Time to break out of your RSS readers: there’s a new design on Ma.tt! Recommended only for the high-bandwidth and the open-minded. There was nothing wrong with my old theme, I just get an itch for something new every now and then and wanted a totally different direction — especially now that every site has copped the worn paper look / colorful flourish. Also it’s refreshing to be able to have a design where the only person in the world it needs to please is me. Here’s a before and after:
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- 10 comments
For fans of the old design, I’m going to abstract it into a regular WordPress theme — gallery features and all — that will be available to the entire world, including WordPress.com. It’s amazing to me how many great designs are thrown away, never to be used again, when as a WP theme they could live forever.
I wanted to thank Julien Morel, the creative mind behind this iteration, and Brian Colinger, who turned the vision into HTML, CSS, and PHP.
If I could I would redesign the site every season: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall. It just always takes longer than I planned (this was supposed to launch in Winter). The cobbler’s sons go shoeless.
Matt Mullenweg is one of PC World’s Top 50 People on the Web, Inc.com’s 30 under 30, and Business Week’s 25 Most Influential People on the Web. 
Neil | March 5th, 2009 @ 9:02 am |
Nice new design matt, great to hear your releasing the old one for the masses, although i do remember you saying the same thing about your older coffee stain theme, but we never saw it.
Matt | March 5th, 2009 @ 9:33 am |
I ended up deciding against it because the coffee stain one was too personal, as is this one. It wasn’t broad enough to apply to a wider audience that didn’t exactly match my tastes. The last one, though, I think could be a pretty neat general theme.
Neil | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:02 am |
I can see where you are coming from on the coffee stain theme. Can you give everyone an ETA on the the old one being released? One thing i always missed on here was flickr…you have the pro account, why not integrate it?
Matt | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:21 am |
I’ve never liked how Flickr tied you in to certain sizes.
teddY | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:35 am
I couldn’t agree more, Matt. The sizes are a little too constricting… but well, their sharpening algorithm rocks my socks!
never seen better ones (care to enlighten me if you have seen more awesome examples, heh)
Back to the design itself, well done Matt! I particularly adore the gently striped background – visually stimulating but doesn’t scream of attention (which will divert people’s attention away).
Awesome header you have over there! Although I miss the cellophane stickers that hold the photos up, the gallery is still looking great!
Wait a minute. Still unlucky in cards?
Phil v. Sassen | April 28th, 2009 @ 8:29 am
Matt: the order of the comment is corrupted …
Kate Mag | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:32 am |
I have an idea, why don’t you put all ma.tt design over the years? I would love to see it. Ma.tt evolution every year
Andrew Pryde | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:47 am |
On another altogether separate note the commenting system is awesome..
@Prydie
Lorna | March 6th, 2009 @ 1:03 am |
I mirror Prydie’s thoughts on your comments coolness.
Jerod | March 9th, 2009 @ 7:31 pm |
I’m loving the new design Matt. I was extremely impressed with the old one, so to hear you’ll port it over to the rest of the community is awesome. Any guess on when it will become available or how you’ll let people know it is available? I’ve got an itchy design finger that I’d like to try out on that layout
As always, keep up the great work.
Khai | March 7th, 2009 @ 12:59 pm |
Hi matt…
what a GIANT banner?!!! hehe.. but its very cool design.. love it..
Neil | March 13th, 2009 @ 10:42 am |
Dont hold your breath mate, his old theme will never see the light of day!
Garuav Mittal | March 5th, 2009 @ 9:02 am |
hey matt this look is awesome man.. header is looking so beautiful…
arynet | March 7th, 2009 @ 11:05 pm |
wow! big header
great..
Folletto Malefico | March 5th, 2009 @ 9:04 am |
Nice!
I’m looking it at 1024, and at that resolution it has some problems in header and footer: the images are a little cut on the sides.
When I resize the window at more than 1024 it’s ok… and quite cool.
Matt | March 5th, 2009 @ 9:34 am |
It’s for wide-screen only.
Another nice thing about it being a personal site — it’s only March and I’m already breaking resolutions! 
Velda | March 5th, 2009 @ 11:52 am |
lol – readjusting my resolutions here now too so I can see the whole thing – looks good!
stratosg | March 9th, 2009 @ 11:22 am |
LOL… But what’s worst is that you are not braking your resolution’s but others’
John Conners | March 5th, 2009 @ 9:08 am |
Ha ha, now that’s what I call a large header image!
Looks fantastic!
princepal | March 8th, 2009 @ 1:05 am |
you are right John, Header image looks rock man!
Björn Olsson | March 5th, 2009 @ 9:08 am |
Great design! Two thumbs up!
Klark | March 5th, 2009 @ 9:08 am |
Releasing the old design would be ..wow.
After fooling around with dozens of plugins and techniques, I always thought your Gallery was the best.
Utahcon | March 5th, 2009 @ 9:09 am |
Sweet design Matt! Those folks did an awesome job! Just amazing.
