Best Design Voting

VOTING CLOSED. Best Design goes to...

FEED ME BOOKS NOW

Welcome to the voting round for Best Design! Voting will last for one week, from July 27, 12:00 AM EST, to August 3, 11:59 PM EST. Please only vote once, and don't cheat. Scroll down for the next category, Most Creative!

Feed Me Books Now

Hi everyone! First and foremost, thank you so much for nominating me for this category. It means a lot to be nominated for Best Design (considering the amount of time I spent meddling with my blog's appearance)! I'm extremely passionate about designing, despite the fact I'm not very professional, and a lot of effort goes into my blog's look. I made all the graphics myself, which I'm pretty proud of considering I'm a 14-year-old who doesn't own Photoshop! But anyway, I've got a few of my readers to talk about my design...

Let's begin with the fact, Ruby's design includes a very-famous quote from Vlogbrothers: DFTBA. If you are not feeling instantly inclined to shout about how awesome Ruby's blog design (and herself) is, then you need to watch a Vlogbothers video immediately. Or read 'The Fault in Our Stars' - but, remember the tissues! Ruby's design is also inventive and imaginative, something I was attracted to when I found her blog. This is nothing found off the internet but all design by Ruby - whom I must say is extremely talented. Monsters stalk the page but are also adorable - along with Ruby having her own system when it comes to reviews. They're bright, vibrant and full of great vocabulary. I know this should just be on the design, but Ruby is also a fantastic friend to me. She definitely deserves her nomination - and through many conservations on Twitter - is definitely almost as awesome as her blog's design! ;) In all honesty, she is just wonderful! Completely wonderful! You must go and vote for her so she can continue to to try and decrease world suck for many more years. Quick! [The DFTBA mention is part of my blog post signature!]
—Sophie

Ruby is a extremely talented blogger and I adore her design. Feed Me Books Now has a recurring sort of theme with the orange and the cute little monsters. She uses great fonts and knows everything on "How to make a great graphic and or design". It goes really well with her blog name "Feed Me Books Now" and it's a very fun design that also has sophistication. I think she is absolutely worthy of her three nominations as her blog is of such a high quality and one of my favorites to visit. —Sunny

Sometimes I visit Feed Me Books Now just to stare at its wonderful design. It reflects brilliantly off Ruby's unique blog posts, and her interesting book reviews. Ruby's designing skills are unbelievable! She has such a creative mind. She can create banners, buttons, and anything really, with such ease.
Feed Me Books Now's design is so original and creative! I've really never seen anything like it! It really suits Ruby's unique blog. To think that Ruby, at her age, can create such an amazing design all by herself is unbelievable! I wish I had her talent. Feed Me Books Now has the best design I've ever seen, and probably will ever see! It is the definition of an amazing blog design!
—Jack

Thank you so much to those three for taking time to say their opinions about my Blog Design and saying why they think I should win! But also, thank you to everyone who nominated me as I'm honoured to be up against some of the prettiest blogs I've ever seen. :)

Click to enlarge

Icey Books

As a designer, I'm very picky in when it comes to design. I need designs to catch my eye and stay clean at the same time - and because I like that, I've incorporated the same idea on IceyBooks. I have one uncluttered sidebar with easy links to current giveaways, a handy search bar and social media icons, and fonts that are easy on the eyes. I love all things vintage, so it seemed only natural to base my design on that! While I have plans to change up this design soon, I can say I've gotten several comments on how much readers love it, which never fails to make my day.

Here's a tweet from someone who loves my design(s):

@IceyBooks By the way: I love how creative and vintage your designs always are. You have got a great talent.
— Jenna (@jennadoesbooks) July 14, 2013

Xpresso Reads

I went through a couple of designs since I started blogging and none of them truly screamed "ME" - really I don't even like pink all that much! So finally I spend a whole weekend designing a site that would reflect my personality and taste; it truly feels like my baby, now!

Book Loving Mom

I am so honored to be nominated for Best Design. All of the credit for my blog design goes to Giselle @Xpresso Reads. I am glad that she knows me so well because I think the design is a perfect fit for me. I love the color purple, and the design is so clean looking while being unique and pretty. The social icons are all the mother and child symbol which I think is really awesome too. And it helps that I think the chick looks a little like me. The letters floating in the background are fabulous. I am still as in love with my design today as I was when I first got it. I think that it is very "me" and couldn't have asked for a better design for my blog that fits me right!

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Remember, voting lasts for a week until August 3, 11:59 PM EST. Please only vote once, and scroll down for the next category, Most Creative! Good luck :)

polls & surveys

Best Design Nominees

VOTING IS NOW CLOSED THE WINNER IS THE BOOKISH BRUNETTE

Here's how it's going to run down: there will be a poll at the bottom of this post and you simply just vote for your favorite blog out of all of these arguments! :) Each day, there will be THREE voting rounds posted, so you'll have to scroll down and see all the posts for yourself. Each voting round lasts for exactly a week and once every voting round it done, winners will be announced, and prizes (if you would like to donate contact us. Please remember that if we don't get enough prizes we won't be giving ANY out at all) shipped out—that is, if the winner wants a prize.

For the Best Design nominees, we asked for a screencap of their blog, and a little about their design inspiration.

Mind Reader

Mind Reader design was made by Silvia @Darkest Sins and it's about everything I love. The lady represents me, a sort of gothic Mad Hatter, and the rest represents all my passions: books, the gothic & eerie world of witches.

