CSS Reboot
If you haven’t heard, today is reboot day. I was a little disappointed, I’d expected to see a lot more sites. I also expected to see more original sites. A few of the rebooters might have taken emulation to the next step, blatant rip off. I even saw one snag Mint’s color scheme. How’s that old saying go about emulation being the sincerest form of admiration?
I’m so sick of this though.
Don’t get me wrong, the sites that did this the first time around look awesome, but by the 20th time I’m numbed to the effects of the smooth, shiny, and glowing.
Aside from that, there were some really really nice pages. Fiftyfoureleven’s reboot looks awesome, Sonspring’s subtle shifts are beautiful. Think Pink Studio has a nice clean layout, and Mixtaping.com is a great idea for a site. Pixeltect, from my own town, has an elegant blend of CSS and Flash, as well as colorful illustrations. Two other nice sites worth a mention are Paul Armstrong Designs, and Fringe Image. Congrats guys!
Big thanks from Pixeltect for the kind words. I am glad you wrote about this.
I know that Lee and myself thought long and hard about the designs and styles that were popping up everywhere (not to mention the worn look). So we really wanted to avoid redundancy.
Personally I was inspired by how simple Brother Jones (http://www.brotherjones.com/)site was. Once we focused on simplicity, it lightened the work load as we prepared for reboot.
Hey, thanks a bunch for the kind words and the link! Mixtaping should be up and running in no time, and for my part, I think I’ve found myself a new design blog bookmark
Hey guys, it’s my pleasure for the props. It’s exciting to see designers trying new and different things. (and yes, brotherjones is also a very nice site!)
Q, I really really like the illustration, some of it reminds me a lot of Jim Mahfood. I originally went to school for comic book illustration, so his work and all like it hold a spot dear to me. And I look forward to good things from Mixtaping.
Lee told me that you and I went to the same school(CCAD). But my major was in Advertising Design with a minor in illustration. Thanks for the love on the illustrated stuff, it’s a mix of the team.
Q, guess we’re busted… Yeah our illustrations are very Mahfood influenced. I went to school in St. Louis where as a self professed comic geek and illustrator I must admit to collecting a lot of Mahfood and meeting him as well (He’s a St. Louis native). Q likes borrowing my Mahfood books too…
Lately my styles branched out a bit more with the monster illustrations and a ton of vector based work…. but I dont mind being compared to Mahfood ever!
Yes, I did know he was from St. Louis! I don’t know if you were around CCAD for this, but for a couple years there was a local paper fluttering about called Chickenhead (later Tastes Like Chicken)they used to feature a lot of Mahfood’s Stupid Comics, some the artists that worked for the paper had a stlye simiar to his as well. Grrlscouts was such a good series. I’m a big Mike Huddleston fan as well.
Yeah loved ‘The Coffin’ one of my favs…
regarding the Chicken flavored paper — Q might know about that — I wasnt ever in Columbus long myself.
I know both Q and I have been influenced by Balce’s work… known for The Null
I had heard The Coffin was going to be a movie, directed by James Cameron, but it has yet to materialize.
hmmm… sounds better than the upcoming ‘Transformers’ directed by Michael Bay, but I cant say Id look forward to Cameron doing ‘The Coffin.’
Just out of curiousity, do either of you Pixeltect fellows also do work for American Greetings?
work for… yeah stuck here from 9-5. sorry probably showin up in your logs…
Elizabeth: I appreciate the link. I really wanted to do a more drastic re-design, but couldn’t really think of any ideas that weren’t done a million times already. That and, I’m devoting most of my time to other projects, so it’s tough to pour creativity into more than one project at a time. I think my personal favorite of all the Rebooters is Ribic.org.
Nathan, I saw that site, I don’t know why I didn’t include it. I thought it was very original, and I also liked the subdued use of color. The captions were pretty cool too
I would have to agree - Ribic is very nice. *Definately working against the grain.
Thanks for the mention!