Higher Ed Marketing’s minimalist makeover

Updated 9-30-07 — with capital letters. Thanks, Robert, for tweaking the CSS code.

So I thought I would change the look of this blog.

PRblogs gives users about 150 or so different templates, but many of them are over-designed. You can’t say that about this design. It’s called “Zen Minimalist,” and it’s by Joni Mueller of Pixelita Designs. Since this blog consists mostly of words and links, with the occasional graphic, I thought a cleaner, more basic design would improve readability. And Zen Minimalist seemed to fit the bill.

There are some other things I like about this design, too, such as the tabs at the top.

newblog-tabs1.jpg

One thing I don’t like, though, is the template’s strident anti-capitalization. It’s just a little too humbling, IMHO. Thus, post titles now look like this (sorry, Shel).

newblog-headline1.jpg

That’s the price we pay when we go for trendy web 2.0 minimalism, isn’t it? at least e.e. cummings would be pleased.

But what about you? What do you think? Love it? Hate it? Discuss.

Download Shel Holtz’s ‘Blogs Gone Wild’

The PDF version of slides from Shel Holtz‘s “Blogs Gone Wild” presentation from today’s Social Media Revolution conference is now available. The session provided a good overview of how quickly a damaging story can spread via social media, and how easily someone with a beef can cause havoc for a corporate (or university) PR staff.