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10/12/04

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OK, I promise, this really is it now. No more fiddling around.

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Martin said 1323 days ago:

Great work (yet again) Jon. Last version was lovely too but the landscape thingy bothered me a little. This version is just lovely! :)

Brett Morgan said 1323 days ago:

Mmmm, very cute. Oh how I wish i had a creative bone in my body. :-)

Steve said 1323 days ago:

Interesting – good picture – but the rotation of menu text to vertical is quaint to begin with and a little annoying thereafter.

Etienne said 1323 days ago:

Thank you. This solves my problem of my head wanting to yield to the right whenever I visit your site.

Very nice.

Linas said 1323 days ago:

You became a naturalist! Beutiful as we all expect.

the missis @ work said 1323 days ago:

phew … I’m glad that’s over … THE COLOURS ARE FINE, I TELL YOU.

Ben Ward said 1323 days ago:

It’s very nice – as always. I really like the tree from the last design, but then I had my browser wide enough to appreciate it, I agree entirely with your comments about the site in 800×600 previously.

The picture is excellent, although I agree with Steve above about the menu, initially it’s quite strange, kinda makes me twist my neck a little when reading, I’m not sure how orwhy. It might be because the menu is the opposite orientation to the tree image, so any subconscious rotating to the right has been reversed.

I like it, though, fine work as ever.

Hayo said 1323 days ago:

As someone I know once said: “Trees are cool!” 20% more whitespace, is that garantueed though?

Ischa Gast said 1323 days ago:

I also have to agree with Steve and Ben above about the menu. You are automaticly twisting your neck to read the menu and that’s not a really great fealing. I think I loved the old design a little better.

#10

Jeff Werner said 1323 days ago:

Likes: – Getting rid of the Journal submenu. Always felt the current and archive option was redudant. – the whitespace – the little red corner ribbon – search bar, skip to content and style switcher placement – masthead trees pic – colour-coded nav rollovers and darkened tree pic behind – I actually kinda like how the nav tooltips are horizontal with the contrasting vertical nav…too bad they can’t be on less of a delay

Not liking as much: – the cute joke in the corner ribbon – the slightly uneven left /right whitespace (ok at 1280 and 800, kinda unbalanced on 1024) – that little bit of cut-off vertical tree image on the masthead – maybe a little more spacing between the two columns needed – ya, the vertical nav…leaning towards less liking

Otherwise, always a refreshing pleasure dropping in here.

#11

Paul said 1323 days ago:

I’m a little bothered by this design, think I prefered the landscape. May take a bit of getting used too. The far left slice of image, coupled with no space between the nav image and the longer image (techincal terms here you understand!) – just seems a little wrong. I don’t know?

But don’t let me crisitise a genius!

#12

Paul said 1323 days ago:

Doh! Jeff made my observations sound so much better!

#13

Richard Rutter said 1323 days ago:

I likey. Works better for me. And I’m a fan of the vertical sideways nav. (that sideway landscape made feel a little giddy). Adn the whole sidebar column thing just works with blogs – I presume this is the ‘unoriginal’ element you were referring to in your previous post?

#14

patrick h. lauke said 1323 days ago:

a return to a more traditional form…not bad.

#15

Nick Verstappen said 1323 days ago:

Looks great! Although I kind of miss the previous one now… Why not make a styleswitcher? :)

#16

AntÃ³nio said 1323 days ago:

I love it but… in my opinion, logo and menu should be horizontal (maybe put the logo horizontal, above de header).

#17

Maarten said 1323 days ago:

I also liked the previous lonely tree design better…I installed it as an desktop background and got lots of reactions. I use a 1600×1200 resolution, so I had no trouble viewing it.

Now the positive part of this comment:
I like your work. It’s clean and modern. Not too much fancy stuff, just the stuff to tell the story. It’s a gift not many designers have.
Good luck and I hope to see a lot of your work in the future!

Keep up the good work!

#18

ChrisJ said 1323 days ago:

Am I the only one who see this? Menu is smashed on hover. Weird. FF 1.0 Win.