Juan Manuel Rojas Cavaliere | March 5th, 2009 @ 9:19 am |
very nice!
love from Patagonia, Argentina
Nick | March 5th, 2009 @ 9:26 am |
So, we can say that you have a big head again…
http://ma.tt/2008/04/new-spring-design/
“The header is a lot shorter, so you get to the content faster. You can’t say I have a big head anymore.”
Cheers,
Nick
Matt | March 5th, 2009 @ 9:35 am |
Now I just have a big head on home and permalink pages, other sub pages (particularly image ones) are even smaller than the old design.
Mark McWilliams | March 5th, 2009 @ 5:52 pm |
If anything, I’m the one with a big head, not you Matt!… Oh, wait, I see what Nick was getting at, so just ignore me!
Move along now, nothing to see here!
John (Human3rror) | March 5th, 2009 @ 9:27 am |
SWEET! looks great!
Pat | March 5th, 2009 @ 9:28 am |
In Safari 4, there’s a horizontal scrollbar on the bottom that doesn’t seem like it should be there…
Otherwise, it looks great!
scribu | March 5th, 2009 @ 11:04 am |
I also get a horizontal scrollbar on Firefox (on 1280px resolution!).
Besides that, great design!
scribu | March 5th, 2009 @ 11:06 am |
False alarm. I had zoom on. Looks great!
Spencer | March 5th, 2009 @ 3:17 pm |
Same thing for me. It also looks like there are some problems with the date.
http://www.grabup.com/uploads/4ec10303daa9675c7d525eae23e78ebb.png
Great design though! Love the alternate page header.
markalope | March 5th, 2009 @ 9:31 am |
Sweet design, Matt, I’ve always liked your mix of “handwriting”, cut paper and digital layout elements. The photo treatment on this layout is very cool. Surprised you’ve had time to even oversee a new layout what with all the time you’ve been spending on planes this year! Keep the hits coming. Thanks for a great set of products.
Xavier | March 5th, 2009 @ 9:37 am |
Wow, nothing less than an awesome design, this one! Congrats Julien!
Jonathan | March 5th, 2009 @ 9:40 am |
I like it. Reminds me of Salvador Dali or something. I also like the favicon. It’s creative
On a side note after seeing your links, have you ever considered CC-licensing your blog and/or your photos on Flickr?
Joolz | Julien Morel | March 5th, 2009 @ 12:44 pm |
I must admit I’m a huge fan of Dali for years.
Doron | March 5th, 2009 @ 1:41 pm |
Yeah, first thing that popped into my mind was Dali.
Velda | March 6th, 2009 @ 7:51 pm |
that’s it. Love it.
Bram Van der Sype | March 5th, 2009 @ 9:41 am |
Okay, the design is beautiful but one thing is bugging me out: I’m on a 15″ laptop with a 1400*900 screen resolution and I have to scroll an entire viewport down to get to the content. The header is just way too high…
Matt | March 5th, 2009 @ 9:48 am |
It gives you a moment to take it all in.
tekzt | March 5th, 2009 @ 9:57 am |
i think it would be pretty cool if you´d display your tweets in the header… i mean there´s a bird… can you imagine a better place to show your tweets than next to a bird?
iMenn | March 5th, 2009 @ 11:19 pm |
It’s very nice as first impression. And normally I read via feed, then I love it and feel “Wow” every time I come.
But for people who come very often. I think they will ask you for more “changeable” headers.
But this is your blog. Do whatever you like
Jonathan Rothwell | March 5th, 2009 @ 9:52 am |
Reminds me of Monty Python… excellent.
Spamboy | March 5th, 2009 @ 9:56 am |
This is *much* better than the previous design — easier on the eyes, and the images and divisions are crisper. The old one look like someone didn’t correct rasterize the pics.
Adel | March 5th, 2009 @ 9:56 am |
Yeah, I agree with Van Der Sype. The entire view port gets covered with the masthead and I have to scroll down to see the content. Maybe you could use some nifty javascript that auto scrolls to content area depending on the size of the viewport. This way the user gets to see the masthead and then automattically see the content too.
Rick Bakas | March 5th, 2009 @ 9:56 am |
Sick! I can only imagine how much fun it was to create the CSS. My favorite part is the footer and the ivy-laden button.
Tushardeep Singh | March 5th, 2009 @ 9:56 am |
Great Design Matt….
The header is indeed big… but looks great..
Alexander | March 5th, 2009 @ 9:57 am |
Call me strange but the footer is what I like most of all, I find it is what really sets unique themes apart.
The header is incredible, you can’t just scroll by, I find myself staring for a couple of seconds, and thats more than I spend on some other pages. ^^
Lisa | March 5th, 2009 @ 9:58 am |
Superb! There’s not a thing I don’t love about it. I really like the keys in the footer .. but curious, why a keyboard and not a sax?
Well done, all around
Matt | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:20 am |
I’ve always wanted to learn piano to the level of sax.
