Today I would like to talk about blogs that have a unique design for each post. They break the traditional blog layout by designing a different theme for each post based on the topic. Designing a different layout for each topic requires a lot of time and creativity. So, we should appreciate these blogazines who spend their extra time to make your reading more pleasurable. If you would like to join this unique post trend, below are some excellent examples and WordPress tips on how to implement it.
72ave
Every post on 72ave is well planned and designed — from color theme to layout to typography. Truely amazing work!
Dustin Curtis
Dustin shows a table of content on his landing page. For each post, there is a different theme that goes with the topic.
Kyle Fiedler
Paddy Donnelly
The interesting feature about Paddy's blog is he gives hint about the next topic at the end of each post.
Jack Cheng
Beside the unique blog posts, I'm particularly impressed by the scrolling timeline navigation located at the top.
Gregory Wood
David DeSandro
If you worry about site branding and consistency, here is a good example to solve this problem. David DeSandro plays around with the content and comment area, but the header and footer remain the same.
Jason Santa Maria
Trent Walton
Trent Walton made it so easy to manage his blog posts by keeping the header and footer black which goes well with any light color theme. What make this blog stands out are the background images, color theme, and typesetting.
Occasional Unique Posts
Is unique blog post design taking too much of your time? Try to do it occasionally or on a special post like Smashing Magazine and Designer Informer.
Tips For Creating Unique Posts With WordPress
Creating custom post layout with WordPress is relatively easy. I find the easiest way is to design the blog posts on your local computer and then call the custom stylesheets with the WordPress's custom field feature.
- On your local computer, first create a folder (eg. drafts) to store your blog posts. Duplicate a copy of your theme's style.css file in the draft folder. For every blog post, create a new folder (eg. custom-post-title).
- For each post, create a new HTML file for writing and a new CSS file for custom layout where you override the theme's style.css.
- When you are done with the draft and the post design, upload the custom stylesheet to your server. In the backend, create a custom field (eg. custom-style) where you input the path of the custom CSS file.
Now in your theme header.php file, add the following code after the main style.css.
<?php $customcss = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'custom-style', true); ?>
<?php if ($customcss != "") { ?>
<link href="<?php echo $customcss ?>" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
<?php } ?>
i really love this site. you’ll post some really good articles. thanks for the posts.
thanks for inspiration
Great collection of unique post blogs. I’m trying the same thing out on my blog http://www.acwe.co.uk and I think it makes for a much more interesting site.
I’ve gone for keeping the header and footer the same too as it really keeps the site looking like one entity despite the different styles of pages.
Definitely a huge design step forward for the humble blog and, as a newspaper and magazine designer by day, it’s great to see websites getting inspiration from other more traditional media.
Some really nice examples here – the furthest we went was to make big images for each blog post!
This method is easier than creating a new theme for each post. Using an HTML file is good for checking the appearance, but not for writing your post. There are other tools for that, including BlogDesk, Windows LiveWriter and even a text editor.
I’ve always wanted to do some posts like this but I figured I posted too frequently to give it a try. Then I saw the posts on Design Informer and Smashing Magazine and it may be time to throw my hat into the ring. Thanks for the wordpress tips too!
Great post, I wish I had time to spend on my own blog rather than building other people’s :) I need to go over it, though, I have plans.
this information good, i like it’s
I am a French designer, I come regularly to your blog
thank you for this article.
Here also a link to the video of my communications agency: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yNdCFLLWks
Wow, those are some really attractive posts. I never knew it was somewhat easy to create custom posts like that. I’ll have to give it a try because I feel like my posts are plain and maybe boring.
This is a great way to spice up your blog. I just feel that a few of the examples are just a tad too unique per post.
Sites of Jason Santa Maria, Trent Walton and Jack Cheng, for example, do it best. Their posts are unique, but you never feel like you’re on a different website. There is consistent navigation and logo as well as a coherent brand throughout. Some of the examples are super creative, but I feel a little lost from post to post.
Great article nonetheless!
The ThemePerPost plugin makes it easy to have different themes for one or more pages on WordPress blogs.
http://www.steveify.com/themeperpost/
Thanks for sharing these, they’re so cool. I especially love the 72ave one. I, however, do not have the patience to make a different layout for each post, but it is such a cool effect if you do take the time.
I bet you each of their visitors are curious for what each new blog post layout will look like so they probably have a higher pages per visit than other blogs do.
Great post. I truly believe that this is the way the web should be going. If there is anyone out there saying that this is just a trend I would say that the same could be said about designing in templates. How is designing an article a trend, isn’t that what we designers do…?
BTW I am pretty insulted that my site isn’t up there :p http://www.yaronschoen.com never-the-less great post!!
While I think some of these are great (Paddy Donnelly & Trent Walton), I feel that some are a little hard to follow. After a while clicking through each page I just got tired of doing so. I felt like I was going to a different website on each click. It also feels these are designed only for other designers to appreciate. The average web user might get thrown off. Props on the work but don’t go overboard. Actually found it ironic that one of the quotes said “Why is your website a confusing mess?”. Thats how I felt about a lot of these. For me, what makes a good blog post is the content, not the pretty pictures around it.
This is a brilliant way to spice up your blog and keep your readers constantly coming back to see what changes will be made per post. Making these unified also add a unique element to the design and layout for ease of reading. By having a common theme between each post, however, allows the reader to know they are on the same website, and not continuously jumping around from page to page. As Paddy does, it is a smart idea to slightly hint to the readers what the next article will be like, to entice readers and make them anxious for the next post to come!
Great post, thank you Nick! I would like to request you a subject for (maybe) a next post, please: what’s (according to you) the best way to learn PHP, JavaScript, jQuery? I have already passed through the “gate” with those programming languages, I know the basics and enough to webdesign, even knowing that it could cost time, but what do you believe could make life easier to new webdesigners? any tips?
Regards.
Another site utilizing the custom designed blog post is http://www.terrafirmaclothing.com What’s different here is it’s actually a company that has started doing it, not just a personal/design blog.
I’ve recently been experimenting with this concept on my blog at http://www.zombiepriests.com . It gives me a regular design challenge while still keeping within the framework of a basically simple blog format.
Amazing examples. Are these just as easy to do in Blogger?