In this part of Project WordPress, we are creating a layout for our customized WordPress blog. The blog layout strongly depends on the niche you’re in and how you want to appear to your readers. Every niche has its own preferred blog style that you have to consider before you start blogging.

Until now, we’ve already covered these parts of Project WordPress:

Part 1: How to install WordPress, set it up and do basic customization;

Part 2: Eight dead essential WordPress Plugins;

Part 3: 10+ recommended WordPress Plugins to make your blog prettier.

Part 4: Create Your Blog Layout

Are you starting a new design blog, or are you going to write about cool gadgets? Do you want to blog about your personal life, or are you in the make money online niche? Knowing how you want to position yourself in your niche is the first step for creating a custom WordPress theme, and should be considered before we go any further.

To show you what we mean, let’s take a look at four blog layouts that are very different from each other. We picked a blog from every one of the above niches. Click on the screenshots to enlarge the images - we noted a few things for each. We also provided a link to each blog. Read on…

Have you ever used a pixel font? If so, have you experienced the text looking blurred, unsettled, not sharp? This Illustrator tutorial will help you avoid this hurdle!

Pixel fonts are quite popular these days. It all started in Flash: these developers have been using pixel fonts for some time now. The trend soon swopped over to static design, and now you can find many websites using pixel fonts in their design.

But that’s not all: pixel fonts quickly conquered print design as well. It’s not hard to follow: they are stylish, and they provide a certain modern, sharp and ‘technozoic’ look. But most of all they just look good.

Well almost: here’s the catch! Unlike usual typefaces, you have to know how to use a pixel font correctly. It’s simple: a pixel font is made up uf single pixels. That means that a stroke is only 1 px. There are no corner fillers or shades to make it nice and round. After all, they are called pixel fonts, right?

This fact makes them not so easy to handle. The same thing also applies to 1-pixel strokes. If you don’t know the matter, you will end up getting blurred text and borders. That can make your whole design look unprofessional and bad.
So how can we avoid this? Simple: Read on…

If you’re in photography, this might be one of the most important rules to follow. If this rule is new to you, stick around, as the Rule of Thirds applies to designers as well. In this tutorial, we will trim Adobe Photoshop for the Rule of Thirds - making your designs look better and more appealing.

A photograph, or artwork, is more appealing to the eye if the designer follows the Rule of Thirds. The rule states that by dividing an image with two vertical and two horizontal lines into nine equal rectangles, the intersections of these lines form the four preferred spots for an image’s focal point(s). Sounds confusing? It’s not, really - just read The 5 Rules of Composition over at our sister blog Nubloo.com.

Now we will turn this into practice by creating a Rule of Thirds template for Photoshop. In the end, you’ll have a custom shape which you can apply to any of your artwork in an instant, and use it to enhance your work. Read on…