A few people have asked questions about the new design of LeadingSmart.com. Why did you use black? Why is your blogroll not on the homepage? Who did your design? Why did you switch to WordPress? So I thought I would take a few minutes to explain my design philosophy and give some high-fives to three very deserving friends:

• I get bored easily. I had the same design for 999 posts and more than three years, so it was way past time to make a change.
• I like black. Ask my wife. Every time I get to vote on a color for just about anything, I pick black. Some of you LOVE the new colors, and some of you really don't. Just be comforted by the fact it makes me smile.
• Many home pages are crammed with stuff. I moved everything I could off the front page on to the LINKS page. From there you will find BLOGS I read, CHURCHES I follow, BOOKS I recommend, PARTNERS I trust, ARCHIVES, and POPULAR POSTS.
• Rather than the normal "About Me" paragraph -- I took some time to use pictures to tell the story of what is important to me.
• My SCHEDULE and BOOKS are only interesting to some people, so I also moved them off the home page. Those who are interested have one additional click.
• I switched from TypePad to WordPress for two primary reasons: 1) I no longer have a $149/annual fee, and 2) every designer I've talked to prefers WP over TP.
• I made room for site sponsors. For those of you who just groaned, I don't blame you. Before you point a finger, though, check out my philosophy about sponsorships.

There were three primary players who made this happen...

1. Dustin Maust took my thoughts and dreams and designed the home page.
2. Daryl McMullen took the design and spent MANY hours making it work with a custom template in WordPress.
3. Matt Metzger figured out all the hoops to jump to convert everything from Typepad to WordPress, including comments, links, RSS feeds, uploaded files and more.

I have no idea if these guys are taking on new work, but if you are interested in a new blog design--you should think about hiring them.

Design is subjective. So give me your subjective opinion--what do you like and what do you hate about the new LeadingSmart.com?