What do you get when you cross futuristic design with sustainability? JetsonGreen.com, my favorite place to go for clean and crisp presentation of ecological living. It’s eye candy for the soul. It feels good to get excited about something truly good. Like when you recycle materials into a house EVERYONE wants to live in. Well… everyone without kids.
Quality Content
The images are always top notch. The site is visually pleasing ALL THE TIME. I’ve learned about quite a few projects that have inspired me to consider LEED Certification for my next home (or at least the home after that).
It’s not the kind of site I visit to read 20 pages of archived content. It’s more of a glance-through site for me. If the day’s feature looks interesting enough, I read the post. I ALWAYS check out the pics, though. Can’t get enough of how good these homes look… even the ones converted from railway cars.
On a regular basis, you’ll find fabulous LEED Certified homes and office buildings, product explanations, book reviews, and weekly summaries.
The Biggest and ONLY Drawback
My only disappointment with the content on JetsonGreen is that the vast majority of green home projects featured are tiny. Like 1,000 square foot or less. Many are less than 800. And while the homes look clean, bright, and inviting, it doesn’t help me get closer to the house of my dreams. This may not be the fault of the author. It may simply be that the majority of LEED Certified home projects involve tiny homes. But for a married guy like me with a second child on the way and a live-in mother-in-law, anything under 2,500 square feet is laughable.
Clean and Crisp
How did they do it? The blog design is SO SIMPLE, and yet, almost perfect.
1st impression: The banner automatically makes me want to visit again, and I just got here. LOVE those colors! the combination just pops and my eyes whisper, “Thank you!”
2nd impression: Stylish photography is a huge plus.
3rd impression: Green post titles help communicate the purpose and theme. Very tasteful.
4th impression: I like how the background ads character and contrast without distracting my eyes from the content.
Banner + Photo + Header + Background = Winner
The Ads
My 2nd or 3rd thought when looking at this home page is “I wouldn’t have placed Google AdSense ads so prominently on MY home page.” Of course, I’ve also never had the traffic JG gets, so what do I know?
The real of it is, JetsonGreen.com does what every blog should aspire to: more with less.
Crush Level:
4.0 of 5
One Response to “Jetson Green: Crisp, Clean, and Green”
Daniel, first of all, thanks for being a reader and for your thoughtful review of Jetson Green. I agree with most everything you say here. I also agree I’ve been posting a little much on tiny/small homes, but this is an area I’m really interested in. Most homes we try to focus on will be no bigger than 3,000 square feet.
Some of the points you make directly relate to a decision I made in 2006 when starting the site to use Typepad. Unfortunately, I shouldn’t have done that, as you say in a recent article on hosting your blog. I just don’t have total control over things and need to move nearly 2,000 articles from Typepad to WordPress. It’s no easy task.
There is a way to modify the ads that show on the home page versus other pages, but it’s pretty time consuming. The new design will change this. I plan to keep the site minimalist and stylish. The design will deal with photos more elegantly, too. Thank you for the encouragement and feedback. Definitely appreciated.