kartooner.com

In response to Matt’s Wordpress Color Scheme contest, I’ve created a theme I dub “Pumpkin” — a variation of kartooner.com’s color scheme — and submitted it as an entry in the contest. One of the stipulations of the contest is that you cannot modify the layout, but you can go hog wild with the colors.

With a bit of tweaking, I managed to apply the style sheet to my own Wordpress backend, including a few interface changes, moreover things that I’ve been bothered by since day one. We all have our preferences, and while Wordpress’s color scheme out the box is suitable for the new user, a power designer like myself yearned for the day when I’d have the time to make a few changes.

While I’m quite fond of the font Georgia, I’ve always wanted to change the admin menu font to Arial or Verdana and decrease the font size. Partly because I’d rather keep as many of the items on the menu (Links, Categories, Upload) on one line. As more menu links are added, they are wrapped to the next line depending on the amount of space. Decreasing the font size keeps as many links on the menu bar as possible.

Also, in my experience Arial and Verdana just look better in menu interfaces. Despite this minor tweak I decided to keep Georgia around as the main font for the rest of the backend interface. It’s easy on the eyes and reminds me of the typographic quality of a novel.

Here’s a screenshot of how the backend looks for kartooner.com, including a smaller version of the Wordpress logo (note the second menu, wherein I’ve incorporated tabs):

For those who are interested, or for those who currently don’t use Wordpress, here’s a page with screenshots of the original, straight out of the box interface.