Category: Blogs

Here I am back with another blog inspiration posts. Although I have featured several of my favorite lifestyle bloggers on this site previously, Meghan Rienks’ blog site is hands down my all time favorite site. Her site is by far my favorite, and for that reason could not even be in the same category as the rest.

For those who do not know Meghan Reinks, is a 25 year-old social media influencer, youtuber, and blogger. She has about 2.2 million subscribers on YouTube, along with 1.1 million followers on instagram. Clearly she has a huge following, with a lot of people interested in her content, myself included. On her YouTube channel, you can find videos about cooking, skincare, question and answer video, etc. Her blog site serves as a great correlation to her website. On her website you will find recipes, posts on fashion, lifestly, and fashion. You will also find more blog articles featured on her site all featured on a separate page.

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A post shared by Meghan Rienks (@meghanrienks)

To get a better overview if what her site entails, take a look at the navigation bar. This navigation bar features all of the following: blog, podcast, book, shop. Her blog page tab also has a lengthy drop down menu including the following: bakemas (a month-long, christmas themed, baking spree), fashion, beauty, apple cider doughnuts (yum), and skin care. These are all things in which I have a strong interest for, which would make sense as to why I love Meghan’s site so much.

Another reason as to why I love Meghan’s site so much is her approach to web design. Personally, what catches my eye the most on websites, and what makes me what to keep exploring a site, is the overall design theme. In my opinion, I view this as things such as color and font choice. The colors used on Meghan’s site is a mix of white, creme, gray, and light pink. All the colors are muted, adding to the overall feel and vibe of this site. That said, the overall vibe I get from this site is girly and organic. These color choices fully support this vibe. Not only that the font choices also add to this feel and vibe. The fonts are simple, however, some have a nice, organic flow to them. A great example of this is the font used in Meghan’s logo.

Another great aspect of Meghan’s site is her images. All of her images are outstanding quality, making them very visually pleasing. A perfect example of this are the images on her “Bakemas” page. They are such amazing quality, that they will make you want to eat what is on the screen in front of you. Not only that, but Meghan does a really good job at organizing the images on her pages in a way that almost comes across as a gallery wall. The images are all similar and close together in a grid-type formation. Again, this adds to the visually appealing aspect of Meghan’s site.

With the completion of my second project for my online design course that was inspired by my travels abroad to London, along with summer quickly approaching, I have found myself visiting quite a few travel blogs over the past few weeks. I know from my own experience that traveling abroad can be a very overwhelming experience because there is a lot to keep in mind. Whether it be places to visit, or the best way to get around, being prepared prior to your travels is always very helpful. That is why I love Travel blogs.

Travel blogs are pretty much a one stop shop for all the things you need to know prior to your departure. What I love most about travel blogs is that you don’t necessarily need to be planning a trip to enjoy a travel blog. Personally I like to explore different travel blogs mainly because I love the idea of traveling and exploring new countries and cultures. Sites that feature new and exciting places inspires me to look into new ways to explore the world.

I have put together a list of two of my favorite travel blogs. Each site has its own unique traits and qualities in which I admire. Some feature more diary type posts, reflecting on their personal experience abroad, while others are more facts based and informational. I choose to visit each for different reason, so let’s take a look:

Alex in Wanderland

This site features Alex, a young explorer originally from New York. Her site features all of the places that she has visited, along with helpful tips and advice for travel. An interesting page on this site is entitled, “confessions.” When I first saw this tab, I didn’t really know what to expect, however, it intrigued me to explore and read more.

As for the design of this site, it is very decorative. It has a lot of different moving parts, however, it all seems to work very nicely together. The colors that are used are very vibrant, along with the images used. However, since this is a travel site that features different places from around the world, I find it to be very fitting.

Hey Nadine

My next favorite travel blog that I go to for inspiration is called Hey Nadine. Similar to some other blogs that I have reviewed on my site, this blog was created by a YouTuber. This YouTuber is Nadine Sykora. She considers herself a travel vlogger, videographer, and youtuber.