I like this design much better than the always-late-loading landscape.

#19

John Serris said 1323 days ago:

Oh man… I can’t believe you ditched the previous design. It took a little getting use to, but seriously, it was some of your best work!

My question is, why did you change? Was it because you wanted to or because you were getting bad feedback from readers?

#20

Pierce said 1323 days ago:

I approve. Overall.

But something grates where the curve of the navigation area meets the sharp corner of the tree header. Sorry.

It’s a pity to see that old design disappear. Give it to someone. or something. Expect plenty of “I don’t like it, I want the other one” directed at this. I know!

I’d leave the menu with vertical type. Let the masses work for it a little.

#21

Colin Barnes said 1323 days ago:

I prefer the new design to the old, I personally wasn’t much of a fan of the right-hand sided image.

One thing though, the nav box and the tree picture to the right seem too close together, I would add an extra 1% whitespace (to make 21% more) between the two as it would feel more balanced. The tree image also seems a little out of place, maybe that’s just me getting used to a new dominant image.

Otherwise, its fine, the core of the site hasn’t changed much and thats good as I always enjoy reading this site, its a lot more comfortable than a lot of the other blogs I read.

#22

Faruk Ates said 1323 days ago:

I like it, it’s pretty. The trees make it very peaceful :-)

Also, the “Now with 20% more whitespace” cracked me up :D

#23

Remi P. said 1323 days ago:

Nice one John!

#24

Rajan said 1323 days ago:

nice layout, but wish u did have navigation on sides. but i guess i can get use to the navigation.

#25

Mikkel Malmberg said 1323 days ago:

It’s great!
Like a 1000 times better than the “landscape”-thing you had going!

I like it … And the ribbon in the corner IS fun!

#26

Hans said 1323 days ago:

Hurray! Finally, that broken landscape image is gone!
I think this one works quite well. However, there’s probably a bit too much whitespace underneath this comment box.

Great job, though I miss the original quite dearly…

#27

Tim said 1323 days ago:

very nice looks, however i find her a bit too skinny from the waist down.
i’d still do her though. twice.

your source made me smile, thanks!

#28

Martin said 1323 days ago:

Oh, you can’t go wrong with beech trees. Glorious header image.

Personally I love the vertical navigation. After all, each category only consists of a word – hardly straining the capabilities of the great majority of people to read easily without tilting their head.

I would be a bit circumspect about the vertical logo – or at least, about how it slices through the background image of the navigation area – and would be inclined to reduce it’s size a tad and have it horizontally-placed above the header image. Doing this would also entail a bit more whitespace between the skip/turn off content/search widgets, which to my mind would be a good thing.

I’m only daring to venture my opinion because you’ve left comments open. Who am I to give such advice?! Anyway, for what it’s worth, love it.

#29

Daniel said 1323 days ago:

I love it! It’s still got that ‘theme’ that your site has crafted over the years, but it doesn’t overwhelm the user. Very well done.

#30

Matthew Maber said 1323 days ago:

I like it, but as with a few others I am a tad disorientated by the 90° anti-clockwise menu. It just doesnt seem to sit right.

#31

Peter Asquith said 1323 days ago:

Lovely! And I like the vertical menu entries in those browsers that can. Will miss the previous design but did find the great wodge of sky a bit distracting when full screen at 1600×1200.

#32

Turnip said 1323 days ago:

I like it, more than the last design. The one thing I don’t like is the vertical nav though. Other than that, it’s very good :).

#33

chuck said 1323 days ago:

I don’t know. I do think I like this one better than the last one with the landscape photo on the right.

But there’s something odd with the nav heading. I think others touched on it when they mentioned a small sliver of the image on the far left side looking “out of place” ... it looks like an image slice gone bad.

While I don’t mind the vertical navigation, I really liked the last navigation bar – I thought that was a nice rollover effect …

On a positive note: love the photography, and I really like that little ribbon banner thing in the upper left corner – very cool ... and the logo and typography still rock.

