Build Your Own Blues

The main, default website theme, directly incorporating the BYOB logo colors.

The alternate theme, reversed colors of the main theme.

Satin Blues theme.

Blues Tones theme.

Hot Blues theme.

Blues Jam theme.

The previous themes were primarily color and visual variations. Blues Jam was the start of greater thematic variation, incorporating additional images to set a stage. One of the unique elements of this theme was the spotlight in the upper left-hand corner, casting light across the center of the page. The spotlight was actually fixed in place, causing the rest of the page to pass over it as the user scrolls down the page.

Blues Harp theme.

Placing text over some images can make the text impossible to read, especially from page to page when smaller text or different colors are involved. The bottom of the page with the harmonica is an excellent example. The copyright text remains the same throughout, but the text above it changes on each page. Rather than requiring a huge gap of space at the bottom between the harmonica and body text, a half-tone background was created that would overlay part of the harmonica to increase readability while preserving the look and feel of the design.

Blues Cafe theme.

This fun theme brought in the cafe/diner look and feel. A neon feel was created with graphics and color selection of the text. The Build Your Own Blues title remained as scalable text, but was given a subtle neon-glow background.

Moo Blues theme.

Custom designed cow print pattern makes a bold statement on this theme. Friendly cow image, real and stuffed, as well as a milk bottle and cow crossing icons complete the very Wisconsin look.

Blues Street theme.

The parking meter utilized the half-tone screen that was used on some of the previous designs. This theme also introduced relative placement of graphics. The road sign along the left-hand side is actually positioned relatively to the length of the page and appears much further down the page on longer pages. As has been used on many of the themes, interesting navigation locator and hover graphics were used, in this case, inspiration from crosswalk signals.

Blue Cheese Halftime theme.

Madison is a diverse city, as can be seen by the combination of blues and football.

Blue Notes theme.

Certainly one of the more complex visual designs, Blue Notes brought in the feel of a musician writing out music on a table, complete with cookies for energy, a custom BYOB guitar pick for inspiration, a pen for jotting the notes, staff paper to record the notes on, and of course the cell phone for booking more gigs. While the cookies and phone are stationary, the pick and pen are relative and appear differently along the side of the page.

Red, White, & Blues theme.

The final theme brought in a patriotic feel. A US flag leads the way against a blue sky and ghosted guitar. A pebbled left-hand side leads to a surprise as the user finds a bald eagle waiting patiently at the bottom of the page.

One interesting, slight alteration was made to this theme that made it completely different than all other themes… the BYOB logo atop the sponsors section, which had remained unchanged throughout the themes, was shifted down and to the left, placing it slightly below the top of the flag.