I just finished redesigning this blog with what I’m calling a “minimal hacker theme.” The old design was getting stale, and I wanted something that reflected my background in systems and security work without being too flashy.

The challenge was finding the right balance. I wanted a dark theme that felt technical and terminal-inspired, but I didn’t want it to be hard to read or overly animated. Too many “hacker” themes go overboard with neon colors and effects that look cool for five minutes but become exhausting to actually use.

The Design Process

Starting with color choices was tricky. My first attempt used bright matrix greens and electric blues - it looked like a 1990s movie about hackers. Way too much. The breakthrough came when I shifted to more muted colors inspired by GitHub’s dark theme:

• Subdued terminal green (#4a9) for primary elements
• Muted blue (#6b9bd1) for secondary accents
• Dark backgrounds (#0d1117) with proper contrast ratios

The typography was another challenge. I initially imported custom fonts like Fira Code and JetBrains Mono, but they were causing rendering issues. The text looked blurry with weird shadows underneath. Sometimes the simplest solution is the best - I ended up using system monospace fonts that render cleanly across all browsers.

Code Block Readability

This was the biggest pain point. Getting code blocks to be actually readable took several iterations:

# First attempt - dark text on dark background
background: #1a1a1a;
color: #333;
# Result: terrible contrast

/* Final solution - light code blocks */
.gatsby-highlight {
  background: #f8f8f8;
  color: #333;
}

The key insight was that code blocks don’t need to match the overall dark theme. Having light code blocks within a dark site actually helps them stand out and be more readable.

Terminal Aesthetic

I kept some terminal-inspired elements without going overboard:

• Headers prefixed with $ and markdown-style ## indicators
• Post counters like [1], [2] in the margin
• Simple steve@blog:~$ prompts in the bio and footer
• Monospace fonts throughout for that terminal feel

But I removed the flashy stuff - no glowing borders, no animated gradients, no fake terminal commands. The goal was “professional hacker” not “Hollywood hacker.”

Lessons Learned

The biggest lesson was that restraint makes a design stronger. Every time I removed something flashy, the overall design got better. The terminal aesthetic comes through in the typography and subtle details, not in over-the-top effects.

Also, user experience trumps aesthetics every time. It doesn’t matter how cool your code blocks look if people can’t read them. Function first, form second.

The site now feels like a place where someone who works with systems and code would actually want to read and write. That’s exactly what I was going for.