And now back to our regularly scheduled Design Review series. OK, not very regular, but I’m working on it. Today’s choice of subjects is Grouchy’s Liberaltopia. It’s a fairly new site, having been started earlier this year, but the design has a very mature and professional look.

Style:
Their style starts off with a bang. Anyone who can design a WordPress theme around a header image of the US Constitution and flag has my vote. A dark red gradient background anchors the page nicely.

Good use of color. While I normally cringe at making links blue (often looks unintentional), it works very well here as an accent to the red background and white page.

I’m particularly impressed with the layout, a very nice use of space. They have avoided the common blog design error of crowding and cluttering. Everything is nicely space, and highly readable.

Using a flag image in the blockquotes adds a nice touch. It balances nicely with the rest of the theme.

Overall good marks for style.

Structure:
This is a WordPress site, and as you might expect from me, I like the site structure. It’s not perfect however. There is some sloppy coding I don’t like. After a quick look I’d guess it’s a widget or two. Nothing wrong with using them, but I don’t always like the code they produce. More of a matter of personal preference than anything, I’d be shocked if this coding caused any problems, it’s pretty insignificant.

Content:
Content is well written by authors that have a sense of humor. They take their subjects seriously, but not themselves. All of these things are pluses in my book.

What would I change:
I’d think about changing the login bar at the top. To my eye it’s not quite right. I’d say it either needs to be more prominent, or less. Removing it and putting those option into the sidebar would be another solution.

I’d make an effort to clean up the code somewhat, but that’s likely produced by widgets or code from external sources so that may not be an option.

I’d consider changing the use of the flag image in the blockquotes so that it doesn’t repeat in long quotes. I like it’s use, but I’d fading it out in long quotes rather than repeating. This is one of those things I might change my mind on as soon as I tried it, but I think it would visually work better.

I’m personally not a fan of animated site elements for the most part. I’d likely replace the rotating gear element that begins each post.

Summary:
A very good design, with decent execution. While I see things that I’d personally change, I don’t really see anything I’d consider an error.

The coding could improve, but that could be said for most blogs. I don’t see any coding issue that’s likely to cause a problem.

What would I not change? White space. The use of space is good, and I’d be very careful about changing that.

Like their friends/rivals the Rotties, they’ve got the beginnings of a good branding effort going here, and I’d make an effort to maintain that in future. I think the use of historical imagery, and the red, white, and blue color palette should continue on any future design updates.

I’m fond of this theme and give it good marks, and I think the owners and designer of it should be very pleased.

Trackposted to Perri Nelson’s Website, third world county, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, Pirate’s Cove, Blue Star Chronicles, Dumb Ox Daily News, Pursuing Holiness, The Yankee Sailor, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.