Hello World!

Starting today you will notice a bit of a different look for us here at We Travel & Blog.

We’ve designed a new logo and changed a few fonts and colours to lighten up the mood a little. We hope you like it, and whether you like it or don’t, we’d appreciate your feedback.

How did we get here

Well truth be told, when Gabriel and I embarked on this blogging journey I thought my little bit of design background would get us pretty far. Sure I knew the Web changed a lot and often, and yeah, it had been a while since the last time I tried my hand at making a website but, how different could it be really?!?!

Oh boy was I in for a surprise.

I knew dreamweaver and some basic coding and CSS, I knew what SEO stands for, I knew some basic design skills and how to properly use photoshop and illustrator to my advantage, what I wasn’t ready for were the millions of hosting, data management systems, themes, plug-ins, and social media options, and how much and how fast the Web changes.

WordPress.com/Worpress.org… huh?! Self hosted? Premium themes? Isn’t there a magic button for “I need this to do exactly that to this part of my specific theme right now? Twitter bots what?!? How many social media sites are there out there right now? How many accounts do I need to open? Why doesn’t Google+ have an API I can use to automate my posts? How can I get a decent photostream widget for my own instagram feed? AHHHHH!!! I edited my .php file and I broke my website!!!

Ugh.

If that all sounds like Chinese to you, GOOD, keep it that way, unless you plan on starting your own website soon, there’s no need for you to delve into the realm of the wild wild west that is the world wide web, and more specifically Web 2.0.

I could go on a tangent about how I think we as internet consumers are losing control to a plethora of stingy developers, but I’ll keep this post nice and tidy and to the point, which was how we got to our new look.

The truth is this is where I was hoping we would be when we launched, but, well, I had to spend more hours than I anticipated on “creating Facebook applications, getting access tokens for Twitter & using the @fontface feature” research and it cut into the “creating a stylin’ logo, getting a grasp on font pairing & using the colour scheme on my theme properly” more creative, more enjoyable time.

So after 2 months of note taking, trials and errors, a few live chats with my hosting company, and endless hours of forum browsing…I decided it was good enough to launch as it was…. Time to get some content up, get the motor running, and keep working on all that junk in the background.

What we had was something that was legible enough to start linking to our site without too much embarrassment, but I’d relate it to going to a posh party in a paisley sun dress….. It wasn’t quite reflecting the look I’d had in mind.

We’re not there yet.

To be honest, the look I’d had in mind–I now realize–probably takes me hiring a developer and paying him thousands of dollars…so yeah we’re not there yet, maybe one day.

BUT! At least I’ve made time to create a logo I’m happy with, that I think we’ll be using for a good long while–at least until the next brand redesign–and I’ve got the right fonts to match. So VOILA!!

In the meantime, Gabriel who was supposed to hold up the SEO & traffic funneling end of the bargain seems to be right on top of HIS mess like it aint even phasing him. Thanks baby!

Let us know what you think of the look, but also, if you’re in the blogging business, feel free to share your design nightmares with us!!