One year hiatus is over!
As you can see below, my last post was 3 April 2009. Meaning I’ve been such a big fail and took more than a year to come up with a new design and change my CMS from own-coded to WordPress. But that latter part was the horrible part. I had to manually transfer all the posts one by one (because I wanted to proofread them all) and eventually decided I was too tired to bother with the comments. Anyway, let me show you what design concepts I went through before deciding on this one.
Steps of getting to this design
First I made a business card design, just playing around.
Header design
Then I made a book, this is the second ever vector graphic I’ve ever made.
Vector book
But the book was too big, and it didn’t look so effective when it’s a small size so I made another vector.
Blue notebook design
Yet I wanted more colour since I’m a hater of monochrome.
Brown notebook design
Still though, the notebook was a little big as a header image and my boyfriend preferred blue over brown and I am a nice girlfriend.
So here it is: Appassionato Version 20
Good thing the end result isn’t at all too monochromatic, but I am quite sick of looking at the same similar design and colour scheme already. If it wasn’t for the fact I’m dying to re-release the site, I’d so take my time making a new design.
Both the 3D book and later notebook were copied from tutorials at Vectortuts+, and they were detailed awesome tutorials for a total Adobe Illustrator noob like me to have been able to produce those.
Constructive criticism is, like always, welcome. But this time I will be limiting myself to only making really serious or easy-to-fix changes because my workload from uni has been crazy. 
The big issue for most of you is probably the lack of contrast between the main font colour against the background, but I assure you it’s a lot better now than before and I really don’t want to make the background any darker because it involves quite a lot of work and I will be changing this design as soon as I come up with a better one.
Update: just made changes to text colours. I still think it was prettier the way it was before (see above screenshot), but this should make for more comfortable reading!
Near-future plans for the site and design
Here are a few things I will be making changes to though:
- Properly design the comments display on posts.
Styling blockquotesDone!SmileysDone!- Design for the Linkage page.
- Additions to the Resources section when I’m done with WordPress compatibility checks and rewriting old tutorials.
- Maybe get BellaBlocks.
What’s special about today?
- This is the first semester where I’ve had to do three hard law exams one after the other and today marks the end of the marathon.
- And most importantly, I’m in the longest romantic relationship I’ve ever been in and today is our 7 months!
I have a list of topics I have been dying to blog about already, mostly rantish. 
So there won’t be a blogging hiatus again any time soon!
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Maggie says...
The layout is nice, I like it ^^ it’s very professional looking :]
And, congrats on the 7 months! <3 Here's to more!
Posted on 14 June 2010 at 3:57 pm
netster says...
Wow Awesome!
Love it! I love to have a name card like for my real life business!
Cheers!
Posted on 14 June 2010 at 4:01 pm
Angela says...
Simple and beautiful! I love it!!
I need tidy up (and actually complete) my own site after my pharmacology exams of doom. Shall add you to blogroll!
Posted on 14 June 2010 at 4:15 pm
Amanda says...
I like the layout (sheesh that was a looong process to get it here!) but you’re right – it’s the background colour vs font. Oh well. Congrats on your 7th months though, that is a freaaaking long time. So it must been going good to still be around ;)
Posted on 14 June 2010 at 4:32 pm
Catherine says...
Ooh, this is very nice!
But most importantly of all, welcome back! I’ve been waiting for this for a long while.
Posted on 14 June 2010 at 4:38 pm
Meg says...
Ooh, it looks nice! I must admit that it’s not my favorite design of yours, though.
What if, instead of making the background darker, you just made the text darker and used the white text for “special text” like links? Something like this: http://i47.tinypic.com/iop8a1.png. Just a suggestion!
Posted on 14 June 2010 at 4:50 pm
Rilla says...
Thanks guys!
@Meg: I brushed off that idea quite early because it makes everything looks too blue. If I have time though I’ll try edit the colour scheme of all the text, maybe make the content text blue and other colours for headings and so on.
In the mean time, things are easier to read if you visit this site at night.
Posted on 14 June 2010 at 4:54 pm
Tina says...
RILLS! Welcome back to the interwebzzzzzzz
Get off WoW sometimes and update kay (hypocrite = me = hates blogging). BTW, are you playing Cataclysm expansion?
You need to make this text black. I’m getting old and need to squint to read it (jk).
Don’t proofread my commentssss! It’s meant to be full of spelling errors and grammatical mistakes but I get the feeling if I were to type in sticky caps you’d gouge out my eye or stab my arm.
And yes, I’d rather make useless comments on your blog than actually write something of substance on mine.
KEK.
Posted on 14 June 2010 at 5:29 pm
Chien says...
Congrats on 7 months and also more importantly for coming back to the interwebz
Love the design, especially the header
But there’s one thing I would seriously point out and that’s the comments. I know you’re going to work on it more soon, but I can see the “Edit Comment” part.
Posted on 14 June 2010 at 6:19 pm
J says...
WELCOME BACK!!
Appassionato popped up in my feed and I was like, NO WAIZ! And then I got some butterflies
Can’t wait to hear about all that’s been going on in your life, this boyfriend of yours, whether your bus-catching skills have improved in a year :p
I do quite like the layout, but the giant text is overwhelming me a little. It’s no biggie, and its probably heaps better for the eyes, I just feel like a midget that’s going to be swallowed by Appassionato :p
Posted on 14 June 2010 at 7:05 pm
Rilla says...