Similar to Alex in Wanderland, this blog site is filled with a lot of content, specifically a lot of images. That said, it works very well on this site too. Personally, when I think of a travel blog, I think of a site that has various pages filled with bright colors and vibrant images. It’s a place to inspire and encourage exploration.

Like I have already mentioned, Nadine’s site is filled with content. So much content that each of her tabs on her navigation bar have a long list of drop down bars. Her navigation bar features all of the following: an about page that discusses who she is and why she created her blog, a destination page that showcases all the different cities and countries that she has been to, a page of all her different tips for traveling, a lifestyle page that features blog post that have to do with various different lifestyle activities, and finally a page that is dedicated to her YouTube channel. Each of these pages is organized using the categories option on wordpress, making it super easy to navigate and find what you are looking for.

As I have mentioned in several previously posts, I have a very large interest in YouTube vloggers and bloggers, specifically, lifestyle influencers. The reason why I enjoy keeping up-to-date with these influencers is because their content is relatable and encompasses things that I am interested in. For example, beauty products, travel inspiration, clothing items, etc.

One of my all time favorite vloggers / bloggers is Danielle Carolan. She is a twenty year old college student originally from Tampa, Florida. She currently is a sophomore at the University of Georgia. She is over a half a million subscribers on YouTube and approximately 245,000 followers on instagram. As I already mentioned, I enjoy Danielle’s content the most because I find her to be the most relatable. She is a college student with similar interests to me, and posts about products and experiences that I find appealing. Along with this, she is very transparent with her followers, creating a engaging environment on all of her platforms.

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A post shared by Danielle Carolan (@daniellecarolan)

As for Danielle’s blog site, I feel that her blog truly embodies who she is as a person. She is a spunky, young, “girl-boss” individual, and that is fully representative on her site. Her home page is a great example of this. The overall design is simple, but gets the point across. The main colors used on this page is black and white, with a pop of red, making for a very visually appearing page. The images on the main page are oversized, however, this works well because it is the only content featured.

Danielle’s site as a pretty generic navigation bar, with her logo sitting nicely on the upper left hand side. Her navigation bar features tabs including an about page, a drop down menu of her social media accounts, a tab for her podcast, a shopping page, a charity page, a more specific blog tab, and finally a contact page.

When clicking on Danielle’s blog page tab, you are redirected to a similar looking page as the home page, except this time much more content. Her images are oversized and used in pairing with the title of you blog post. This pairing is a really nice visual appeal.

When looking at the text featured on the page, the only thing that I would say that could be adjusted is the size of the text along with the column usage. The size of the font seems a little small, making it slightly difficult to read and follow along the page. If Danielle choose to break up this text into either a two-column format, or make the margins slightly larger this would help with the flow of the text.

Overall, what I think is working best on this site is the consistency regarding the theme, include the font and color choices. This consistency works well to embody the site’s personality, which directly reflects Danielle’s personality. I am a huge fan of Danielle and all that she embodies, and I will continue to keep up with her platforms. Her platforms include several ways to engage and keep up-to-date with Danielle, and I feel that this is also working extremely well on her site.

In a recent post, I featured some of my favorite YouTube vloggers, who also happen to have their own blog sites. All three of the vloggers I mentioned are lifestyle oriented however each have their own distinct personality and brand when it comes to the content they put out to the world.

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A post shared by margot lee (@margot.lee)

Margot Lee is a lifestyle youtuber and blogger that has a very organic and down-to-earth vibe, and this is something that most definitely comes across on her blog site. Interestly enough, Margot uses wordpress to showcase her blog. WordPress is what I have been using all semester to create my own blog and it has been quite the learning experience.

What I enjoy the most about Margot’s blog is the simplicity of her design. It is clean and organic. If you follow Margot and keep up with her content, you would know that this design goes along perfectly with who she is as an individual. With that, what I love most about Margot herself is that she is very real and keeps true to who she is. I keep up with her blog because she has a very interesting outlook on life. She is very optimistic and inspiring.

