(warning in advanced i yapped a lot sorry i didnt mean to </3)
well congrats that means youre on the right track!! because tweaking is 100% the first step in creating any new theme for me ๐ญ ๐ญ just kidding (not)
with my themes, i try to keep to two sides of one coin.
brainstorming / creating.
i never know which will be harder, as it is different every time, when i think of new themes most of my inspiration comes movies/shows or just general aesthetics i see floating around. once i have a little inkling of an idea i usually start off by scouring google/pinterest for any 'aesthetic' pictures i can find, and i mean literally, i type in any word and add 'aesthetic' to the end to help my search a bit more ('marvel aesthetic' 'fall aesthetic' etc). then once my brain settles on something i like i go further and curate more images that i feel fit that aesthetic/vibe.
the brainstorming stage to me is just about finding what catches my eyes, whether its just a button shape that i like, or a color scheme, a background from an image, literally anything. below is a screenshot of what i collected for a y2k girlsgogames blog vibe, and youll see its nothing super specific, just things that i think look cool. from this i would pull color schemes, background patterns, layout ideas and just throw it all into a blender until something clicks.
which is the next stage, creating. this can be hard no matter what the theme is, as sometimes its hard to take whats in your brain and bring it to life. my best advice and what i try to remind myself is to stay loose with it. constantly move things around, give it a new shape, different shadows, textures and shadings and sometimes you might stumble upon something new. sometimes even adding a simple drop shadow effect can change a whole look. and to also take a step back sometimes, its easy to get caught up in the tiny details from the start but looking back at the big picture can be helpful in times where you feel stuck with what to do next.
some specifics that help me when making me themes is i stick to my 'menu' which is the same three* things i create in a theme (*this number varies depending on how much content you have). my menu consists of a blog header, a pinned post header/layout, and a masterlist(s) header. so when making my themes i know ill need at least three 'graphics' to cover all my bases (five for me since i have two different masterlists). my other 'tactic' is that, like a said, this process is a coin for me, so even if im already making my blog header theme, ill go back and keeping curating the vibe and sometimes it helps with coming up with other ideas!
okay im going to shut up now LOL. please note im not a professional at all and i truly and just talking out of my ass here, but i hope it might have helped. if anything feel free to hit my dms and maybe we could workshop some stuff together! thank you for the ask lovely <3