Phil Nash | March 5th, 2009 @ 9:59 am |
That’s ridiculous… just ridiculous
Not that I don’t like it, it’s… just… ridiculous
Mark Kelso | March 5th, 2009 @ 9:59 am |
I think its a Ballsy awsum design and their is so much too look at well done Matt:)
Rohit | March 5th, 2009 @ 9:59 am |
This design is cool, say so much about you
Shows a saxophone, a camera lens and music and trees. Awesome !
Lisa | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:00 am |
ahh…the sax is in the head. got it now
Charleen | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:02 am |
I’m glad that I read all the comments, because I almost missed the Hedra Ivy and the piano keys to birds at the bottom.
I see that the W @ the bottom is even aged a bit – when do we get the updated stickers? Speaking of, any preview on the swag for SxSW?
Charleen | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:04 am |
OMG — I just noticed the upside down W/M on the tab – AWESOME!!! I want that for my site, can I? Puh-leeeeze?!?!?!? <3
Jean-Baptiste | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:05 am |
Great ! D
Ash | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:07 am |
really nice, very artistic, an eclectic reflection of who you are.
what kind of directions/ideas did you give to Julien because he did a really good job at representing you.
The header is pretty “in your face” though
Matt | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:22 am |
Anything good about the design came from Julien, the funny-looking bits were me.
Daniel Markham | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:09 am |
Wow! … wow! It’s an amazing piece of art. Two things:
1. I am conflicted on whether I like the header and how much space it takes up. On first (and maybe second, third ..) viewing it is mightily impressive but may end up becoming a bothersome impediment to being able to dive right into the content. It’s friggin’ beautiful, though. Like I said, conflicted.
2. Those diagonal lines are giving me headache when I attempt to read your copy. Maybe a subtle but effective fade as the lines meet the copy would be good. Keeps the design element but adds readability. It’s all about compromises.
Impressive, though.
Jennifer Zelazny | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:13 am |
It is absolutely beautiful! I love the header and all the textures – very nice!
Brian Colinger | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:14 am |
Wow, finally live! Looks pretty good. I guess I can stop chugging coffee for a while…
Joolz | Julien Morel | March 5th, 2009 @ 12:27 pm |
Can’t stop coffee Brian !
Shey | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:14 am |
Seriously pimped!
But I gotta say, the diagonal lines behind the text hurt my eyes (astigmatism) :/
Michael Josh | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:15 am |
I think its awesome and inspiring. Really love your work.
Will Anderson | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:17 am |
I’m glad I have a 1920×1200 screen so I can take it all in
I actually wish more sites were designed for wide screens. Usually I end up wasting horizontal screen real estate and scrolling a mile and a half vertically.
Nicely done Matt. Can’t wait to dig into your old theme!
John | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:21 am |
Really awesome design! I’m just loving the footer!
elissa | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:22 am |
sexy.
Kate Mag | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:22 am |
Matt, it’s very beautiful, follows trends..
. looks great in IE (compatible with!)
Ryan Imel | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:28 am |
Awesome new look. Personal sites are fun, for this exact reason.
I also look forward to the release of your old theme, to figure out how you worked that awesome gallery.
Congrats!
janetti ! | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:29 am |
i love it.
saurabh shah | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:30 am |
awesome dude ! really amazing one… nice header even
audrey | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:30 am |
Are you as amazing IRL as your site makes you seem?
Julie | March 6th, 2009 @ 10:59 am |
I know Matt from high school–and I definitely think the answer is yes!
Jake Spurlock | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:31 am |
Love the redesign, looks smashing.
Fernanda Gomez | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:37 am |
Nice!! Brings the cheers up.
Dre | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:40 am |
Great colors Matt, I like the vibe of the site. I like the large header image, and the photo manipulation work is wonderful! Hats off
Ben Peck | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:43 am |
I liking this a lot.
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Theo Jones | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:59 am |
Whenever I see your site designs it makes me want to redesign my entire site. Again.
GaMerZ | March 5th, 2009 @ 11:00 am |
Nice!
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Chirag | March 5th, 2009 @ 11:23 am |
Matt was listening to your interview with scoble today and then this design change… Wordpress is in great hands. New design, is really great and I hope now, you get the #1 sopt on google search
Justin Carmony | March 5th, 2009 @ 11:44 am |
Sweet, I wish I had the ability to have this artistic look!
the dragon | March 5th, 2009 @ 11:49 am |
The header is too large. The world’s most creative domain name deserves better.
I relate to the strong urge to refresh a blog’s theme. It’s hard to shake.
Drew McLellan | March 5th, 2009 @ 11:51 am |
Bold. Really nice, Matt. Good job.
mtorchiari | March 5th, 2009 @ 12:00 pm |
Beautiful. Great approach on design, great details -love the ivy-
Miroslav Glavic | March 5th, 2009 @ 12:08 pm |
I love the sax image the most. I like this design better than the previous one.
I like it that it doesn’t look like a generic/robotic blog.