Like I have previously mentioned, Margot’s blog design is very simple however, she includes a lot of great features on her page. For example, she has a social media widget thread to the right of her home page. Since she is a social media influence, it only makes sense that this is included on her page. It gives the viewer a great snapshot of even more content that she produces. That said, this widget features is very easy to implement if you are also using a wordpress site. All you have to do is go to the “customize theme” tab on your wordpress site and go to the widget section. WordPress offers a wide array of widgets that can be added to either the sidebar of your page or the footer section of your page.  

With all that said, one thing that I Margot does not have on her page that I think she could really benefit from is a more developed footer section. Currently, she does not have one, and I think if she included a few simple widgets, her page could be really enhanced. For example, she could add her pages to this section, or another form of contact information. All this is very easy to add, and would be done the same way she includes the widget on the side of her page.

Overall, I really enjoy Margot’s page because of the content she produces along with her simple design. However, I feel that she could add a few more features and design elements to her space to fully enhance it. I will always be a fan of Margot because of who she is as a person, and I will continue to keep up with her blog posts.

In my last blog post, I discussed some of my favorite content creators. Each of which utilizes both a video space and blog space to enhance their engagement with their respective audiences. As I mentioned in that post, for the longest of time I have been so obsessed with watching lifestyle oriented influencers’ vlogs that are posted to YouTube. However, ever since becoming more exposed to the world of blogging, mainly thanks to several of my WRTC classes at JMU, I have become interested in their blog spaces as well.

That said, I am here to highlight one of my favorite influences. Her name is Lauren Elizabeth and she is a Chicago Native, who currently resides in Los Angeles, California. I have been following her on social media, specifically YouTube since 2012. I have gotten the chance to watch her grow as an individual as well as a creator. She has created an incredible brand for herself. I admire her strong-willed personality and the “girl-boss” outlook on the world.

At the young age of 24, she has almost 1.3 million subscribers on YouTube, along with over a million followers on Instagram. She also has been pursuing a career in acting, while also being the founder of her own clothing line. With all that, she also keeps up her own personal blog site (https://lovelaurenelizabeth.com).

https://www.instagram.com/p/BwiPn2HAoBT/

Her blog features several different posts revolving around fashion, beauty, wellness, travel, and lifestyle. In my opinion, Lauren has a really nice, clean design for her blog. She has her logo as her header photo, followed below with a simple, and clean navigation bar. She also has a horizontal scroll of featured blog posts towards the top of her page. As you continue to scroll down her page, you see even more feature blog posts that are in reverse chronological order.

What I like most about the design of her page is that she has a two column styling being implemented very nicely on her home page. Her posts are to the left, and then on the right, in a smaller column, she has different sections. One being a blurb about herself that also links to her bio page. Following that blurb, are buttons for her different pages. Finally, in that column, she has different tags featured as a widget, which I think is very cool and something that I would have never thought of doing.

As for the posts themselves, they are all fairly short and sweet, and to the point. They are easy to read and follow because they have the text probably has fairly large margins, while also being used in a column layout. Along with that, her pages are all consistent and carry out the same personality and style.

Overall, Lauren’s blog is one that I really appreciate. Not only is that because I have an interest in the content that she is producing, but also because her site is easy to navigate, engaging, and overall a good looking site. A lot of the features and elements that she has included on her site are aspects that I could also see myself including on my own blog site.

Have you ever considered starting your own blog? For me, I have considered it multiple times. I have taken several courses during my time as an undergraduate student where I have learned how to use various platforms to create a blog, and in most of these classes, I have even been required to create one for a class assignment, similar to the posts I am writing for this site. That said, I feel as though the entire purpose of being taught how to use these platforms is to have the means to create a blog on our own one day. So I have the skill set to create a platform where I can use my voice and write about topics that I am passionate about, so why don’t I?

