5ThirtyOne

Ben Bleikamp, also known for his entrepreneurship blog College Startup, has been hard at work coding and compiling his design community share Lovely Blogs. Now some may jump to conclusions stating that the only reason this post was created was to reciprocate the link of 5ThirtyOne on the Lovely Blogs pages, but I insist that this post carries far more value.

CSS galleries, design repositories, and any other websites created to elicit some form of inspiration can be found with a quick Google search. Often times, aspiring designers utilize these sites as a means in which to market themselves. With little financial backing or networking contacts, design showcases act as a resourceful means to get a little attention in the design world.

The openness and frequency at which websites are approved on these galleries is almost overwhelming. We see a staggering number of sites added, yet little commentary as to what exactly the site may improve upon when compared to the previous site to pass the approval process. Fortunately, there are a few galleries which have somewhat stricter guidelines for approval as well as insightful comments. Even then, these galleries may still be overwhelming and much too melded as far as design trends per style are concerned (think personal, commercial, static, CMS driven, etc.)Notable galleries: Stylegala, CSS Beauty, CSS Mania, CSS Love, and CSS Bloom. If you’re hankering for an all in one feed which crawls most of the popular CSS sites, check out CSS Galleries..

That’s where niche galleries like Lovely Blogs fit in. Rather than accepting any website, Lovely Blogs requires that a website be a “blog”.

Lovely Blogs is a design showcase, similar to Stylegala or CSS Beauty. Unlike those two sites, the focus is 100% on blogs.

A fitting addition to my, or anyone else’s for that matter, daily reader as a) I / you blog, b) blog designs that break away from the two column Kubrick-esqueNo offense to Michael Heilmann of Binary Bonsai. Much respect as the WordPress Kubrick theme remains the foundation of millions of blogs. Hell, I learned about WordPress thanks to that theme. template are in dire need, and c) everyonePossible overgeneralization? Drop your thoughts concerning the increasing number of casual bloggers in the commets below. blogs.

Ben has personally informed me of the following concerning his goals and intentions behind Lovely Blogs:

What was the Inspiration behind Lovely Blogs?

I was keeping a bookmark folder full of blogs that I thought were well designed [...] I’ve been talking to more and more blog designers and decided that putting together a site with inspiration, help, and tutorials would help others as much as myself.

What guidelines are followed concerning approved blogs?

[...] I don’t think a specific style looks best, as long as the design is well done and the designer clearly took the time to make his blog stand out from the rest [...]

A word of warning of sorts for bloggers attempting to submit their site for exposure alone, Ben takes the time to thoroughly review submission in order to add his own personalized commentary to blogs which grace the Lovely Blogs pages. Check it out for yourself and drop some votes. Ben is slowly making his way through the submissions to recognize appealing blog designs. Digg this.