#34

Lode said 1323 days ago:

If I were you I’d color the hole in the O in contact to be gray instead of black. I realise this is the real colour of the tree underneath it, but it gives an ugly effect when mouseovering. Try it, you’ll see what I mean.

#35

Denis said 1323 days ago:

I love the shape of the header and those backgrounds. The red label looks very nice in the corner and I do prefer it to the previous design. I also think that your portfolio is better organized in this one.

#36

Anonymous Coward said 1323 days ago:

Vertical links and header text? :(

It’s like bad Flash design, but without the Flash. :p

#37

Kevin said 1323 days ago:

Inspirational as always :)

But no more fiddling around? Haha ha Hoho ho!

#38

Anonymouse said 1323 days ago:

Overall, very nice and clean, but who wants to read this:

v
a
n

e
h
t

e
g
n
a
h
c

#39

Carlos Porto said 1323 days ago:

Sometimes I think its worse to be a web designer then an artist… But good refresh on the site. The nav may not be as easy to read but I like the fact that you mimicked the trees, I like it. IMHO stick with it, you don’t always have to be in the “right”.

#40

Fernando Dunn II said 1323 days ago:

I think I’ll have to second Carlos. The navigation keeps the flow pointing from top to bottom. I like the design overall. It’s very refreshing and much easier to read.

My only quibble is, what happened to the archives links?

#41

Jon Hicks said 1323 days ago:

Wow, some divisive opinion over the vertical nav. Its only vertical if you use a decent browser though, IE users have to get a plain text version (for now). I will stick with it for a while, as there are no subsections and the labels are very short. I’ve got to try and do something a little differently.

#11 Paul – There’s no genius here!

#13 – Rich – Not really as the last design had the same sidebar (although that’s obviously unoriginal too!). I was thinking more that having a block photographic header was the unoriginal part.

#19 – John – No, feedback from users on the last design was generally very good! I just didn’t like it. The more I looked at it the more I hated it. It was a hard decision to change something that users liked, but in the end, I was the stubborn client on this one!

#37 – Kevin – Yeah I know! Not any big fiddles anyway ;o)

#38 – No one, but then again my text isn’t one letter per line! ;o)

BTW folks if you don’t like the vertical nav, you don’t have to be anonymous. I’m not going to open up any cans of whoopass. I like to know your thoughts or else I wouldn’t have opened up comments.

#42

Jon Hicks said 1323 days ago:

Thanks to those who picked up on the fact that the nav is echoing the vertical trees! You got it! Archives still there, just needs a link…

#43

Zelnox said 1323 days ago:

I like it, but the forest image. Unless it was intentional, I find the colours in it not vivid enough.

#44

Egor said 1323 days ago:

Excellent job on the re-design. It’s tough to please everyone with the vertical design, especially the closed-minded folks.

I’d say you pulled it off pretty well, but the different colors on roll-over is a bit too much.:)

#45

Rob Mientjes said 1323 days ago:

It finally scrolls without a lag on my FF1/Win :) I like it, though the whitespace is a bit… clean. Oh well, it’s nice. Good job, mister Hicks.

Oh, and in reply to those who please to stay anonymous: “Puhhh-lease!” There is nothing worse than giving bad critique except for giving bad critique without telling who you are.

#46

00 said 1323 days ago:

Wow, thats all I could say. This buckeled me at the knees when I saw it.

#47

Edo said 1323 days ago:

I kind of miss the tree on the right, but then I like the fact of the white-space instead (and the little red ribbon is very cute) that makes it really lighter on the eyes.

ah, count me with those who don’t like the vertical nav :-) even if that goes with the the forest…

#48

Scott said 1323 days ago:

I’ll miss the summer theme. I was counting on it to get me through the winter. : )

At least the vertical navigation will help us straighten our necks out, after all the time we spent leaning to the right to look at that lovely landscape.

#49

Colly said 1323 days ago:

Beautiful design, Jon. You call me a boffin, but you are like some crazy possessed redesign alchemist – always in search of the perfect formula.

You’ve found it.

