Unique Blogging Designs exploded onto the blogging scene last Summer with the redesign of popular bloggers John Chow and Jeremy Schoemaker‘s blog. They built on this success and did designs for the likes of Zac Johnson, EntreCard and Fat Man Unleashed.
I do like all of these designs however there is no denying that for the first few months most Unique Blog Designs looked very similar. In particular, the header and footer of these blog designs were pretty much the same. There were a few blogs that I came across which I instantly knew had been designed by them because of this. They got criticism from some bloggers because of this, the common view being Unique Blog Designs were not really that unique. For example former WPDesigner chief Small Potato certainly didn’t hold back with his review of UBD last year.
Getting Better & Better
Over the last few months UBD have been producing some fantastic blog designs. They really have improved over the last 6 months and some of their latest blog designs are impressive.
Here are a few examples to illustrate my point .
The home page of a design company has to highlight what they can do and UBD have certainly did that with their recent redesign of their home page. The design looks clean and professional and showcases all of their past designs.
Nate is one of the co-founders of UBD. His blog was redesigned in May and was an early indication of their new style of design.
With a left and right sidebar, you would be forgiven for thinking that this site was powered by a CMS like PHP Nuke. I’m not usually a fan of designs this dark but I was quite impressed with this one.
This redesign was only launched today. Like Nate’s redesign, the theme is clean and professional. The social media area underneath posts is pretty cool and blends in well with the rest of the site.
Overview
Whether you are a programmer, writer or designer, it’s important to continue to learn new skills and improve. Clearly the UBD team have been doing this. They are now using images less obviously to compliment their designs and general spacing and alignment has improved too. Little things like social media and twitter integration have been added to their designs too.
I’m sure we will see some good designs from them over the next few months (UBD co-founder Josh Mullineaux‘s blog has not had a new design so I’m sure that will be upgraded soon). I’ve seen a lot of good blog design companies appear over the last year and without doubt, Unique Blogging Designs is one of the best of them. If you’re looking for a professional design for your blog I recommend checking them out 
Nate and I made a conscious effort to move into new styles and layouts to maximize our clients' effectiveness as bloggers. Effective blog design is crucial for serious bloggers. Thanks again, Kevin!
No probs Matt. As I said, I have been impressed with the latest designs so I wanted to blog about it. I like how you've kept your design simple ie. there's no clutter. Also, the addition of gravatars in the latest comments drop down box was a nice touch
I agree, are getting better with every design.
Did look into the possibility of getting a design from them, but after seeing my draft of my new design last night, am getting excited!
Well, BT got a redesign not too long ago. I've got a few other blogs I'm developing that I may get designs for later on in the year so I'm definately keeping them in mind.
Looks like a great service, but I get annoyed by any service that requires YOU to get get a price quote. At least provide some ballpark estimates of cost right up front for us.
Thanks for the mention Kevin! Much Appreciated!!
Wow! I have to agree! These designs are really awesome! Good job Unique Blog..^^ Just keep it up!
haha, I just left a comment on matt's blog pretty much saying something similar. Their old designs were ok, but that's it. Sorry to say though, the SEI Design Group Blog is hideous! Way to many "web2.0" effects and way too cluttered. I don't even know what I'm looking at (and some of that is not UDB's fault).
It's great to know Nate, Matt, Josh et al are building on their early success. Long may it continue.
Hope you're well, Kevin.
I have to agree. I have seen a few of their more recent work and it looks fantastic. Very fresh!
I've seen too and I really like the design.
I like how fatmanunleashed.com looks. It's so cool how it's a health blog but does so well.
Glad to see Unique Blog Designs getting a shout-out! They're very talented, and we're thrilled to have them–specifically Matt–involved with our IZEAFest event this coming September.
Thanks for mentioning our blog. We had a great experience working with UBD and love our new design. Coming from a typepad blog, it was a huge improvement to be able to get many customized features using wordpress. We specifically wanted a dark design to complement our main website (www.seidesigngroup.com) and the type of work we do (architecture). Nate worked with us to design exactly what we wanted. Couldn't be happier.
Great list. Blog designs are definitely getting better – thankfully. You don't see any eye bleeders that often anymore!
My recent post Magic is celebrating after worldwide ticketing website goes live
There are some really awesome blog designs/templates out there these days which is great as no one wants to be looking at shocking sites/blogs.
Nice list, thanks for sharing.