Sketchblog

When I first saw this fabulous design featured in Smashing Magazine’s latest showcase, I could barely believe this was powered by Blogger!

To truly appreciate this blog design, you really must pay this one a visit!

Great Design

The sketchbook style of James Powell’s blog reflects the subject matter perfectly.

Nox Mysterium

This design is incredibly stylized, with each post designed to match the overall theme.

Iain Dale’s Diary

Fresh, clean and very indicative of content, Iain Dale’s blog is among the most professional designs I’ve ever seen.

Max Black

A simply beautiful, one column blog design.

Rames Studios

Rames really takes the grunge style to a new level in this elaborate design.

Creative and Elegant

This selection of Blogger layouts are unusual, creative, and stylish designs:

Katherine Gallia

Katherine’s elegant layout features color changes according to the time of day!

The screenshot above was taken late morning, though altogether there are six different color schemes to reflect the time.

Tales of a Gecko

This simple, two column layout is set of perfectly by the creative header and the monotone theme which is continues throughout.

Vincent Liu

I love the calm simplicity of this template. The RSS icon stands out perfectly, yet doesn’t interfere with the ambiance of the design.

Scribbit

Michelle Mitchell’s blog about motherhood in Alaska is a joy to read. The continuity between design and content cannot be appreciated without a visit to the site…

WallStreet Fighter

The header banner really sets the scene for this financial blog.

The Offended Blogger

Elegant, feminine and incredibly funny: implied by design and supported by content!

I’m Just a Blogger

Chica’s blog was featured in the previous showcase of Blogger designs, but being recently updated, this beautiful layout deserves a second mention.

La Vida Dulce

I love the understated elegance of this simple layout.

Shakesville

It’s hard to describe how well this calming design sets off the content presented, though if you pop over to read a few posts for yourself I’m sure you’ll understand what I mean…

Clean and simple designs

The following selection of Blogger designs are all clean, simple with lots of white space:

A Little Hut

Here you can see the vivid color of the posts perfectly stands out against an almost monochrome layout.

Sonying

A pale design with touches of color in all the right places.

BLDGBLOG

This layout reminds me of architectural structures with its clean lines and simple monochrome design.

Take a look at the simple cover of the BLDGBLOG book in the right-hand sidebar: it matches the theme so well!

Orangette

The overall layout of Orangette is very simple and clean, but the choice of header image for the banner is incredible! (Almost as delicious as the content itself!).

For me, this is an excellent example of how effectively a striking banner can completely change the whole blog design.

Bunch of Me

Here is another example of how an eye-catching header image can set the scene for an otherwise uncomplicated design:

Susanna Loewy and Curly Su

Simplicity is given a unique twist with visual navigation links below the header.

Decor8

When I think of Decor8, the first word which springs to mind is “Fresh”. While the overall layout is white, Holly adapts vivid colors to the header, sidebar and photographs in posts so the content which matters really stands out from the page.

Media Culpa

It would be difficult to find a blog design more minimalistic than this!

Naked Capitalism

Another simple yet effective design. Take a peek at the incredibly functional navigation menu.

Dark Designs

From the pale and simple, we now go on to the dark side of Blogger designs…

Mac Tips and Tricks

Features a consistent Mac OSX theme throughout, from the stylish header to the sidebar icons.

Dark Roasted Blend

While exemplifying the theme of coffee breaks throughout, Avi’s incredible layout succeeds in drawing readers further into the archives due to the unique presentation. To understand how this works, a visit to Dark Roasted Blend is well worth a visit (but be warned: this site truly is addictive!)

Delite Designs

Quirky and distinctive, Delite Designs home page is as unique as the layouts she creates.

Foganozos

Some simple modifications to the Rounders template helps this design stand out from the crowd. They’ve updated the site with a new design recently, with a white background and a new logo….simple and clean design.

How to Do Stuff

Simple and sleek, this design features defined sections for content and is stylish without appearing over the top.