#50

neil said 1323 days ago:

Beautiful rollover colours in the navigation, and very nice photography, Jon! I agree that the vertical orientation is a bit strange, but not infuriatingly so…

#51

majman said 1323 days ago:

really nice! i have to agree with someone who mentioned above, that the rollover colors seem a little off. it looks like you really wanted to fit some retro colors from one of your previous designs in there. dont’ want to focus on the negative though – overall i find the new design very pleasent to look at and quite refreshing.

good job!

#52

Marc Jones said 1323 days ago:

BIG improvement IMO. Last one was still of course better than 97% of all websites I look at, this one is a peach though. Kudos sir.

#53

Josh Jarmin said 1323 days ago:

I dont know why so many of you are complaining about the verticle nav? How often do you really use it. Sorry Jon. But really, most of us just come here to read the latest blog post and check the links and move on. The content in the other navigation options is more static so you probably will not be checking that all too often.

The one thing that I’m not sure about yet is the logo. It looks out of place, and you almost miss it if you don’t go looking for it.

Other than than, great job on the redesign.

#54

Martin Neczypor said 1323 days ago:

Jon, I like this layout much better then the other, though I don’t like how the site seems a bit top heavy, so to speak. On your last design the landscape on the right of the screen balanced the left navigation. Now, it is really blank everywhere execpt the top of the site. You have the mast head image, then your logo, and then your playlist. Those are the only source of alternate color.

Though, the site looks great overall. Keep up the excellent work!

#55

Ryan Rahn said 1323 days ago:

I actually think I preffered the old design. Neither the old vertical landscape nor the vertical nav bar seem to bother me; both a great part of both designs. I also wanted to mention the rollover colors. Some look okay, but there are two dark purple-blue colors; as well as being very similar, they are quite hard to distinguish from the background.

If I’m not mistaken, some of your nav photos could use a bit of adjusting in photoshop; some look washed out, some too dark, others fine. I love the nav setup though! I especially like the photo for “contact.”

The ribbon in the corner doesn’t bother me either, though I might consider taking that down after a month or two.

Overall a great design, but I think you could have done better ;)

Don’t take my comments too seriously, as I am relativly new at web designing.

#56

Adam said 1323 days ago:

Wow Jon! I have to say this is much better than the old design. However, i dislike the header, and the “uncenteredness” of it. I also don’t like the vertical menu, it just makes it hard to read. The rounded corner of the menu isn’t really needed either, and spoils the overall effect of the great menu.
Maybe a style-switcher could be included, to switch from old to new?
Overall, however, a great improvement, and I hope you break your promise so we get a few more tweaks in the future!

#57

Jeremy Koempel said 1323 days ago:

Wow, that was fast Jon! Beautiful work as always! I really like the image used in the masthead as well as the organization of the portfolio. Well done. – cheers

#58

blue said 1323 days ago:

love the new design. much better. keep up the great work.
cheers.
bv.

#59

dave said 1323 days ago:

The first few pixels of the main photo in the graphic header that stick out to the left of the logo look like a mistake to me.
I think it would look cleaner with plain white to the left of the logo, giving more empasis on the other curves.
But then again I liked the previous one, and you hated that, so if it is only me that thinks it looks weird I guess you are ok.

#60

Joshua Heyer said 1323 days ago:

Hi Jon,

I was very surprised to see a new design this morning but I have mixed feelings toward it.

Dislikes:
I also don’t like the nav but not because of it being vertical (though I’m not a huge fan of it). It just doesn’t feel right to me. The white curve at the bottom of the nav just makes the header feel disjointed. And I agree with zelnox, the header image, while very pretty, doesn’t cause the site to be as memorable as previous designs. And the extra little sliver of the photograph on the left side of the logo contributes to the disjointed feeling I’m getting. And being off center, due to the logo at the top, just gives and unproportioned feeling.

Likes:
Honestly I’m glad the photo on the right is gone. It was a cool effect and very original but it was very distracting. The red ribbon in the top left corner is fun. One of my favorite things is the numbering of the different sections and putting that number at the bottom of the design. At first it doesn’ help you tell where your at but as you get used to the new menu it definitely helps in a more absract way. I must say that I still love the logo and little (single) leaves scattered throughout the design. Also I like the header photos on the other pages more than the one on the journal section.

