In the process of redesigning this site, I’m at a point where I’m not sure what I should be focusing on next.  There’s layout, wireframing, a site map, a logo, textures, stock photos, self-created images/ photos, and many many more things.  But after looking at some the sites I was inspired by, I saw a pattern that I really liked:

• Crisp edges
• muted, earthy tones
• some texture
• interesting typography

For the typography, I like the look of Frutiger LT, and created a simple text logo with that as the base.

I tried out some different kerning, and even whether to add a space between “Terry” and “Matula”. The top one I kerned each letter so that it only left about a pixel between each character.  I’m not sure which one I like the best… and I played around with some colors and effects, so I might need to re-examine them later as a solid color.

Speaking of color, I went over to Kuler and checked out some different schemes.  Keeping with some of the colors from the sites I chose, I picked out the “2004” scheme, with  just very slight modifications:

I’m pretty happy with that. Now I need to decide whether I want a dark-on-light or light-on-dark style.  And what do I want to include on the site and where…