When I started out problogging, the first ever network I joined was Blog Media, which is now Problogging, Inc. The first blog I wrote for was under the Erati sub-network, of which tech.erati was part of. It has since been re-branded as Gadzooki (more interesting tidbits about this later). One thing that the network did with the Erati sub-net was to create a homogeneous design across all its blogs. This means each blog looked the same, with similar layouts, down to the basic shape of the header and sidebar boxes. However, each had its own color scheme and typeface (or should I say font?) scheme, so not one blog looked exactly the same as the others.

Same design with variants? Or different designs altogether?

Some networks are fond of doing this. I have read about blog networks implementing a common theme across all their blogs, but only differing in color schemes. Somehow this makes it easier to launch new blogs, since one could just slap on the common design, and just tweak it a bit.

Other blog networks, meanwhile, don’t consider this a big deal, and go ahead with really unique designs for each blog, with a common factor being the network’s logo or badge somewhere. Yes, this can be more expensive, but more impressive in terms of the wow factor.

I tend to wonder which is the better way to approach design in a blog network setting.

Redesigning our blog network

A few months into my short stint with Blog Media, Gadzooki was sold off. So were the other blogs in that sub-network. And just a few months later, I joined up with Splashpress Media, who had previously acquired Gadzooki (so that reunited me with my first ever professionally-written blog). Not only that; in a span of a few weeks, Splashpress Media was also able to acquire other blogs originally from Blog Media’s network that sported the same basic Gadzooki theme (called Eratizine theme, which is very apt), like Biziki and Jack of All Blogs.

Now, Splashpress had quite a considerable number of niche blogs in its care–particularly under the Mr. Bloggy brand–and all of these were running on free themes with a few modifications. Splashpress started to implement the Eratizine look across 30 or so blogs with different color schemes or variants, and I was assigned to finalize this task when I came on board. So the challenge was to give each blog its own identity amid the similarity in look. We did this by having each blog sport its own logo and header font, aside from the color scheme.

(Blogging News and Hollywood Blog)

However, while Eratizine was a great concept, it wasn’t really good for online media. And its designer, design-guru Chris Pearson, himself admitted that he created the E-zine look more than a year ago already and it is fairly dated, by today’s trends and standards.

So we moved on to revamping once more the look across the blog network. What we did was have each blog group or sub-network designed by one designer, but not necessarily having each look the same. So the result was that these network of blogs looked familiar as a group, but each sports its own, unique identity.

A balance - unique designs with common elements

For instance, there were the big blogs, including the Blog Herald and 901am.com. We commissioned different designers, but each turned out to look related. BH was redesigned by Brian Gardner, with some modifications by Thord Hedengren. 901am was redesigned by Thord.

(Blog Herald and 901am)

There were the moderately-big community ones like Froodee, Gadzooki, Blog Tutorials and Travelogger. The last three previously used Eratizine, but these were designed/re-designed by Design Disease. Each has its own unique look, but don’t you think you can sense some familiarity, jumping from from one blog to another?

(Froodee and Gadzooki)

Then there are the blog-oriented blogs and blog services, like Jack of All Blogs, Blogger Jobs, Blog Network Watch, EatonWeb, and Audival (among others), which were also redesigned by Thord. Again, they all look different but all share some common basic elements.

(Jack of All Blogs, Blog Network Watch, Blogger Jobs)

And there are the niche-oriented blogs like Blogging News, Celebchefs and Man Utd blog. These still carry the Eratizine look, but they’re due for a major redesign sometime soon. We’ve already started commissioning design overhauls for some of these, and we’ll be relaunching real soon.

Unique, but familiar

My point is that from my experience overseeing design and re-design works for the network, I’ve realized that it makes better sense to design and conceptualize each site uniquely, but keeping something in common across the network, to retain that familiar feel. (I know this sounds–and actually is–very non-technical.) This way, things don’t get boring because of that all-too-similar look and feel across an entire network of sites.

I think it’s great that we’re able to develop WordPress themes for our network in this manner. Having unique themes for each blog makes it exciting for readers and us editors and contributors alike. But keeping the familiarity is also the challenge, because we want each of our sites to be closely identified with the network. Yes, it could be most subtle, but won’t you agree that it’s the subconscious that ultimately makes branding stick to an individual’s mind?

Your thoughts?