2012

Like a few other bloggers I know, my first venture in the blogosphere was for a school project. I teamed up with my friend, Maddie to create a blog known as "Bookaholics Ink." which is a pun on the word "inc." We were 12, leave us alone. I quickly ditched the idea, as you can see, we gave up only a few months after we launched.
We used the blogger templates and didn't create ANYTHING new at all.

If you can read it in the last post, I do say that I'm in the middle of starting my own blog. Obviously, I've deleted it now but BOOM. This was the original "Out of Time," known as "Nova, the eBook Nerd." I had the "brilliant" idea to review wattpad books even though most of ones I reviewed are written by inexperienced writers with big heads who think their work is the shit because they've got millions of reads.
So glad I stuffed that idea.

ALSO GET A LOOK AT THAT BUTTON. NO WONDER NO ONE WANTED ME HAHA. This was my FIRST ever venture into photoshop where I blended a book with a nova and a starry background. It looks like hell and I know. Oh well.
[ALSO PINK TEXT FONT. KILL ME NOW.]

The "Musings of a Blogder" Era

Musings of a Blogder went through like 3 different designs and I can't even fathom how I remember all three of designs. I've got nothing better to remember, I know. And they're probably in the wrong order, but it's alright, as long as I sort of got it.
Also, random fact: I actually deleted my graphics, so I scoured the web from the after finally finding them... on facebook. What even?

 After a quick google search of "Supernova" the image you see in this design header and background sparked an idea for a design. At this point of my life, I was very in love with the Trajan Pro font, #sorrynotsorry. Obviously, I still have no idea what I'm doing and my design skills, if you can even call them that, are in need of work. I mean, look at my signature! It's the same one as now but the colors are all wrong. And that font for "Won't Shut Up" is BARELY legible!!!
The only thing I'm proud of is how I use "Blogger + Reader" on my header. Yes, that's what BLOGDER means. I'm not committing typo fails, I promise. However, the question mark just ruins everything. Why do I sound unsure, omg.

It took awhile, but I eventually realized that the last design was NOT the design for me. This new one is a lot more like the one I currently have. It's me starting to experiment with the jewel tones and a darker theme. I still haven't fixed up my stupid graphics, which is why they still look like that, but I'm slightly happier with the background and the header. The font is nice, in my opinion.
At this stage, I was experimenting with Dafont.com [which is where the banner font came from and the header font.]

This one actually doesn't look too bad, in my opinion. I finally fixed the background to make it look like the header blends easier. The graphics actually match the theme, except the popping effect looks weird and out of place in comparison to the title.
Since Musings of a Blogder also incorporated music, it's nice to see it in the header. The rating system would soon change to the music notes they are now but these flashy stars aren't actually too bad. In my OLD reviews, I still have the rating system as these stars because I'm way too lazy to change them. And yes! The signature was made at this stage and I think I got lucky with it because I still use it to this day!!

Out of Time - Present Time

I never realized the beauty of a solid color background. It looks awesome because there's so much going on in the header. I think that was one mistake I made in ALL my previous designs - I focused too much on the background.
Something I forgot to mention was that the blockquote was developed by Ashley @ Nose Graze during the "Musings of a Blogder" era.

The header FINALLY works for me and looks the right size! I enjoy the bursts of color and how well it matches the graphics I made, that I still use! Also, I kept the rounded edges theme in ALL of my design stages, which makes me pretty happy.

So what do you think of my many stages? These are only the BIG changes that I remember. I'm sure I've had way more mini ones as I've been blogging. It's crazy to think how much we grow and change as bloggers from when we start out. My blog design really reflects ME as a person and how I feel like I have a handle on the things I do now, more than in 2012, when I was still making silly typos and haven't found the beauty that is photoshop.