All in all, not my favorite design. But it refreshing to see a well respected designer unhappy with a design he has done (speaking to the previous design). It just means you are like the rest of us who look at our designs and are constantly unsatisfied and knowing we can do better. I find it easy to hold designers of your caliber above the rest of us and think that design isn’t as much of a struggle/battle for you.

#61

Joel said 1323 days ago:

I am a bit divided. I like the new nav, and the colours are beautiful over the new image. But I preferred the way the previous nav bar was executed-nice hovers over a fitting pattern. The new nav is more like a header, and will need a bit of getting used to.

And I will echo those who think these pages are a bit bland. Once we get past the main content, and into the realms of the comments (of which you get alot) the page loses alot. That, for me, was the beauty of the repeating background of the previous design, and what gave it character.

In conclusion, I am a fan of the little tweaks (more curves-nice) but generally I am one of those dang users who preferred the previous layout.

#62

Adam said 1323 days ago:

(Not the same Adam as the Adam before me)

Damnit Hicks!!! How I envy thee!

This design is fabulous! Loved the last too, but I really dig this. Fairly standard layout—but better than all the rest!

Stop fiddling. It’s perfection perfected! Oooozing with confidence and sex appeal.

#63

Alex Reid said 1323 days ago:

I really feel as if I missed out on something with the old design. I almost never have windows fullscreen, so I’ve not seen this landscape people loved/didn’t. Ah, well.

#64

Jeff Clark said 1323 days ago:

It’s great! It’s rather simple down the sides, but the trees are just fabulous.

I like the ribbon – it’s random as hell, but I like it nonetheless. The vertical menus are different but great.

Three cheers for Hicks!

#65

Jeff Clark said 1323 days ago:

I also just noticed that the trees change through the different sections.

Hicks, you are my hero. This site is wonderful.

#66

Blake Scarbrough said 1323 days ago:

I like the change. I agree the aspen image coloring looks a little washed
Shift Ctrl B the image in photoshop, it will make a little more vivid.

#67

SteveC said 1323 days ago:

Did you turn of GRAvatars now?

#68

Buzz Andersen said 1323 days ago:

Aspen—nice :-).

#69

Martin said 1323 days ago:

Aspen!
Ah. ‘Dendrologist’ being another title to scrub from my CV.

Nevertheless, still love it.

Enjoy your weekend.

#70

SteveC said 1323 days ago:

Also, it seems optimised for 802 pixels, perhaps get it checked in FireFox for Win by someone running a classic theme, or my OS 2k, I can’t describe it clearly enoygh

#71

Kjell Olsen said 1323 days ago:

I love it before, and I still love it. Marvelous job, and congrats on finally settling with something!

#72

Kjell Olsen said 1323 days ago:

I loved it before, and I still love it. Marvelous job, and congrats on finally settling with something!

#73

AkaXakA said 1323 days ago:

Great minimal design with nice details.

Also: if you’re wondering how to get it all working in IE: try IE7, it’s just so much easier to code once and have it work (almost) everywhere the same.

#74

Jonathan Fenocchi said 1323 days ago:

It looks nice, Jon. In all honesty, I liked the design you had before your last redesign. This design is pretty nice too, but I think you could do better. I’ve seen your “recent work,” and I like it a lot more than this design. I wouldn’t call this any kind of redesign, just a bit of a revamp to the current design. Sure, a few graphics changed and it looks a great deal better, but it’s still the same design. That’s just my opinion, though, take it with a grain of salt—I know you’ve got expertise much greater than I do.

#75

David Barrett said 1323 days ago:

Jon, will you stop changing it after you make it look deadly?

“Aw man, you should check out Hicksdesign, it looks deadly. I particularly like the landscape on the right… very well done.”

“What landscape?”

“HE CHANGED IT AGAIN!!!”

#76

Jon Hicks said 1323 days ago:

Thats just it – its not meant to be a redesign, just a tweak.