To summarize all above: SWEET
Dustin | March 5th, 2009 @ 12:21 pm |
I’m a real big fan of Wordpress. I use it for ALL of my blogs, including my most popular one – a celebrity gossip blog. But anyway, this layout is SICK! Maybe the best layout I’ve seen in a while, no joke. And I’m subscribed to a lot of CSS galleries, so I’ve seen tons of website layouts over the years.
Becca | March 5th, 2009 @ 12:22 pm |
Looks great. I like that it’s unusual and artsy.
Nicolas | March 5th, 2009 @ 12:43 pm |
Fabulous! You’re always taking a lead in innovative theme design.
Steffen | March 5th, 2009 @ 12:46 pm |
Rock ’n’ Roll
Mike | March 5th, 2009 @ 1:10 pm |
I do like the new design — but it’s a bit bigger than I would like, and it fails validation.
Milan | March 5th, 2009 @ 1:49 pm |
And btw, I think you have problem with comment threading (see bottom of comments)
James Quilty | March 5th, 2009 @ 2:17 pm |
Awesome job – did you use Typepad or Squarespace for this? It can’t possibly have been done with Wordpress. Seriously – how can anyone ever possibly use anything other than Wordpress. Very Inspiring design – especially the use of diagonals and the custom navigation.
goofydg1 | March 5th, 2009 @ 2:35 pm |
Thanks for sharing your old theme. Great way to lead by example.
Toxic | March 5th, 2009 @ 2:35 pm |
Wow your site is just priceless! I really like
the design it definitely displays your online brand identity.
That’s great news thanks Matt,
Laszlo Patai | March 5th, 2009 @ 2:48 pm |
Nice new design! Gz
Greg | March 5th, 2009 @ 2:52 pm |
Content below the fold? Reeks of FAIL to me
Nick | March 5th, 2009 @ 2:53 pm |
I love the design. Awesome header! Only thing is I’m getting a horizontal scroll bar in Sarari at 1440.
Blair Millen | March 5th, 2009 @ 3:04 pm |
As usual Matt, it’s a breathe of fresh air… a thing of real beauty! Great work to Julien and Brian!
Cátia Kitahara | March 5th, 2009 @ 3:04 pm |
I like it, specially the birds, very poetic. But the leaves and the colours reminds me of fall rather than spring
Brad | March 5th, 2009 @ 3:11 pm |
Wow. Very nice design Matt. You rock.
Mark Jaquith | March 5th, 2009 @ 3:13 pm |
Yikes… I can’t even view its full width on a 24 inch monitor!
david | March 5th, 2009 @ 3:19 pm |
More than 50 comments is a design problem…
Having said that, you got some readability issues: try reading your about page. There’s also the general issue that text set on crosshatches is unnecessarily hard to read.
It also seems like your footer’s broken (I’m using FF 3.0.7).
I do very much like the idea of it, though.
Kabatology | March 5th, 2009 @ 3:20 pm |
Wow, you did — a face lift. Nice design.
Love the Sax –very Jazzy.
rizal | March 5th, 2009 @ 3:44 pm |
i use my mobile phone and turn off the load image, so i can’t see your header
but it’s a really big space for the header!
Hannes | March 5th, 2009 @ 3:47 pm |
Very cool! A lot of nice details – I might use some of it as inspiration for the theme for my own blog
Interesting to see websites where the actual content is “below the fold”… But the header looks amazing.
deuts | March 5th, 2009 @ 4:08 pm |
For me, I liked better the previous to the previous design (the one wth the red header). Maybe you can offer that for download too, or in wordpress.com
Daniel Brusilovsky | March 5th, 2009 @ 4:09 pm |
Love the new design, Matt! Never fail to impress
Jenna | March 5th, 2009 @ 4:20 pm |
It’s beautiful. The touch of ivy at the bottom is great–I love surprise footers like that.
Matt | March 5th, 2009 @ 4:27 pm |
where can we get the old theme? been trying to get gallery to work correctly for ages!
Baris Unver | March 5th, 2009 @ 4:40 pm |
Awesome job. Now your homepage weighs nearly 1MB.
Matt G. | March 5th, 2009 @ 4:40 pm |
Wow, simply unbelievable! Simply rocks!
giovanealex | March 5th, 2009 @ 4:41 pm |
This is a fucking fabulous theme – intensely modern and dynamic.
And thanks for deciding to allow us to have a taste of the last design on our own blogs.
simo | March 5th, 2009 @ 4:44 pm |
this design absolutely rules. also love nested comments feat.
Moses | March 5th, 2009 @ 7:51 pm |
Me too, it’s very clean and effective! I’m crossing my fingers he releases this one to the public too. (Of course, after he is done with it.)
simo | March 6th, 2009 @ 9:42 am |
yep.. having things bundled (and working) in new WP releases is a CULT. (also i would like to see comment LIKE and DISLIKE to prevent duplicate comments)
Alisha | March 5th, 2009 @ 5:17 pm |
Wow, looks good.
I think a ’skip to content’ button in the header would be great. The header fills up the whole browser! (I have widescreen, but can’t stand maximized windows.)
