If all goes well, the next few days will be the last time you will see my site with the "New World" theme. Despite quite a few attempts at creating a new theme, I had not been able to focus the energy into such a project until recently. I have had this particular theme since November of 2005. My first theme, "Torn Paper" shelled out pages since the site's WordPress-era inception in December of 2004.
Now for a bit of a confession, although my "About" page tells it plainly. Samantha has designed my two previous themes. My task was simply to slice apart an illustrator file and try my best to make the finished product match the rendering. This will be the first time that I have actually worked on a redesign from start to finish, although I have shared a copy of the AI file for some last-minute color tweaking and to add a bit of photorealism.
The thing I like most about the new template is how it seeks to de-clutter some of the site. I have gone through quite a few phases with the site, most recently removing the graphic-based headlines and the link buttons down the right side. Before that, the GPS coordinate tracking and avatars for commenters were removed. This redesign marks what I hope to be finally getting back down to basics with less distractions. With a mostly clean slate, I can spend more time developing worthwhile content rather than stringing together a few plugins.
Pardon the mess for the next few days, and if you come across an error, shoot me a message through the usual channels.