Anyone willing to give my blog design a once over?

[WCMiller]

Hello all. I’m going to be launching a blog in the near future, and I’ve finished HTMLing my current design, before I move it over to WordPress. I’m more comfortable as a coder than as a designer, and so I was hoping you all might be willing to give it a look and give me your thoughts; it’s at http://www.internetrhetorician.com/wip/.

Any feedback would be most welcome, but here are the things that I’m most concerned about:
* Is the aesthetic okay? I’ve been going for a bit of a mix of classical and modern. I hope I’ve struck the right balance, but I have a terrible time being objective about my own designs.

* Does anyone have any suggestions on improving the sidebar and footer? I’m still not 100% satisfied with it (maybe about 70%), but I’ve got a case of designers block on how to improve it.

*Does the greyscale color scheme work? I wonder if it’s a bit flat, and if replacing the blackish grey in some of the backgrounds with a deep, cobalt-y blue would look better. But then I think that it might undermine the "classical" feel I’m trying to give it. Some outside input would be much appreciated.

And again, any other thoughts would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[nate374]

I like the blue-based gray of the second version. It’s brighter, perhaps a bit happier. My suggestion is a minor tweak. Although the texture of the background is subtle, I think the site might look fresher if the texture was removed. I’d be interested to see how that impacts the site as a whole.

Nate

[noahgelman]

Your older design, the one you first posted was much much better. The blue here is quite blinding.

[Chris Coyier]

I like the first design better. The blue seems too old school. Try a more modern blue?

[Chris Coyier]

Try #006FA2

[noahgelman]

#006FA2 still a bit old, not as old as you had it before. #ABDAFB is pretty nice. I think everything is being thrown off by the gray. No one wants to stare at a gray website on a gray background. Try a gray background and a white content area.

[TheDoc]

The new blue is definitely a lot better on my eyes.

[Chris Coyier]

The new blue looks good. I think your issue is that you’re using too much blue. Change the text to black. Leave the subject blog headers in white as is.

[Author]

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