AkaXakA – Yeah, tried IE7, but it didn’t solve my particular problem. I feel like I’ve tried every Alpha PNG hack under the sun, and not got it working.

#77

Ryan said 1323 days ago:

I like the redesign. Although, I liked the clever use of the landscape on the previous version. It was more origional ya know! I like this too! Clean and simple.

#78

Smokey said 1323 days ago:

The trees are gorgeous! (Makes me forget the blah of pre-snow DC winter has arrived). I quickly got used to the vertical nav, but the “extra column” of whitespace on the left of the sidebar disturbs me, particularly when reading sections that drop below the sidebar, where there appear to be two blank columns on the left and none on the right :-)

#79

Jon Hicks said 1323 days ago:

Yeah the whitespace is definitely a problem, especially when there are so many comments! Hmmm…

#80

Randy Peterman said 1323 days ago:

Super clean and easy to focus on. Good choice!

#81

Adrian Kostrubiak said 1323 days ago:

Wow that header is absolutely beautiful. I’ve always had a thing for aspens; they’re just so beautiful. I also like the way the nav is echoing the lines of the trees. Very cool, very effective..
Lovely..

#82

adn said 1323 days ago:

I think this is better. Specially the I click Jounal – it loads Latest thing.

#83

AkaXakA said 1323 days ago:

I see you’ve fiddled with gravatars again. This is indeed a nicer placement for them. It seems to work better for non-square gravatars though (like your own).

Jon – So what is the exact problem then?

#84

RAMON said 1323 days ago:

I was a fan of the old stuff. I thought the nav was spot on. And the side image gave the site a look I havent seen much. But now its all gone and I am sad. I think the new navigation is just too demanding of my attention. At the top of the page I find it hard to read the posts. Very very distracting. Maybe put the old nav back it was pretty sleek and use some different graphic elements to help livin the site up.

#85

RAMON said 1323 days ago:

Also whitespace is your friend dont let people tell you otherwise.

#86

Foster said 1323 days ago:

I like the trees. Trees just make you feel good. The Lime and Red accent colors add punch.

The vertical nav. made me sit up and take notice, pay attention. They work. It’s not too much text to be dealt with horizontally.

Wish design talent grew on trees.

#87

Natalie said 1322 days ago:

The menu is broken in FS 1 on XP. All the items overlap, and I have no idea what those multiple little red NOW things are meant to look like?

When I mouse over the menu, the words all jumble together, and there are purple vertical stripes all over.

Nothing else seems broken though. Yay!

#88

Jeff Croft said 1322 days ago:

Well, I guess I could drop my thoughts on you, too…

* I’m not surprised that i love it, since I’ve pretty much loved every design of your site (what is this, number five?).

* I really love the vertical nav. I think those who don’t like it, mostly, are just not used to it. I suspect if you leave it for a bit, it will grow on people (much as the (right-side landscape did).

* I do kind of agree that the far-left “sliver” of tree image feels like a mistake. I also think it takes away from the whitespace balace left and right.

* Speaking of whitespace: I love your little ribbon, but I’m pissed about it, because the redesign I’m working on also had a ceeky ribbon. It’s be really nice if you’d stop copping my ideas, Jon. :)

* I love the button graphics along the top (search “go” button, etc). These may have been there before, but I just noticed them.

* The “playlists” and “recent projects” are so beautiful. It’s be really nice if there was some way to make your links and browser news equally as pretty. I think they feel kinda cramped and difficult to read.

#89

David Yeiser said 1322 days ago:

I didn’t like the vertical nav at first, but then I read the comments and found out they were mimicking the trees and now I absolutely love it. Really gives it a whole new edge.

I like all the use of whitespace and the small font size also. Your designs are always in a league of their own, nice work!

#90

pketh said 1322 days ago:

Wow, I totally love it! It has a modern ‘edge’ to it but it still retains in part the simplistic soothing natural feel of the old one.

