In my Week in Review post for October 20th, I mentioned that I had been working on a “secret” project for a client of mine and that we would probably be launching the site on or around November 3rd. Unfortunately, we didn’t make our November 3rd launch…but November 11th is just as good. The project as you might be able to tell was a redesign of Cuzoogle. Cuzzy had been talking about redesigning his site for awhile now and giving it a more updated look. We both sat down (cross-continent) and came up with an interesting layout that would allow for him to put in his necessary ad spots as well as something that looked fan-freakin’tastic!

While this project wasn’t a completely custom theme; we did start off with the basic layout from the Simple Red Theme from Easy Wordpress that Cuzzy had been using. The biggest challenge in getting everything looking as it should were the widgets that Cuzzy uses for advertising. They took some tweaking, but they all fell into place like they should. The new theme is in between Evolutionary and Revolutionary when it comes down to it. Since the original theme had a lot of good quality stuff already built-in, we didn’t need to revolutionize the theme…however, the design elements added were HUGE improvements over the old version.

This is a quick breakdown of all of the new added features…

1. New and Improved Header Graphic
   • Larger Header to Incorporate Ad-Space
   • Built-In 728×90 Ad
   • Built-In 300×250 Ad (New Addition)
   • Custom Cuzoogle Logo (New Addition)
   • Streamlined Navigation
   • RSS Button Designed into Header
2. Improved Post Styling
   • Added Custom Date Badge (New Addition)
   • Changed Title Font to Helvetica Neue Bold Italic
   • Restyled Comments Section to Include Gravatars
3. Sidebar Improvements
   • Restyled Search Box
   • Restyled FeedBurner Widget
   • Made Split Columns Wider
   • Restyled Widget Text

There are a lot of really cool new features to the updated theme, but I think they add a lot of character to the site. The one thing that I might have done differently would be to make the header not as tall. However, I think it works and gives the site a unique element that you don’t see every day. I’m really proud of this new design…I think it’s going to generate a lot of buzz in the design community.

What do you think of the new Cuzoogle? I’d love to hear what you all think of it. If you’re interested in having GrandmasterB design something for you  let me know. If you want to see some of my other work check out the Design Services page.

~ GrandmasterB