The Visualist Blog site launched in January, 2011, and serves as a visual computing technology blog for Denver-based Christopher Jaynes, the CTO for Mersive, which he founded in 2004. The goal of this WordPress customization site design was to create a rich visual computing and information resource, along with post discussion and social media integration, all while carrying over branded colors and elements from existing Mersive brand standards into the design. The Mersive.com company website features a prominent link to The Visualist Blog in the main site navigation, so the user experience was a significant consideration during the wireframe and creative process. Another major consideration was the ability to add frequent posts and other content to the site, so we developed and coded this site leveraging the WordPress platform and administrator interface.
For the banner area of this site, we chose a large, bold, and modern font with a letterpress effect, and subtle gray to white gradient that intentionally overlaps with the main content region, slightly truncating the bottom of each letter, and creating a very connected look between the top and body regions of the page. To add depth and incorporate Mersive brand colors, we created a green light-beam effect behind this bold headline text to convey the visual and technology aspects of this blog in an abstract way.
Secondary color choices beyond the green of the graphic banner area allow for small additions of color throughout the page on links, buttons, and comment notifications. Custom fonts were also used for the blog post titles, and custom functionality was added for site language translation, as well as RSS feeds and custom email notification and subscription to the entire blog, or just individual posts. Social Media components were also installed on individual posts to allow site visitors to easily share the content with their own friends, networks, and professional colleagues on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Digg, Delicious, Google Buzz, and many others.