Well, it looks like Smashing Magazine launched a new layout without telling us. They’ve retained the clean look from the previous design, though the main content area isn’t nearly as wide as it had been previously.

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FeedIcons.com, the easiest way to grab a copy of the standard RSS icon, has recently received a redesign.

The light-on-dark design, like the old version, makes the orange feed icons stand out. The other colors don’t look bad either.

The design is made-up from two colors, mainly. Black and a dark gray. Three buttons to the right of the logo take you to the three parts of the site, “Get the Icon,” “Code Snippets,” and “Guidelines.” The prior incarnation of the site only had one page, where you could download a ZIP archive of all of the icon types. Now there are three options. You have the “Standard Icon” pack which contains 28×28 and 14×14 versions of the orange RSS icon. The “Colour Pack” contains 12×12 versions of various colors. My favorite, the “Developer Kit,” is the original option from the old site. It has everything. 12×12 to 128×128 variations in numerous colors and formats (including JPG, GIF, PNG, and PSD).

The new design is pretty good for a white-on-black layout (which normally is hard on the eyes), and the content has increased. Take a look, and download the Developer Pack if you haven’t already. It’s indispensable for bloggers.

Blogsolid is a blog about blogging. The tagline “ideas for better blogging” describes the site well.

Their content is good, and their design is amazing. It’s got a great natural/ancient/paper/etc kind of look to it. Though it’s a light-on-dark design, it’s been pulled-off well, and it’s not really that hard on the eyes.

Unlike most blogs, Blogsolid has taken the “Splash-Screen” approach, though I have to admit it’s one of those rare cases where it works (without being annoying). The splash page isn’t done with Flash either, which is a big plus. The splash page adds to the site, and does a great job of setting the tone. Note: Don’t try this at home! (more…)

Welcome back to Design Spotlight! I know it’s been awhile, but there have been a lot of other things to post about. Today we tackle Pro Blog Design.

ProBlogDesign has a cool, well-designed, template sporting a three-column layout. [Random thought here: We need to come up with a short name for this type of layout. It's awkward to say "Three-columned layout with the two sidebars positioned to the right."] The template uses few images, and features interesting positioning.

The logo (featured in 78 Inspirational Logos) sits inline with some useful text links, positioned at opposing ends of the screen. Floating atop some a green-striped background, the logo text is white, but almost metallic, somewhat reminiscent of the current iMac’s white finish. (more…)

Today’s highlighted design is….North X East. The owner of NxE, Collis Ta’eed, is obviously a designer. Take a look at the current design (as of July 6, 2007….who knows? It could change again. ). It’s not your ordinary blog design. It’s pretty unique. Then there was the old, design (which was really cool as well). Collis has even said “I admit I do tend to dislike my own old designs Actually you’ll laugh to hear that I’ve already started to dislike this one, but this time I’m going to ignore myself!”. That’s how I feel about my designs as well. I sort of….get bored with them after awhile. When you know how to design, you tend to want to design more often than you get a chance to, and you get tired of your blog’s same old design. (more…)

Welcome to Design Spotlight. Today we have The Leaky Cauldron.

The Leaky Cauldron, or TLC (or “Leaky”) for short, is the oldest Harry Potter news site. Older, and larger, than Mugglenet (the second-largest Harry Potter site).

We’re here to analyze their design, not talk about their history. Let’s get started. (more…)

Welcome to Design Spotlight. What’s Design Spotlight? I’ve decided to highlight sites with cool designs once in a while. Inspire yourself. Today we have Ars Technica.

Ars Technica is one of the biggest Tech News sites on the web. If one of their posts gets submitted to Digg, it’s sure to get at least a hundred diggs.

In addition to their great content, they have a stunning design. Have you ever seen a site that looks like it? I don’t think so. I wonder who their designer is. (more…)