Sources of Inspiration: Color

There's no question that with a Steeler's blog, that the colors would obviously have to be black and gold.  However, while I was browsing the web for some new Steeler threads for next season I came across this very inspiring travel mug.

It keeps the black and gold theme, but opts for a gold glitter.  Just because this is a blog about football, doesn't mean I have to stray from my girly tendencies.  Using a glittery gold background for with black text boxes would be an ideal color scheme for my Steeler's blog.

Post Draft Thoughts

It's no wonder why the Bengals haven't won a playoff game since 1991.  Rather than supplying their own needs in the 2016 draft, the Bungles took cornerback William Jackson III with the 24 pick... right before the Steelers should have selected him with their 25th pick.  Instead the team opted for Artie Burns, a cornerback out of Miami.

timesonline.com

Regardless the Steelers had a pretty solid draft class, and added much needed help to the secondary as well as depth to the defensive and offensive lines.  The best part about being a Steelers fan right now, is that the team is a Super Bowl contender regardless.  The Steelers don't need rookies to step in and start from the first snap of the season.  Just some contributions from these rookies can help get the Steeler's to a higher level, and get that 7th Lombardi.  

A Look into the 2016 Draft

Cornerbacks, safeties, and linemen oh my!  It's hard to narrow down who the Steelers might chose first in this year draft, coming up on Thursday April 28th.  If you're a football fan, you know how the weeks before the draft go.  These men they call "Draft analysts" create mock drafts every week that are constantly changing and are never right, so just file that one under "bullshit dream jobs" while you're at it.

Cris Collingsworth (who isn't a draft analysts but usually wrong about what he says during SNF anyways) thinks the Steelers will take a defensive tackle to fill Steve McClendon's spot, while Mel Kniper thinks safety Vonn Bell from Ohio State is an option, and Todd McShay believes OSU corner Eli Apple might be the first round pick.

walterfootball.com

Much like my March Madness brackets, my first round picks are wrong year after year, yet I continue to predict them so here goes nothing: For the 25th pick in the 2016 NFL Draft, the Pittsburgh Steelers select William Jackson III, Cornerback, Houston.

Jarvis Jones: Take him or Leave him?

It's draft week!  And after the excitement dwindles down of selecting the newest Pittsburgh Steelers, the front office will soon have to make another very important decision... Do they pick up the fifth year option on the first round pick of 2013, Jarvis Jones?  The line backer is entering his fourth season with the team and if the Steelers decide to keep him, his salary will jump from $2.7 million this year, to $8.4 million in 2017.  Pretty pricey for a player with only five career sacks don't ya think?  It's hard when someone likes Jones has to compete with veterans like Arthur Moats and James Harrison for a spot as an outside linebacker.  Not to mention the injuries he's had in the past don't help his case much either.  We'll see who the Steeler's chose in this years draft before making a decision on Jone's fifth year, but I would hope that the Steelers pass on this costly mistake.  

bigcatcountry.com

Sources of Inspiration: Blog Layout Part II

For the news navigation section of my blog, I would imagine a page of posts and stories that is something like the World Chess website's news section.

http://worldchess.com

Under the homepage header there are three stories, two having a picture then headline at the bottom, and the middle story having the headline at the box of the box balancing out the page.  Underneath the first row of three stories is a row solely dedicated to one story, breaking up the rows like so...

http://worldchess.com

This would give my blog an easy to navigate, organized and balanced page to browse all posts on my blog.

Sources of Inspiration: Blog Layout

While browsing awwwards.com for inspiration for our final project, I came across a blog with a very aesthetically pleasing layout.

http://www.norfolk-hotels.co.uk

The homepage from Norfolk Hotels in England, uses a simplistic navigation bar with a large picture as the header underneath.  The rectangle navigation buttons at the top are simple, yet stand out and if I were to create my own Steelers blog, they would of course be shades of black and gold.  For the large picture I would use to feature my latests stories, as well as using a fun font to layer on top.

Source of Inspiration: Fonts

Coming across an inspiring font to have on my Steelers blog was very easy for my to decide on.  I knew that I wanted to keep the theme of the Steelers logo, with the bold stencil font.  I came across the following font that seemed to be a more modern version of the Steelers stencil font.  

stencilletters.org

This font would be used for the title of my blog, as well as headlines and other special gadgets and headings like "about me" on my blog.

For the body text of my blog I came across a modern font, making sure it was legible for my audience.  This font would be used for the body text of my posts and anything not for display text.