New Look.

So, I guess you noticed I have a new look for the site.  Its about 90% done.  Still some tweaking to do, but I was getting tired of the 2 year old theme that was up. I got the idea while browsing Art Deco and other complex and stunning sites.  I tried to make it look like a scrapbook page with “pages written in the field” attached to it.  A complete field journal look just didn’t get me the look and feel I wanted.  I also tried to simplify navigation and reduce the homepage to a simpler style.

I did the graphics myself for this design too.  I wanted to learn more about Photoshop and GIMP, so I played around and learned.  Everything from the crinkles in the paper to the scotch tape effect.  I picked up on masking, bump maps, and other things.  Unfortunately, I did have to use the long lamented Comic Sans font for the dynamic text.  It was the only common web font that resembled the sharpie marker handwriting I was looking for.

On the technical end, to get the feel I wanted I had to go really old school and go hunting up code I haven’t even considered in years.  Things like client-side image maps.  CSS was able to handle most of it though, which was nice.  It will make life easier on the maintenance side.  Expect some more changes over the next little bit.  Mostly things like link colors, titles, and the like.  I am considering bringing a “summary” back although it will decrease the number of articles I can show on the homepage.

So now, because I am deployed and I am curious I would like to hear what you think.  Did I slow down the site too much?  Do you miss summary articles?  Please feel free to leave your thoughts.

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