BenCrowder.net

Okay, it’s their tacky joke, not mine. :) (See http://lilypond.org/web/switch/) So I was checking out the LilyPond site again today (I’ve been in a typographical mood lately), and it really struck me how untypographical the current site is. ‘Tis a pity. Now, LilyPond is a great piece of software and I’d hate to see it misrepresented like that for much longer, so I’m going to throw together a new look for the site and see if the developers like it and want to adopt it. Rule #1 of web typography: don’t use Times New Roman. :)

Here’s what I’m thinking so far. It needs a strong visual identity, which means a good color scheme (which is easy because of the lily imagery) and a good, solid logo. (I’m debating whether I ought to just trace the lilypad image or come up with something new.) Having the text go all the way across the page makes it too long, so the line length will have to come down quite a bit. And Times New Roman is sooooo 1990s. Lucida Grande is good, as is Verdana. And the headings could be a bit bolder, with some good letterspacing. The layout has to accommodate wide images (like those in the essay on engraving), which will certainly be an issue to work around. The navigation scheme doesn’t look too complex — a handful of main tabs, with subtabs for each (basically). All in all, once the basic CSS is done, I don’t imagine it being too hard to switch over. And that’s one thing that’ll help with getting the developers to approve it — the level of easiness in switching over. So I’ll try to avoid modifying the HTML whenever possible. (But when they’re using tables for a lot of it, that’s definitely going to have to change.)

Hmm, I probably shouldn’t blog about this till after I do it, because I’m under the radar right now. ;) (Not that I really need permission, since I’m not forcing it on them or anything. Just trying to help the work along.)

[tags]LilyPond, web design, typography[/tags]