JaKel Daily

With the playful header and professional appeal, Jakel Daily hits the spot with celebrity gossip. Even the ads are well designed!

My Old Kentucky Blog

The calming blue tones of the header section work well against the dark background. I love how the ads match the color scheme, and the quirky introduction of the “Colonel”…

Picturia Press

Features a simple three column layout with an unobtrusive logo centered above the content. The posts are highlighted in a slightly paler shade which provides a nice contrast with the pale text.

Unusual Layouts

Generally speaking, most blogs feature a wide header banner/section, a wide posting area ans a sidebar or two for extra content and navigation. This selection of Blogger templates break the “rules” of web design in some way: their layouts are innovative, interesting and altogether unique.

Wear Palettes

This design uses a narrow, three column design where the main content area is only as wide as the sidebars. This draws the readers focus clearly to the colorful posts:

2 Dolphins

This is a great example of a one column layout. While many bloggers would feature links and archives in a sidebar, here you can see this in the footer section, allowing much more emphasis to be placed on blog posts.

Internet Marketing in Nottingham

This blog is integrated into the main website. What strikes me most about the design is that it’s a fluid three column template. Even the compass changes position when the screen is resized!

Pruned

Unlike most blogs, you won’t find Pruned’s header above the content (the logo appears in the sidebar instead). This puts a great deal more emphasis on the content and photography of the posts:

Smart Pad

This appears more like a magazine layout than a regular blog design!

Orange Girl Photographs

This is another stunning example of how well a single column layout can work. The header is a flash photo-stream which changes every few seconds or so, while meta-information is presented above the main posts column:

Yet more great Blogger designs!

I had problems categorizing these last few designs, but they are worth mentioning nonetheless as examples of great Blogger layouts:

Designers Block

While the layout here may be simple, the use of beautiful photography throughout really makes the overall design come alive:

Dezacrobat

I love to see examples of how bloggers transform default templates into something unique. Dezacrobat is based on the popular Rounders theme, but the clever use of color and a striking logo make this template much more memorable.

Dumb Little Man

This blog appears more like a magazine, with the most recent post appearing above links to previous posts, and a segmented sidebar for ease of navigation.

Finger Tips

Very sleek, this design is one which you will easily remember.

Gorilla Vs Bear

A colorful design with a truly great header section. Take a look at the music player feature in the bottom left corner.

Growling Dog Games

Growling Dog Games has just undergone a great makeover (lucky I checked back while writing this post up!). The overall layout complements the theme of video games perfectly, reminding the reader of other sites they may have encountered and reinforcing the sense of professional style.

Music Thing

The feature I love most about Music Thing’s overall design is the consistency of color highlighting: the header, post meta-data (date and number of comments) and important sections in the sidebar use similar shades of yellow and orange to draw attention to them.

New Scientist Technology Blog

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that New Scientist (a popular magazine) uses Blogger as their blog publishing platform! While the overall style of the New Scientist blog family are fairly similar, I prefer the overall appearance of the Technology blog the most (perhaps it’s my bias of interest…)

Poppy Talk

When I look at Poppytalk’s design, the only phrase which springs to mind is “handmade elegance”. I can’t think of a better way to describe it! The header is so well designed, perfectly in theme with the blog content. Even the ads are a complement: they appear as though designed to match the template rather than something which was added afterwards.

The Devil’s Kitchen

I like how the informal “torn paper” (or should that be burned paper?) is used to great effect in this template.

The Pajama Pundit

With cool calming colors throughout, this template makes excellent use of tabs and mouseover effects.

Drawing Day

Recently featured in Blogger’s Blogs of Note, Drawing Day is another blog which is well integrated into a static website (and features a great logo too!).

I hope you have enjoyed perusing these excellent examples of unique Blogger templates, and that this post may provide you with inspiration for your own designs!

Which one do you like the most?

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