I never considered starting a blog until I took these classes here at JMU. However, for the longest time, I have been obsessed with watch video bloggers, a.k.a “vloggers”. If you are unfamiliar with a “vlogger,” essentially it’s an individual who produces content on a video platform, typically YouTube. With that, the content that is produced is similar to what you would find in a blog, however, instead of being written and posted online, it is verbally stated and recorded.

Over the years I have grown a large interest in social media influencers who uses youtube and blogs as a space to engage with their followers. In my free time, I spend countless hours watching videos of people sharing their lives to the public. Along with that, I will oftentimes keep up with their blogs to see what they are up to. It may seem weird that I care enough to essentially check in with these people on a daily basis considering I have never actually met them, however, there is something so interesting to me about the world of blogging/video blogging.

I keep up with a wide array of individuals and influencers, however, I would say I find myself engaging the most with lifestyle bloggers. I think I have realized that I have a passion for all things lifestyle related. Whether that be fashion, beauty, or travel.

Here are three of my favorite Video Bloggers, also known as youtube “vloggers.” Each also has their own personal blog:

1. Margot Lee:

Margot’s blog site: http:// https://margotlee.com

2. Lauren Elizabeth:

Lauren’s blog site: http:// https://lovelaurenelizabeth.com

3. Danielle Carolan:

Danielle’s blog site: https://www.daniellecarolan.com/blog

I would say I engage with these three bloggers/vloggers the most, however, each for a different reason. All of them are lifestyle-oriented, which I enjoy although they each have their own unique personality. Along with that, even though they are all considered “lifestyle influencers” their content and branding are all incredibly different. In my eyes, that’s the beauty of today’s digital age. There is no need to choose just one. I enjoy each of their different content for different reasons. And with that said, look for a few future posts where I go even more in-depth as to what I like the most of these three content creators.

In one of my lasts posts, I talked about some of the web design elements used by the online clothing store, Nasty Gal. By looking at this site, that I visit very frequently, with a whole new lens I was able to recognize various web design elements and features of this site that I could also replicate on my own site if I chose to do so. Along with that, I came across features of this site that I didn’t even realize existed prior to this analysis. One of those features being Nasty Gal’s on blog site. I truly had no idea this existed, and it had been featured in the navigation bar the whole time.

The blog site is called Nasty Galaxy and serves almost like a spin-off site for the clothing store. From the perspective of a loyal consumer Nasty Gal’s clothing, what I love most about this blog is that it serves as a space for the store to almost come to life. The major difference between the store site and the blog is that the blog is a lot more intimate. It’s a space where you essentially get to know the Nasty Gal and her personality. As a consumer, I thoroughly appreciate this space because it establishes even more communication between the clothing store and the customer, making me want to continue to shop at Nasty Gal.

As for the design of the blog space, it has a very distinct vibe. The overarching theme of the space, to me, is displaying a 90’s inspired feel. There is various use of color blocking, along with Polaroid images, all sitting upon a clean white background.

The homepage of the blog seems to serve as a gallery of all the existing posts. There seem to be three columns being used, where the middle one is slightly off-set. This small quirk adds a lot to the design of the site. It breaks things up, while also giving an aerodynamic feel, forcing you to continue your scroll down the page.

When it comes to the posts themselves, the layout is very simple. Almost every single one only incorporates one column, a decent amount of text, and fairly large margins. Since there is quite a lot of text on these pages, the size of the margin works very nicely, giving the reader the chance to follow along without putting too much strain on the eyes. Along with this, since the column is somewhat narrow it also helps the reader to continue their read.

You may disagree with me on this one but I love the simplicity of this blog. It’s so simple, it almost feels like an amateur put it together, and you might be thinking ‘why is that a good thing?’ Well, since the blog site lacks crazy design elements it makes me feel as though a real person is writing these posts, as opposed to someone who works for this large clothing store. You with me now? I just feel like this site is real and down-to-earth, making more loyalty to this company that much stronger. So, I guess they’re doing something right.

