The Hicksdesign family album is a post on The Hickensian

Thanks to web archives and old dusty zip disks, I’ve managed to find all but one of the previous versions of Hicksdesign. I’ve not been a good archivist, and tended to dump old versions along the way, but I’ve found enough to give you a slideshow. Its been interesting for me to see how the logo has changed, and how my skills have slowly matured.

So like some nostalgic curmudgeonly grandfather, I’d like to take you through a wee history of the site, from the first embarrassing baby photos to present day…

Version 1: Dec 1999 – May 00

My very first website – ever. Only the about page still existed, which is a relief quite frankly. Created with a free demo of Adobe Pagemill (!) and hosted on tripod. This was before I found out that you could use tables to create more than one column.

Version 3: Jan 01 – Oct 01

Found on the web archive, there are a couple of missing images, but enough there to get the idea. The rounded squares were all animated gifs.

I’m now using Dreamweaver 2, and targeting sites for Netscape 4/IE 4 and above! The cheek! Frames a plently too. This is the first time I started using ‘hicksdesign’ (a year before going freelance) with the chemistry symbols logo. I’d just bought my first domain name, so ‘hicksdesign’ sort of stuck from then on. Its highly unimaginative, and sometimes I wish I’d spent more time over it, but I can’t go back now. I still like the logotype, and may bring it back someday.

Version 4 Oct 01 – June 02

The ‘now I’m going freelance proper’ version. Everything is laid out using Dreamweaver layers – hated using tables, I could never get the hang of the whole spacer gif thing. Layers were more like the text and picture boxes I was used to in DTP apps like Quark. However, very little plain text, most type is set as images. This was also the first appearance of the flower logo, and no more black backgrounds.

Version 5: June 02 – Nov 03

This was my first and only Flash site, and can still be seen here. Cobbled together with guidance from Flashkit.com

When I first tried using Flash, it was at v5, and I was enthralled. I wondered why all sites weren’t created in Flash (I know now). I still haven’t given up on Flash, but I really need the time to learn actionscript.

Version 6: May 03 – Oct 04

Finally discovered web standards, learnt what CSS is all about, and created my ‘personal site’ exp.hicksdesign.co.uk with Movable Type. People started to come to the site for the first time via Zeldman and the CSS Zen Garden. By November 03, I had scrapped the Flash portfolio site, and bought everything in together under one roof.

I still really like this design, but by October 04 I really felt the need for a change.

Version 7: Oct 04 – Dec 04

The vertical tree one – it didn’t last long. I couldn’t do the layout I wanted in my head, because of a certain browser that the majority use. It went after a few months, although it seems as if it was better ‘received ‘ than the current design.

So, any skeletons in your closet? Early versions of your site, created when you were still learning? Its time to share them! Post them on your blog, and leave a link here – it’ll do you good!