James NomadRip | March 5th, 2009 @ 5:35 pm |
Nice design. I am the visual equivalent of tone deaf as far as my creativity goes, but can surely appreciate a nice-looking page!
Mark McWilliams | March 5th, 2009 @ 5:48 pm |
In a good way, I can’t stop looking at the new blog design, it’s just FANTASTIC! The header, yes it’s bigger than most, is superb and suits the blog well!
Talk about a better design than the last one, don’t get me wrong, I just much prefer this new design over the old one!
Speaking of which though, I’m looking forward to you releasing that design. Cause I plan on going through the code, most likely more than once, seeing just exactly how you did certain things here and there!
…It’s nice to see the trend continuing in the new design when it comes to the Asides, and Photo posts! That I do look forward on finding out how you’re done it all, us PHP newbies need to learn how things are done from some you know! LOL
Julien, along with Brian, did a great job designing and styling the new look. I don’t think I’ll EVER get tired of this look, it puts a smile on my face when I look at it!
Thanks
Mark
Narendra | March 5th, 2009 @ 8:21 pm |
most excellent.
chris | March 5th, 2009 @ 8:32 pm |
gorgeous, matt. your designs always raise the bar on blog themes, and are always an inspiration. i look forward to the release of the last design.
oh, and i love how effing big the header is. it’s perfect — because that art could be hung in a gallery more than topping a blog, so it needs to be taken in on its own, and i love the fact that it breaks the “above the fold” rule (are there many “rules” this theme doesn’t break? i guess it still scrolls vertically — you need a horizontally scrolling blog next time!).
Clarence Johnson | March 5th, 2009 @ 8:47 pm |
I like it. Loving the header.
The Frosty @WPCult | March 5th, 2009 @ 9:41 pm |
Very nice, you finally did it! Not anything like the screen shots you were showing at WordCamp Denver or Vegas!
Srinivas Tamada | March 5th, 2009 @ 9:42 pm |
Ultimate Design
Julie | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:03 pm |
Code is poetry and your blog is art. Congrats on a gorgeous piece.
Raju | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:22 pm |
I am loving this!! especially the comments section, great work!!
vogelmann | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:32 pm |
Holy shit! This is totally awesome!
Ase7 | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:34 pm |
Thank you so much for sharing your
oldprevious theme!aminhers | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:40 pm |
Style and wide ,
I like it
Tinh | March 5th, 2009 @ 10:59 pm |
Excellent design. Simple but pro. Congrats
Daus | March 5th, 2009 @ 11:16 pm |
Congratz on the redesign, Matt. Not my favourite kinda design, though
Daynah | March 6th, 2009 @ 12:50 am |
I love the new design Matt! Very beautiful and artsy.
Jonathan Dingman | March 6th, 2009 @ 12:51 am |
One word to describe the new design:
Wow.
Simply an amazing design, I love it!
Luke Beard | March 6th, 2009 @ 12:57 am |
Amazing work Mr. Matt!
milo | March 6th, 2009 @ 1:19 am |
WOW, massive “arty” header, love it.
Looks like underneath you used the previous theme with some enhancements?
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Matt | March 6th, 2009 @ 4:10 am |
Can’t wait to see the old theme on WP.com, Matt! That would be awesome!
Patrick Britton | March 6th, 2009 @ 4:14 am |
Beautiful design as always. I’m not a big fan of the very large header but since it looks great it’s acceptable.
Gargron | March 6th, 2009 @ 4:22 am |
Amazing design. I wish I could design at least 1/10 like you…
Alex | March 6th, 2009 @ 4:24 am |
I like the design especially the colors and the footer. Personally I think the header is a little overkill but as you said, the design is to please you only.
Great design though. Was it done from scratch?
K | March 6th, 2009 @ 4:44 am |
This is beautiful. I specially like the navigation’s image hover except for the big header. Well of course you have that BIG talent.
In my iMac, I have the scroller to the right sidebar only to see a blank space.
Toucouleur | March 6th, 2009 @ 5:02 am |
Julien made our design aswell a year ago, I believe that’s why Matt finally found his new designer
This new Ma.tt’s design is muche lighter than the one we choose on Toucouleur.fr, so don’t shame on us regarding the heavy donwload needed to see all graphics
Contragulation to Julien & Brian Colinger for his integration
Matt | March 6th, 2009 @ 10:21 am |
Yes! Your site is how I found Julien — I love your design, in some ways even more than this one.
Niklas | March 6th, 2009 @ 5:18 am |
Really nice design, im very impressed!
Cosmin | March 6th, 2009 @ 5:33 am |
This is outstanding!
Very, very nice work Matt !
Vesa | March 6th, 2009 @ 5:38 am |
Just a minor glitch: input fields use :hover but don’t use :focus, so you can highlight the fields with a mouse but not with the keyboard.
Other than that it would look even more awesome if you added text-shadow (upcoming Firefox 3.1 supports in addition to Opera and Safari that already support it).