One thing not a lot of people know about me is my interest in the world of all things to be considered lifestyle. Whether that be hair, makeup, skin, or home design, I have always had a passion for growing my knowledge on all these sorts of things. I like to spend my free time watching video blogs on YouTube, however, I never really got the chance to get into actual blogs until taking this online design course.

At the start of this course, when I was beyond desperate for design inspiration, I took to google and just started searching for sites that would hopefully interest me. One day I stumbled upon a lifestyle blog called “Barefoot Blonde” (https://www.barefootblonde.com). This blog was created and ran by Amber Fillerup Clark, and she uses her blog space as a diary to showcase all things fashion, beauty, travel, etc. This site is filled with so many different features and layouts, so I figured it would be a perfect fit for one of my own blog posts. Here are some of my favorite things about this blog:

The Aesthetic:

The aesthetic of this blog space is so visually appealing, especially to someone like me who loves and appreciates distinct use of color. Overall the color choice is simple. It’s mainly white with pops of a pale coral color. However, the use of this color doesn’t only appear in the text. The pale coral color can also be found in almost all of the images that Clark uses, making the overall design have a great flow and consistency.

Columns:

Another aspect of this site that is displayed so thoughtfully is the use of columns. On the homepage, you will notice that all of Clark’s featured posts flood the page in a three column layout. Within the columns are photographs used as buttons to take you to the actual post. It’s simple however tells a great story. Even when you visit most of her posts on their respective pages, the use of columns is still prevalent. However, for the posts themselves, Clark seems to take more advantage of one column and two column layout design as opposed to three columns. The contrasting column usage looks stunning on her page and something that I will keep in mind as I continue my own web design.

Button Usage:

Lastly, I want to take note of Clark’s use of the button feature throughout her page. One each of her pages, right above the navigation bar, she has a strip of photos lining the upper space. However, when you hover over the image, the logo for Instagram appears, and when you click on the image a new tab will open for you, bringing you directly to that picture on her Instagram page. I think this works very nicely for her because it is a great way for her to move her traffic from her blog to her Instagram. Not only that, it looks cool too!

In a couple previous blog posts I have mentioned how I will be creating my own personal blog in the upcoming weeks and with that comes my never ending google investigations looking for the inspiration I need to spark my creativity.

I have come across several different blog spaces that revolve around similar topics that I also want to write about. One of the ideas I have for my personal blog is to do a travel inspired site but have the focus be on Harrisonburg, Virginia. Harrisonburg has so much to offer that I figured it would be cool and interesting to create a space to showcase some of the attractions, restaurants, bars, etc. that this town has to offer.

So, in my google investigation for inspiration, I came across this one blog. The site itself is called “Guesthouses” and the site’s url link is https://www.vaguesthouses.com. When you first log on to this site you will first notice that it is a rental house site for homes in the Charlottesville area. However, this site offers a blog space that can be located under the “Explore Charlottesville” tab found on the navigation bar.

I decided to visit the page called “Neighborhood Guide” because I figured that would be that page that would be most similar to the kind of blog that I may be creating. This was an interesting page that offered a lot of information on the various neighborhoods in the Charlottesville area but not exactly the “blog space” that I was looking for. So, I kept searching.

As I scrolled down a bit to the bottom of the page, I noticed that there was a link to a an actual blog. This took me to an external page with various blog posts all about charlottesville. Each post is oriented toward individuals who may be visiting the area.

What I liked most about the layout of this blog site is that it is simplistic. As you scroll through the page you are able to see all the different posts that have been uploaded over the months. Granted, the posts are few and far between, however this makes it easy to see each post. Also, the main page offers a featured image along with a short blurb of the first few lines of the post so you can get a better feel for what the post is about.

A major takeaway that I hope to instill in my blog site is the type of variety that this site has to offer in regard to its posts. There’s a post about avoiding the graduation comotion, as well as a post about shopping local and all things in between. If I choose to to do something similar to this blog site, I hope to have variety in my posts to keep it interesting while keeping the focus on Harrisonburg.