#91

Morgan Knutson said 1322 days ago:

Jon, your designs are awesome, and i love this one just as much as the last. You make feel like it’s ok to constantly redesign my site when I feel I should. See I used to pretty much every month, untill my girlfriend started complaining and telling me that i never finish any projects and “people in the real world finish projects and stick with them.” Well Jon, you and I are both in the real world, and both like to redesign.

#92

Yannick L. said 1322 days ago:

I am liking the new design. You come up with some pretty creative designs and that is a very interesting way of putting the menu. The only thing I don’t think I like is the piece of the picture just to the left of your logo. Don’t think you really need it, but hey it’s your site and you can do whatever your want hehe ;-) . Other than that I like it and keep up the good work.

#93

Denis Radenkovic said 1322 days ago:

On previous version, I used to keep my mouse over the _‘Turn off Styling’_ button and thought how cool it would be to have a spot of red color somewhere on the page (apart from numbered list). It’s not the main feature of this tweak, but the label/ribbon looks really good on it.

#94

Eric said 1322 days ago:

I like the new design, although the image left of the logo seems not to be right there.

I doesn’t bother with the nav, it’s OK if you like it.

#95

Alistair Lattimore said 1322 days ago:

You know something that I think would make your navigation look even sexier Jon? The one thing I don’t like about it at the moment is that the selected item totally blocks out the image behind it. If the selected item was coloured, yet transparent so you could see the tree behind it—well that to me would be totally sex!

=]

Alistair.

#96

Nick Rigby said 1322 days ago:

Very nice Jon.

As a few people have said, the only thing that does’nt sit right for me is the image to the left of the logo. I think it unbalances the ‘tightness’ of the page.

Excellent nonetheless.

#97

Toby S. said 1322 days ago:

I disagree. I reccomend it starts of with a transparent layer beneath each item, this way I would be able to see the navigation items!

#98

Ryan said 1322 days ago:

Is it me or is the styles for this site turned off? I’m using FF 1.0 and there seems to be no styles, even after a fresh cache.

#99

Jon Hicks said 1322 days ago:

All those seeing odd things happen to the nav in FF 1.0 on XP – I can’t reproduce the issue here at all. I’d be grateful if anyone else is having issues could let me know.

#100

Arman Choobineh said 1322 days ago:

Good work Jon, I love the header.

#101

matthew said 1322 days ago:

Id have to agree with Nick Rigby, that slice of trees to the left of the nav feels to me like its just ‘fallen’ there out of sheer luck, sort of incidental or maybe accidental.

#102

Lee said 1322 days ago:

Looks very good. The landscape thing was always somewhat annoying in my opinion. Nice work.

#103

John Oxton said 1322 days ago:

Ahh, Late to the party once again!

Have you thought about auctioning off your old site designs for charedee?

I’d bid for the one you just ditched! :-)

#104

Henrik Hansson said 1322 days ago:

I saw your site for the first time every maybe 2 weeks ago, and I really loved it, but the new design you have come up with is really nice, and also better than the old one IMO.

The ver nav is great and absolutly not annoying or anything like that!

I just think you should tone down the red color for Contact hover and also remove the small threephoto on the left side of the Logo, it just doesn’t fix.

Great job, and keep it up!

#105

an advid reader said 1321 days ago:

FYI…

The site navigation looks all messed up using Firefox 1.0, WinXP

#106

Jon Hicks said 1321 days ago:

‘Avid Reader’ -could you delete your cache, refresh and have another look. You seem to be the in the same boat as a couple of others. Most FF PC users haven’t had problems.

As for the auctioning off the previous site design for charity, I thought a lot about that, but lets face it, its not that different to this one, and a lot of it is tied up with my brand identity. Hicksdesign is more than just a blog, its my work too.

#107

ACJ said 1321 days ago:

Please do keep fiddling around. I love the fact I’m never surprised to be totally surprised upon returning to this site.

#108

Viking Karwur said 1321 days ago:

Congrats! with your new site design… Inspired!

#109

Angad said 1321 days ago:

I like !
The picture with vertical trees and everything looks very rad and original. However the colour of the trees in teh picture just doesn’t mix with teh site don’t you think?
It’s yellowy green.