Tommy Day | March 6th, 2009 @ 5:52 am |
This is pretty frickin’ incredible, Matt.
Super inspiring!
Spiritfoxy | March 6th, 2009 @ 6:00 am |
the new look is absolutely awesome! KUDOS!!! *smile*
Nathan Chancellor | March 6th, 2009 @ 6:01 am |
Love the new theme. Really fits your style.
Matt | March 6th, 2009 @ 6:19 am |
Sweet design but I actually think that your header image is overkill and is spoiled by the large 3D effect copper typography that spells out ma.tt.
Beyond the header image though this is a really slick design, just don’t view it in Safari 4 beta just yet.
Aw Guo | March 6th, 2009 @ 6:29 am |
I’m so glad that I have a 1400 resolution for my thinkpad ^_^
Aw Guo | March 6th, 2009 @ 6:32 am |
Oh, wait a minute, it seems the new theme works a little weird in Google Chrome. I was the horizon scroll bar here. (nothing overflow )
John | March 6th, 2009 @ 6:36 am |
Love the header. Great new theme.
Dipesh Arora | March 6th, 2009 @ 6:41 am |
Nice arty design Matt..
Simply love your work, the best of it being Wordpress which connects us all
Twilight Fairy | March 6th, 2009 @ 7:11 am |
This is so you
.
Jazz, photography and WordPress
.
)
(Do you like birds too?
Though i am a bit sad to see the nice ethnic one go away, m glad it’s coming back as a theme that too with a gallery!
Please do remember to give the user the option to disable right click/save etc.
PS. the header is a bit too cluttered for my taste, bt then that’s just my opinion.
Matt | March 6th, 2009 @ 2:21 pm |
On right click blocking, does anyone do that anymore?
Twilight Fairy | March 6th, 2009 @ 7:12 am |
And something seems to be wrong with the comments! :p
My comment got positioned somewhere above 2 comments that exist previously..
Ashish Kalmegh | March 6th, 2009 @ 7:31 am |
So the cow boy finally changed
Nice spring theme
RicardoEllis | March 6th, 2009 @ 8:56 am |
New looks very cool, can’t wait to get hold of the old one when it comes as a wordpress theme.
devolute | March 6th, 2009 @ 9:00 am |
Nice work. i think I prefer it to the previous one (which was pretty sweet).
Pete Cashmore | March 6th, 2009 @ 9:04 am |
Sweeeeeeeeet!
Insanely pretty theme – love it!
Abbie | March 6th, 2009 @ 9:27 am |
The new design looks amazing!
Ron Fun | March 6th, 2009 @ 10:06 am |
You haven’t heard of me yet, but you will. I’m a newbie to web 2.0, but watch out.
Good work my friend. I like your site.
Banago | March 6th, 2009 @ 10:31 am |
Awesome design – Well done!
Devin Reams | March 6th, 2009 @ 10:39 am |
This is awesome, Matt. Very nice.
Zim | March 6th, 2009 @ 11:03 am |
Nice! Since the last wordcamp I felt guilty of having a huge header, but now Matt has a big header in his blog too, I don’t feel bad anymore.
Great work!
Dan | March 6th, 2009 @ 11:12 am |
I love the over-sized header look, and Julien did an amazing job designing it. Absolutely stunning. Great footer as well.
Hugh | March 6th, 2009 @ 1:25 pm |
Wow, I just noticed the paper layering / framing at the bottom. So many nice touches here.
crumbsonmyfloor | March 6th, 2009 @ 1:28 pm |
Any chance wordpress could have a selection of something like this in the theme section?
Nice from Thailand | March 6th, 2009 @ 1:30 pm |
lol I’d love to retweet this.
The stripe background in content area makes it a bit hard to read.
I love the comment threading style and new Favicon too!
Matt | March 6th, 2009 @ 2:18 pm |
Gotta be honest Matt.
Can’t wait to have a play with your old design. Such a fan of your blogging and contributions to all of this.
Wasn’t expecting you to redesign this quickly. I keep changing my design all the time whereas most web professionals choose to sport the same design for years sometimes.
Good work.
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Anelya | March 6th, 2009 @ 2:50 pm |
Awesome design!
Bart-Jan Verhoef | March 6th, 2009 @ 3:25 pm |
Personally I don’t mind the width of the site, it’s a personal site, and I imagine a lot of your actual visitors have decent sized monitors themselves.
I absolutely love the header, great attention to detail! Scrolling down though, I get the feeling that attention gets a bit lost; the backgrounds there don’t seem to match the quality and feel of the initial view of the header.
The same goes for the typography, it doesn’t seem to fit in with the header and footer, style, and also size-wise. As much attention as some of the graphics are attracting, the copy itself gets a bit lost being quite low on size and contrast.
Nathan Barry | March 6th, 2009 @ 4:51 pm |
That is the great thing about personal sites: you can do whatever you want with them. Experiment with new ideas, try new css, and use bizarre design techniques. That is what the personal site is for!
Great job with this theme!
