The evolution of the BajanThings Home Page
Over time the BajanThings Home page has evolved:
- January 2023 to December 2023 (built using Astra Pro)
- January 2024 to August 2024 (built using Astra Pro/Ollie)
- August 2024 to September 2024 (built using Ollie)
- September 2024 to September 2025 (built using Ollie Pro)
- Current BajanThings home page September 2025 onwards (built using Ollie Pro). For the current version of the BajanThings home page we have made some evolutionary changes:
- Split the black Hero section that used to include the BajanThings mission and the Current post in a near black container to be just the BajanThings mission. We also included a nostalgic nod to our 2023 homepage using the Tent Bays fishing boat as a cover image. Over time we will change the feature image…
- The Current post is now in a separate container that matches the Recent posts container look and feel.
- Added a Light | Dark mode switch in the header and the footer.
- Reverted back to the smaller sized thumbs for the post feature images. This is only noticeable on desktops – on mobile devices they stack full width.
- Renamed the navigation menu link Posts Summary to Posts Index.
- Added rounded corners to the what’s been trending thumbnails using some CSS.
- Centred the BajanThings logo, Site Title and Site Tagline.
- Added back ads within posts.
- other small evolutionary changes….
exist
BajanThings
Bajan history. Handed down Bajan stories. Bajan folklore. Interesting Bajan people. Bajans who made their mark on the world stage. Hiking in Barbados. Bajans hiking and exploring foreign destinations and much much more…
We hope you like the September 2025 home page update.
Below is a table showing the evolution of BajanThings and the WordPress themes we have used:
| Date | Theme |
|---|---|
| Dec 2014 | Weaver Xtreme Plus by Bruce Wampler |
| Dec 2020 | Astra Pro by Brainstorm Force |
| Apr 2024 | Ollie (pre launch of Ollie Pro) by Mike McAlister & Patrick Posner |
| Sep 2024 | Ollie Pro by Mike McAlister & Patrick Posner |
We are often asked about the hero images / header images we previously used on the BajanThings home page when built using the Astra Pro theme.
To add some variety to the BajanThings home page we used to regularly updated the hero image. Below we have brought together the library of images we used in the hero image placeholder on the previous BajanThings home page:
The hero images below were sourced from the Barbados album held by The National Archives UK. This album includes 372 Barbados black and white photographs. Some of the photographs from the The National Archives UK Barbados album have been used in previous posts such as: The Game of Warri and Hurricane Janet. The National Archives UK, Barbados album is an amazing resource of bygone Barbados colonial photographs:
![The statue [of Nelson] in front of the Public Buildings at Bridgetown](https://www.bajanthings.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/8022893692_218ec0288f.webp)
When we launched BajanThings in 2014 we commenced using the Weaver classic WordPress theme. We didn’t use a hero image. Instead we used a sliced header image for different sections of the site. These sliced header images were typically 1200x280px. Below are some examples of these header images:
Below are the photographs that were used to create the sliced header images used on BajanThings between 2014 and 2020:
We are also asked about the BajanThings flyingfish logo. The inspiration was the flying fish luggage sticker from the 1960s. In tourist literature of that time Barbados was often referred to as: “the land of the flyingfish”. The BajanThings logo is based on this image from an article on the Atlantic flyingfish, Cheilopogon melanurus from the UWI Ecology, The Online Guide to the Animals of Trinidad and Tobago: Cheilopogon melanurus (Atlantic Flyingfish), by: Faood Rahaman which was published in 2015.
The BajanThings logo text is not the near black colour (Hex color: #14111F) used for text – shown here as the background colour of this box.
It is a deep blue/black that is the upper body colour (Hex color: #0C162C) of the flying fish image – shown here as the background colour of this box.
Can you spot the difference in colour? It’s a very very subtle difference.
And if you hover over the logo text the hover colour is a mid blue that is the bottom body colour of the flying fish (Hex color: #336699) – shown here as the background colour of this box.
The colour reference given above are called the Hex color (US English) and start with a hashtag (#) and are followed by six letters and/or numbers. The first two letters/numbers refer to red, the next two refer to green, and the last two refer to blue. The colour values are defined in values between 00 and FF.
The next part of the development of BajanThings is to refine the current pallet of colours and base them on the flying fish pallet of colours. Here are some examples we are looking at:
This is a deep blue/black that is the upper body colour (Hex color: #0C162C) of the flying fish image – shown here as the background colour of this box.
This is an alternative deep blue/black that is also the upper body colour (Hex color: #000033) of the flying fish image – shown here as the background colour of this box.
This is a dark blue that is the upper body colour (Hex color: #003366) of the flying fish image – shown here as the background colour of this box.
This is a blue/purple that is the mid body colour (Hex color: #333366) of the flying fish image – shown here as the background colour of this box.
This s a mid blue that is the bottom body colour (Hex color: #336699) of the flying fish image – shown here as the background colour of this box.
This is a light blue/grey colour (Hex color: #6699cc) from the wings of the flying fish image – shown here as the background colour of this box.
It is a much lighter blue colour (Hex color: #99ccff) from the wings of the flying fish image – shown here as the background colour of this box.
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