Hello. My name is Jayvee Fernandez and I’ve been the sole proprietor of A Bugged Life for more than 5 years. Back then, the site was hosted on a free platform with this URL 20six.co.uk/abuggedlife. This post, thanks to the way back machine, is a look into all the past templates of my personal blog.

Click on the images for bigger versions.

I had wanted to buy a domain and move to my very own .com but didn’t know how. So I contacted someone from Big Sky Media by the name of Ferdz Decena, who today now happens to be one of the country’s most popular travel bloggers.

2006

My grade school friend Rico Mossesgeld suggested that I keep the “A Bugged Life” branding and thus the site was born in 2006. Today Rico is the endorser for Globe Tattoo. This was the first template I used:

I kept this design for several more months but decided to change into a 3 column layout and install widgets. Widgets were really the in thing in 2006. I had a photographer friend take shots of me and this first header /logo was born.

Those who remember still feel that this was the all time favorite header that clearly defined my site.

2007

In 2007 I opted to change my layout again. I asked the help of superstar WordPress couple Gail and Marc to redesign the site. This is what they came up with — the first bug logo which further solidified my ID to my readers. My instructions were to make the bug antennae send out signals (since this was a tech site). A Bugged Life was also ahead of its time — it was the first blog to have its own QR code embedded on the template. Sadly, nobody used these back then.

Today, Marc and Gail are happily married.

Small trivia — that post you see is a screenshot with Minic Rivera during my days with b5media. We were comparing snacks.

2008

In 2008 I wanted to redesign my site once more. There was a point where I temporarily used the Copyblogger theme but quickly opted for a redesign. I really liked reds and whites and blacks on websites. The site was designed by a very talented Argentinian lady by the name of Gisele. My blog sits on her portfolio. This template marked the first appearance of the bugs you see today. I bought the rights to the vectors so all these bugs were to be known as the mascots of my site.

2010

Since then there were minimal changes to the template. I experimented with featured posts at the header but found it to be too taxing to update. The general layout remained the same. I wanted to keep the look and feel of the site as is. The minor changes were all done by Karlo Licudine of PinoyBlogero.com (whoops … how time flies) AccidentalRebel.com, one of the PH blogosphere’s more talented designers indie game developers.

2011

This is A Bugged Life as you see today. It’s cleaner and I dedicated more space for content. All my previous blog layouts had body widths from 450px to 500px to the 600px that it has today. I’ve removed all unnecessary widgets as well and went back to the simple two column layout. I also put a huge banner between the content column and the header which I use for both advertising and promoting posts. Usually, it’s used for showing off my underwater photos.

A Bugged Life has gone a long way. All thanks to you guys!