Abhishek | March 6th, 2009 @ 6:53 pm |
Looks are great !!
mom | March 6th, 2009 @ 8:47 pm |
It’s even more beautiful than I had remembered.
Love the colors!
Chris Seckler | March 6th, 2009 @ 9:06 pm |
Very Awesome new design Matt!
Is that a new favicon also?
Tinh | March 7th, 2009 @ 1:45 am |
Wow, happy to hear that you will release the old design to public. I will write up a short note for Vietnamese bloggers about this. T
Aldo | March 7th, 2009 @ 2:33 am |
Gorgeous design, Matt!
George Pearce | March 7th, 2009 @ 2:48 am |
I love the new theme, the header is brilliant, I love the way it lets you stop and take it all in before you get onto the content – brilliant.
Any ideas when you’ll release the theme to the public?
Cecelia | March 7th, 2009 @ 9:34 am |
Ugh, this is absolutely gorgeous. Normally I am more into clean and simple – but that’s only because I had yet to see this layout. Damn.. You put the rest of us to shame..
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Altu? Orgun | March 8th, 2009 @ 2:19 am |
wow. amazing design.
Luus | March 8th, 2009 @ 2:30 am |
Great design, i like the personalization of it.
And yeah, what about the “unlucky in cards” ?
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Krug | March 9th, 2009 @ 7:21 am |
Love the theme artisticly but from a UI standpoint its a bloat.
Although its gorgeous. It’s the like two of me are so unsure of it.
Emil Nikov | March 9th, 2009 @ 9:05 am |
The design looks really nice, Matt. Thumbs up!
Jimmy Malmqvist | March 10th, 2009 @ 6:49 am |
Again, as always another great theme to your blog.
I can’t wait to play with your old theme, I have always been inspired by your designs.
Keep up the good work!
Mike | March 10th, 2009 @ 6:56 am |
Just echoing what everyone else says, it looks great at the top and bottom, the middle doesn’t sync.
The pages are a little hard to read being so transparent and ontop of the header graphic.
Typography is nice, and it all fits well on a 1280 screen in FF2
Silentgirl | March 10th, 2009 @ 5:26 pm |
wow! I love the new look. The graphics & textures are really beautiful. It looks great on my wide screen.
Sean | March 10th, 2009 @ 9:03 pm |
holy crap, man! this design is way out there and fun
Fre | March 11th, 2009 @ 3:03 pm |
magical
not so friendly in the world of slow computers – slow internet..
Joshua Giblette | March 11th, 2009 @ 6:30 pm |
Very nice job Matt, I absolutely love the footer!
Dianso | March 11th, 2009 @ 8:12 pm |
this design very nice..
Blaze | March 12th, 2009 @ 12:30 am |
Wow! Your new design is awesome!
Marcelo | March 12th, 2009 @ 3:34 am |
wow, man, this is AWESOME! Ma.tt rocks and rulez!
Really, amazing. Spectacular. I like it more than the other
drew3000 | March 12th, 2009 @ 8:33 am |
Love the new look. A little top heavy but gorgeous. Am hapy to see that the old one is getting released as I’d like to get an under-ther-hood look at it.
Phil v. Sassen | March 12th, 2009 @ 9:13 am |
Looking forward to the gallery feature!
zhen | March 12th, 2009 @ 11:00 am |
Very impressive.
Nice design:)
John | March 14th, 2009 @ 12:55 am |
Damn, beautiful header. One of the best I’ve seen up to date. Keep it up ..
chaoskaizer | March 14th, 2009 @ 9:46 am |
Nice new design I love the concept but I more liking the last one as its not to busy.
dmaniax | March 14th, 2009 @ 10:26 pm |
one of the Greatest theme!
I guess it contains all idea which I want to refer.
I am trying build and design own WP, so I’ve been trying harder since few years.
It will give encouraging us like me.
(sorry,may not collect English…)
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abdusfauzi | March 15th, 2009 @ 3:38 am |
me love it!
nice rustic effect! i wish i can do something as astonishing like this one. kudos!
Rainbow | March 15th, 2009 @ 6:02 am |
Good work ! This new theme is awesome !
Congrats !
Mark | March 15th, 2009 @ 9:21 am |
I’m not sure what rocks more, your brilliant new design or the .tt domain.
Here’s to hoping they’ll introduce a .rk soon!
Awesome looking site, dude.
Ferdinand | March 16th, 2009 @ 6:00 am |
I am not really convinced by the design.
Using an 19″ CRT monitor I only see the header and not a glimpse of the content. Also the “M” reminded me on the MTV logo and first I thought I was on the wrong page.
Additionally I am not that a big fan of this kind of ’surrealist’ design. It looks like a modernized copy of Max Ernst’s surrealist prints, but more chaotic and with less meaning…
I am sure will see a new design at the end of the year latest.
Craig | March 17th, 2009 @ 4:04 am |
Brilliant design – esp the sax at the top, and keys at the bottom
Dedy Sofyan | March 17th, 2009 @ 7:02 pm |
Wow! Nice new design! Looks awesome.
