One of the core, underlying principles of our new version is the need to separate the content – text, images, maps, forms and more – from the styling, and put that styling in the hands of every user more easily, especially when creating a new site. While Photoshop-equipped designers have always been able to swap out themes behind their content, users of our pre-made themes had to choose a theme and got the sample content that came along with it. No longer.

We’ve simplified the new site creation process down to a single screen, where you’ll progressively build up your new site to get you as close as possible to your end site, quickly.

First pick whichever “theme” you want – which will define the overall colour, style, fonts and more. Don’t worry – you can change this theme at any time in the future, without losing any of your content. Even better, most themes will come with a few variations of colours and styling for various sections, and you’ll be able to mix and match colours and fonts as you like.

Then, pick some pre-made pages. We’ve got a library of these available – at first general types (ie, home, about, location) but an increasing number designed specifically for your needs. Choose which pages you’d like to start with – you can add or remove more later – and you’ll be prompted to enter some basic information to customise your site just for you.

Finally, let us know if you’d like to buy a domain for your site, check out the preview, and you’re ready to go.

Check back next week for some more information about editing and styling your site to get it looking just the way you like.

Running is a great way to get some exercise and endorphins in your life but can become quite cumbersome if you are pounding the pavement on the same route every single day.  If you are looking to add some creativity to your exercise regime,  Joan Pons Moll, a graphic designer based in Menorca, has created an interesting (and athletic) project called Running Alphabet.  The idea behind Running Alphabet is to run every character from the alphabet, capture the route aerially by GPS, and then create an entire typeface (both lower and upper-case) from it.  It’s certainly a creative way to stay healthy as well as a unique approach to typography.  You can see the alphabetical routes being run by people from all over the world at the Running Alphabet website and can also contribute your own character to help complete the project.  We tried spelling BaseKit from the characters already created on the website, but we are missing s, k and t – any takers?

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The fascinating art of typography continues to be explored in unique and interesting ways on the Internet.  Approaching typography from a deliciously different angle, Garret Steider has paired all 26 letters of the alphabet with a different typeface and food item.  It must have been quite time intensive individually carving letters of the alphabet into different items of food, but the results are impressive.  Even the letters that are not carved are splendidly arranged.  Check out the edible alphabet aka “Typefruitography” in its entirety here.

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Here at BaseKit, we’ve been hard at work over the past few months on a major new release that we’re excited to announce today. While we’ve of course kept up on our regular release schedules every 3-4 weeks, ensuring that the very latest in web publishing remains in the hands of our customers, this particular release is special. It’s probably the biggest overhaul to the BaseKit experience we’ve done since launch, and we hope you’ll enjoy using it as much as we have enjoyed building it.

We’ve gone back to the very foundation of the BaseKit experience. Our goal was to make a leap in usability and design capability – pushing forward the expectation of what is possible in the browser and raising the bar yet again for browser-based web publishing. Our next generation is even more flexible, moulding to your chosen design in a very natural way. We’ve also made it easier than ever to create and update your website.

Finally, we’ve brought all of the design capability into the application itself. Where previously you needed Photoshop to create a truly bespoke design, you can now start with an entirely blank canvas in BaseKit and build up your design from scratch.

We’ll  be doing a series of posts leading up to the release, previewing a new element of our new version each week. By the time we’re wrapped up with those, you should be enjoying the brand new BaseKit.

BaseKit: Andes Release, Issue 1.5: Why Andes?

BaseKit’s Andes marks a new naming convention for BaseKit as well. Going forward we’ll be naming releases with major mountains or ranges. We’ll also be naming our new releases in alphabetical order, to give you some more clarity about the order of development and any info we share about upcoming release names. Andes kicks off this naming convention. It was also chosen to celebrate the recent launch of BaseKit across much of South America, a part of the world where BaseKit has been growing strongly. We’re excited about our new South American business, and we hope our new release can help small businesses across the world become even more successful online.