@Chien: Lol thanks so much for that Chien. I didn’t even notice I accidentally copied and pasted the HTML straight away.
@J: I’m sorry you feel like being swallowed.
I actually wanted it to be bigger but ended up scaling the size down. I wanted big text because I noticed that back a year ago most of my visitors were using BIG screens so I wanted to cater for the majority I guess!
Posted on 14 June 2010 at 7:17 pm
Tyler says...
Congrats on your return and the spankin’ new layout, Rilla! I really like the new design, especially how open it is. The color scheme doesn’t bother me, but I’m sure any changes you make will be great. Also, I was browsing Facebook on my phone and thus happened to view the mobile version first, which I must say is quite professional and sleek as well.
And congrats on 7 months! My longest to date was 8 months, so you’re steadily creepin’ up on my high score. Here’s to many more to come!
Posted on 14 June 2010 at 7:47 pm
Nellie says...
I love the layout, but my weeny netbook-sized laptop doesn’t appreciate the text size (I do! I blame my laptop!). Haha.
Congratulations on making it through your exams, and for reaching 7 months! That was my record before I met my current boyfriend.
Posted on 14 June 2010 at 8:20 pm
Charlie says...
Somehow I lost your feed from my reader, looks like I found out just in time.
Love the layout! The different shades are perfect. And congratulations on your 7 months!
Posted on 15 June 2010 at 12:36 am
ember says...
Wooots! About damn time, Rilla.
And it was worth the wait! Really love the huge typography and yay – single-columned goodness. Can’t stop playing with all the roll-overs you have going on all over too, heh. Great, great work. Well done!
Posted on 15 June 2010 at 12:56 am
Jem says...
My only criticism is that I can’t read the comments – the text colour is WAAAY too light. Otherwise it’s fabulous! Lovely colours, lovely big text
Posted on 15 June 2010 at 2:12 am
Rilla says...
@Jem: o_o the comments text colour is daaark on my screen.
Okay I’ll darken it just for you tomorrow. Thanks!
Posted on 15 June 2010 at 2:17 am
Regina says...
Wow, this looks great!
I love the colours, the text though is kind of big for me. Congratulations on seven months, and most importantly, welcome back!
Posted on 15 June 2010 at 8:56 am
Medli says...
It is actually great to have you back. Your layout looks amazing. I know how hard it is to make the right layout. I think I code about two or three of those before I finally make a decision.
Congrats on the 7 months mark. I remember when I made it with my boyfriend. It is an amazing feeling.
Posted on 15 June 2010 at 10:02 am
Jana says...
AHHH The wait is over! YAY!
I love the design. Like someone previously said, it’s very professional, awesome.
Wow, 7 months? Cool. Many more to come eh? YAY! Welcome back.
Posted on 15 June 2010 at 12:15 pm
Kalliste says...
Ooh, I really like the book ideas you came up with. They look great!
The only issue I have is the nav links… I don’t even know what, they seem to be just floating there.
Posted on 15 June 2010 at 5:16 pm
Jenny says...
Congrats on finishing those exams and on your 7 months! It would’ve been nice if you could have kept the brown-ness in the design (like in the 4th screenshot), but I still love the layout overall
Posted on 16 June 2010 at 1:07 am
Nicole says...
Yay for being back! I missed reading yours blogs. I must say, I like your theme and the colors are pretty, soft in the eyes.
The book navigation was very nice, maybe you can make it a little smaller and incorporate it to a new design?
Posted on 16 June 2010 at 2:25 am
Trisha says...
I like this design. I thought the white text looked nicer, but this text looks fine, also.
I’m a noob at Illustrator, too. I kinda gave up after a while.
Those vectors look great, though. Blue’s my favorite color, so I like the whole mono-chromatic look. Also, I’ve never seen text this big on a site – it looks great! I don’t have to squint or anything! 
Posted on 16 June 2010 at 8:38 am
Lucy says...
I’m so glad you’re back! And this new layout definitely looks amazing. Very professional, and the colors are fantastic. Congratulations on your seven month long relationship! I remember being excited when my husband (then boyfriend) and I had been together for six months!
Oh, and about the text size. At first thought it was very large as well, and that’s because I have a large screen myself. The browser itself isn’t maximized )because it just looks strange that way), which makes the font on the screen look humongous. But seeing this layout again, I think you scaled it down some, right? It looks much better now, and really, who cares about the people with little screens? ;-)
Posted on 16 June 2010 at 9:44 am
Aisling says...
I love it, Ryl Ryl!! And I’m uber glad that you are back.
Posted on 16 June 2010 at 2:23 pm
Karl says...
Finally!!! Since I hardly see you now, I’ve been waiting for this to come up hahaha.
Can’t wait for your rants ;)
Posted on 17 June 2010 at 12:23 pm
Fainaru says...
RILLA! WOOOOOTTTTTT. Appasionato is BACK! W00000t! I am in love with this design. Your deviation ss doesn’t do it justice. I love how whimsical and I love your image hovers!! So fun to move over. Glad your back!
Posted on 19 June 2010 at 9:03 am
Johnny says...
woooaaahhhh how did i miss the re-launch of your blog? XD
congrats on finally getting this up and running again =P
and congrats on your longest romantic relationship too =D
(read your latest fb status too, and awww~~~ piggyback ride? how sweet =P)
take care =)
Posted on 20 June 2010 at 2:17 am