Cyndy Otty | March 18th, 2009 @ 9:57 am |
Am a bit late to comment, but wanted to say that the new design is quite lovely, Matt. Beautiful job.
And I think it’s splendid that you’re going to port your old design into a theme for others to share (especially those at WP.com!).
Lorenzo | March 18th, 2009 @ 11:51 pm |
Great work, but I like the Nicolò old design!
Lucky Murari | March 20th, 2009 @ 5:23 am |
I wonder why is Intense Debate not integrated into the comments over here?
Matt | March 20th, 2009 @ 2:50 pm |
I’ve been turning it off and on, testing out the sync feature but it’s not easy to style it like this yet.
Ria | March 21st, 2009 @ 1:37 am |
I loooove the new design! Got disoriented thinking I went to the wrong site. But this design is super nice… and cute!
Cia | March 23rd, 2009 @ 1:58 am |
Your designs has always inspired me, Depending on what site I’ve been creating for.
But you sid what I loved to hear…That this design is for you and what you like. I think that is what a blog needs to be designed for! The person it belongs to. It’s time to change the design on my personalblog as well…it still has a christmastree on it!!!
brent | March 23rd, 2009 @ 9:38 am |
um, I still see some worn paper in the navigation…
seriously though the new look is great (I really loved the last one as well, keep em coming)
just out of curiosity are you styling the default comment code or did you write a function to adjust the html?
Matt | March 24th, 2009 @ 9:11 am |
Custom function to do the threading and HTML.
Hicham | March 23rd, 2009 @ 10:08 am |
Happy Spring, Matt
Awesome design! When I firstly saw the header, I thought it was a crocodile opening its mouth, however after concentrating into the details I got it.
Matt | March 23rd, 2009 @ 7:20 pm |
I love the new design. Especially with my high-bandwidth connection and super awesome monitor..haha!
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Joffrey | March 24th, 2009 @ 6:42 am |
Wow, great, I love it!
Mark | March 24th, 2009 @ 9:47 am |
Hey Mate, you said you wanted to release your previous design…the suspense is killing me..ETA?
Matt | March 24th, 2009 @ 1:40 pm |
Late 2009.
art blog | March 27th, 2009 @ 7:52 am |
sheer glorious wonders, I adore your design, my day is brightened!..oh my jolly gosh!
Jenny | March 28th, 2009 @ 11:42 pm |
awesome job. wish i knew how to make the images work like you do. it would be awesome.
Drew | April 2nd, 2009 @ 3:36 pm |
Great design, Matt. Looks great.
Any estimate to when the old theme will be released?
Matt | April 3rd, 2009 @ 10:29 pm |
Probably a few months still.
Phil v. Sassen | April 13th, 2009 @ 4:14 pm |
Sad news … I can’t wait for the theme to be released
Patrick | April 4th, 2009 @ 12:31 pm |
Nice design!
Catalyst Echo | April 5th, 2009 @ 7:44 pm |
I was immediately impressed with your new theme. This is my first visit to your site but from your gallery picture of the older design verses this one… I like this one better by a long shot.
I am researching wordpress to decide whether I’m going to recommend it to a client… your designs have shown me wordpress is a lot more versatile than I originally thought.
Catalyst Echo | April 5th, 2009 @ 7:47 pm |
I really like the gallery features in both your designs, by the way. I haven’t seen galleries included so seamlessly in a wordpress theme before.
Obviously I’ve been living under a rock, though.
Rehan Ahmed | April 5th, 2009 @ 10:23 pm |
Beautiful Design , I Really like it Matt
Yogesh | April 6th, 2009 @ 6:51 am |
A very refreshing design Matt.
Header image completely speaks about yourself
erpay | April 15th, 2009 @ 10:18 am |
I love this type themes most. How can I say it , this theme is like natural and living.
Phil v. Sassen | April 28th, 2009 @ 8:26 am |
Everyone who is dying to get the gallery script should follow this link:
Wordpress Gallery tutorial:
http://www.phase2.net/2008/07/23/wordpress-gallery-tutorial/
Patrick | May 12th, 2009 @ 6:28 am |
I really love the new design. I’m also surprised how fast it loaded.
kalista | July 18th, 2009 @ 2:51 am |
The colorful flourish theme not look old to me, it’s unique, and i love the decor on header, similar vector design.
Karri | October 12th, 2009 @ 3:35 am |
Are we getting close to late 2009? Any news when your old “Mahtete” design will be released?
Matt | January 14th, 2010 @ 8:59 am |
Wonderful site! Totally amazing header graphics. As a designer I was curious to see how it looked in IE6 and found
- Needs PNG fix
- Padding/Box model Issue with sidebar not floating correctly.
Matt | January 14th, 2010 @ 9:43 am |
I have no concerns or need to support IE6.
Matt | January 14th, 2010 @ 9:56 am |
Cool.
It’s good to see people dropping support for it, I was kind of curious.
I may follow suit, i’ll certainly have more time for more constructive activities.