About the Blog: Mind Reader was born from my passion of books. I mainly blog about my reads, which include urban/dark fantasy, paranormal romance, dark erotica and historical romance. I sometimes also post reviews of movies I watch, and some other times of genreal things that catch my interest.
 
The Bookish Brunette 

My design usually reflects the season... ;) or an event! 

My chick always stays the same, although she changes clothes and makeup depending on her surroundings! Because I'm anal that way!

About the Blog:

I started The Bookish Brunette in April of 2011, quickly became known as the Zombie Queen after Zombie Craze 2011 was held in June of 2011... and Zombie Craze 2012, this past May, was phenomenal! I've since started working with the AMAZING Claudia McKinney of PhatPuppy Art, doing book cover typography and recently started a book touring service, BB Book Tours!

Bewitched Bookworms

Rating Example:

Something that was always important to me was the design and layout of our Blog. I admit, I am a design addict - I love to stare at beautiful pages, sites that invite me to say longer. This was the aim for our layout. I wanted it to be inviting, therefore I wanted soft colors, a clean & soft design and an easy navigation. They grey color with the pink and blue highlights was chosen to be easy on the eyes and definitely is one of my favorite color scheme! Being romantic at heart I wanted to transport this feeling, and  the beautiful hand drawn book with the butterflies in the header exactly fits my romantic heart.

Also, I'm a lover of small cute details.  I think my rating system is is exactly like this, those cute dolls are just adorable with a love for detail and I believe they are definitely unique. In addition, I have book genre badges to underline the genre a certain book fits in. 

But the layout itself it not everything. I also spend a lot of time with the layout of each post/review so that readers feel also visually invited to read our posts/reviews. Each review has a 3D cover and a post graphic, to add to the overall feel of the blog being something I hope people find visually attractive. 

Last but not least, I am extremely in love with our featured slider, which show casts our recent reviews with a featured image.  These images are also made by myself for each post. 

About the Blog: 

The Bookworms have been up and running since 2.5 years and we review a variety of book genres, although our primarily genre definitely is Young Adult fiction. We are 3 friends (Pushy, Heather and Danny) running this blog together with each of us having a distinct voice and genre preference. We are very passionate readers and we especially love to share this passions with our readers! In addition to review books, we also love to interact with authors and help them to promote their books! 

GraveTells 

Our main page is magazine-style with quick, easy-to-find references to nearly every other part of the site, including on-going giveaways and events as well as a top review scroll bar to see all the latest review posts
Our blogroll (The Feed) is clean, striking and UNCLUTTERED! You will not find a thousand annoying blinky ads on a double sidebar or a rainbow of eyesore colors on GraveTells. We only show you what we think you might like, and we do it with class. Readers come first; advertising comes second!
Our header slideshow rotates between announcement images of current events and
promotions. Scroll through all the slides for quick updates!

We create all our own graphics for our events and awards… many from scratch
Our color scheme is memorable and sets the tone for our darker paranormal and urban fantasy focus
We celebrate our review team members by making each of them a special signature graphic they can use in reviews and in their own correspondence.
We make it easy to find what you want when you want it. Readers come first at GraveTells, so we’re always open to feedback on what makes your viewing of our site easier and more pleasurable. *grin*

About the Blog:
Erotic or chaste, gritty or sparkling, novella or epic, GraveTells has been hooking up fans of paranormal
romance and urban fantasy with their book boyfriends since 2011.

Come check out our “/tells of grave tales” and meet your next crush @ http://gravetells.com

My Secret Romance

 

When I was creating my header I knew I wanted a photo of a couple. However, I didn't want their faces to show. I wanted it to be a "secret" couple. I also wanted to incorporate books into the photo, but wasn't sure how. That's where Sarah from Okay Creations came in. Eventually I found the silhouette of the couple that felt like the one. So I sent it to Sarah, along with colors and inspirations and told her to work her magic...and she did! I absolutely love it! She did such a wonderful job...exactly what I wanted. It shows a secret romance, with lots of smooching and books, which is what my blog is all about. A big thanks to Sarah for my beautiful header! 

About the Blog:

My Secret Romance is mainly a romance reading book blog. However, we'll read and review whatever we fancy at the moment- so we're not too picky! There are eight reviewers who contribute to the blog and without them My Secret Romance wouldn't have made it this far. For me the blog has grown beyond a place where I can share my thoughts. It's now a place where relationships have developed. I never imaged that I would meet and become friends with so many different people who I had so much in common with. I am so grateful for them. The blog encompasses a wonderful set of woman who bring their different tastes and perspectives creating a unique blend. Yet we are all compatible with each other. I love these ladies and wouldn't have it any other way. Plus, what it all boils down to is we find more and more juicy books to read!

Parajunkee

The Parajunkee’s View design has gone through a lot of metamorphosises throughout the three years in existence. Currently the design is image based and reflects what I would believe to be a Persephone type image, representing the dark and light side of the female consciousness. Deep right? Persephone imagery is a favorite of mine and I think it invokes what I’m trying to accomplish with the blog. Showing both dark and light sides of fiction.

About the Blog:
Parajunkee’s View, started in August of 2009, primarily focuses on books, fiction genre books to be specific. But, over time the blog has morphed into a community outlet for much more, including movies (usually based on books), television shows and other entertaining, artistic outlets. The blog also features tutorials for other bloggers on how to improve their own blogs, and memes that target improving page views and networking.

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