#110

spkelly said 1321 days ago:

On a 1600×1200 monitor like mine ‘20% extra white space’ is not good. Sorry Jon; this still isn’t as good as the last but one…

#111

Scott Johnson said 1321 days ago:

The new design looks good. It looks new and different and yet still pays tribute to its ancestors.

#112

Ben Ward said 1321 days ago:

Well, a few days in (and a few days away from the beige box) I’m feeling pretty sold on the vertical navigation. I think my neck has stopped craning the other way and I appreciate the differece to other sites. It’s really rather pretty!

#113

Conan said 1321 days ago:

The layout is nice enough, but navigation is frustrating still. :(

Not frustrating that I cannot get around, just frustrating to look at. I can’t quite describe it but I still cannot get used to the vertically positioned text. I have to purposely scroll it off the top of the page to read the articles, if I can.

I’d like to appreciate it but I don’t. But I have to say that this is the first time I’ve been so personally affected by the change in a sites design, so erm… congrats on that at least. :)

#114

Matt said 1320 days ago:

Jon, I’m a big fan. I’m sure you’ve developed lots since the launch of firefox. I heard about your page from the boys at silverorange, here on pei canada. However, i feel compelled to comment today because I miss the old layout. It was so nice with the flowers on the side. 20% More white stuff bothers me. Although i like the catchy slogan.

#115

Alex said 1320 days ago:

Fantastic work Jon, I love this new design. Keep up the good work!

#116

Amit Karmakar said 1320 days ago:

Well done Jon, another good one.

#117

Alex said 1320 days ago:

I forgot to add this to my other comment, is the photo used at the top a stock photo or one of your own?

#118

Jon Hicks said 1320 days ago:

Alex – all the tree images are stock ones I’m afraid!

#119

Thomas H said 1320 days ago:

Just when you thought it could not get any better…... I am patically impressed with the bright side of the top picture. How do you give it that “cartoon’ish” look?

#120

Austin White said 1320 days ago:

So clean, so simple and so much impact ! Love it

#121

Ryan said 1320 days ago:

Sorry to say it but I don’t think your site works in FF 1.0 XP Pro. This is what I have and none of your styles work. Letting ya know…

#122

Pete Ankelein said 1320 days ago:

In the immortal words of painter, Bob Ross: “Ah, let’s add some happy little trees.” Nice revamp, jon.

#123

American Blogger said 1320 days ago:

Actually, i liked the other one better:( But, this one is still nice!

#124

Jon Hicks said 1320 days ago:

Pete – wow, to have the great Bob Ross quoted at me is truly an honour! I now know that I’ve ‘made it’!

#125

Paul Armstrong said 1319 days ago:

Unfortunately Jon, the colors (which I’m sure you’ll figure out soon if you haven’t already) just do not work anymore. The yellow leaves of the trees is actually clashing with your bright greens.

You may have felt that people were compelled to tilt their heads to the right to look at that tree before, but now they are compelled to tilt their heads to the left with your logo and menu. You of all people should know that your logo is not one that should be turned on its side like that.

Sorry for the negative feedback, but I really don’t think that this design works as well as the previous.

#126

Justin Low said 1319 days ago:

Jon, though I prefer your previous design, congratulations on launching this one. :)

#127

James said 1319 days ago:

The one 2 designs ago was a lot better, IMHO.

I’m sad to say I can’t really stand this one; I like navigations when I don’t have to turn my head to read them.
Also it’s less candy for my eyes, so they don’t feel like reading as much.

#128

Jon Hicks said 1319 days ago:

” You of all people should know that your logo is not one that should be turned on its side like that.” – I’m guessing you never saw my original design that I had for a year and a half! The vertical logo was kind of a trademark. I don’t see a problem quite frankly, its not as if its unreadable. As for people having to tilt their heads – c’mon people!

#129

Alex said 1319 days ago:

_“Alex – all the tree images are stock ones I’m afraid!” (Comment 118)_

Where do you get your stock photos from? I was looking for some tree pics like yours a while ago but found none that were as good!