The Hicksdesign family album / journal / hicksdesign

12/04/05

The Hicksdesign family album

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

version 1

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

version 3

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

version 4

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

version 5

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

version 6

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

version 7

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!

Technorati Tags Tags: design, hicksdesign, versions

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Rob McMichael said 1246 days ago:

Its amazing how much has changed in a few short years, both in a technical sense and in a design sense.

Very interesting to see, thanks Jon.

JD said 1246 days ago:

Would you believe if I were to tell you that just today I was checking your site in archive.org to figure out how your skills have evolved over the time? archive.org was way too slow and I gave up waiting for the flash animation to load.

And boy your flash back reminded of the days when everything was in image! [Screw the screen reader was the mantra!] It’s amazing how far we have come along.

Thanks for the nostalgia.
JD

Ben said 1246 days ago:

I’m one of the “preffered version 7 to the current version” people. Don’t suppose you could add it as an optional style for those of us using proper browsers (you’ve probably been asked it loads of times so I’m guessing not?)

I like the look of version 4 as well – I like using middle greys with any bold colour – it always works well (as you’ve shown on a number of your sites :) )

Lasse Gejl said 1246 days ago:

A nights tale
Some guy some where on the Internet had an amazing vertical tree on his site in October 2004. I looked at the code in my IE browser and found out that he forgot to put in tables and stuff. Damn! He used CSS for positioning – I thought it was for styling kick ass links

In other words – thanks! You – and a bounch of other well-known guys – opened my eyes to CSS, web standards and much more.

And also: I would really like to see that tree again!!

Andy Hume said 1246 days ago:

I actually very rarely keep old stuff. When it’s gone it’s gone, and in some cases I have lived to regret it. Maybe I should be more organised with versioning and archiving past designs – but I just can’t be bothered unless it’s a neccessity.

The archives can be fun, but often unreliable with missing images and the like. Very interesting to see your developments though Jon. Thanks.

Alex Cabrera said 1246 days ago:

Wow, I remember when the whole chemistry trend thing was really hot back in the dreamless.org days.

TOm said 1246 days ago:

I just uploaded my new design this afternoon/tonight. I don’t like it that much already! over the past 2 years I have been trying to come up with something I like but just end up hating it.

I thought I’d bite the bullet and put this one up. No doubt it will change in the next few months (when I finally leave university). I have so little time to devote to my personal projects at the moment.

JD said 1246 days ago:

I posted few snapshots from my old web page .

JD

Craig C. said 1246 days ago:

I recently put an updated portfolio back online and, when picking sites to display to the world, I deliberately avoided mentioning some of my older work. While some of the sites still look quite nice on the screen, the abundance of frames and tables embarasses me. I did include a screenshot of the first version of my site, but not a link to the site itself so nobody could see the wretched markup.

But now that you’ve gone first, I’ll post the link: Focal Curve v1.0 from 2001.

As embarassing as the markup is, I’m perhaps even more embarassed by my copywriting. Four years is an eternity in web time.

#10

Daniel Andrews said 1246 days ago:

I’ve thrown my hat in the ring here – but go easy on me ;-)

Cool idea, Jon.

#11

trovster said 1245 days ago:

My favourites are both 6 and 7. All these rounded corners don’t really work on my I’m afraid. I actually stumbled upon some of my old sites on a CD hidden away. I even found my first website through one of them which was still “live”. I even remembered the username/password for it. However, I’m too ashamed to put the really old ones up, even in image form!

“because of a certain browser that the majority use”

#12

Jakob Heuser said 1245 days ago:

Ah, a trip down memory lane. Yours seems much more enjoyable than mine. I seem to remember well my teen-emo phase when I thought black and dark blue was awesome. Sure, it was unreadable, but it was awesome!

It’s nice to see what elements and items you used that carried from evolution to evolution of your site.

#13

Glenn said 1245 days ago:

I am currently on version four of Volume Designs and you can find my previous versions on my info page under the “Site Specs” section. I have got into a habit of archiving almost every layout I create (even the ones that don’t make the cut) so I can look back and reflect on the work.

#14

Hans said 1245 days ago:

Thank you for revealing these archives. I now really do believe that you’re an actual human who’s made a few “blunders” and now has ended up with a great site.

Before I thought you were some perfect machine (oxymoron?), but now I realize that you’re Jon Hicks.

#15

Craig C. said 1245 days ago:

Alright, I just posted some skeletons of my own.

#16

Lyubov Berezina said 1245 days ago:

I was carefully keeping not only the screenshots but the html files themselves so that I trace my progress (or lack of it hehe)
They’re all here:
Jinjiru.ru (all the small pics at the right side)
My homepage was not a designer’s one – It was just a typical girlish homepage made firstly with Dreamweaver and then manually in texteditors.
Back in that time I just did not know about any web standards, liquid or fixed layouts, just used css for changing fonts and colors and adding background images.
Sooo… thÑƒ final result of all these years may be not so perfect but at least it’s a step forward:
Retrobox

#17

Aristotle Pagaltzis said 1245 days ago:

I actually prefer the current layout over v7 simply because fixed page elements make for choppy scrolling. (We need OpenGL-accelerated webbrowsers, heh…)

But I have to say that v7 was gorgeous. The vertical landscape strip was sort of vertigo-inducing, in a good way. It gave the page an impression of free, open space that I have never seen elsewhere on the web.

#18

clint said 1245 days ago:

version 4 seems to be an important breakthru to where you are now, and for what its worth I think where you are now is the best its been..

#19

Lau Taarnskov said 1245 days ago:

Colored gif spheres, gif backgrounds and horizontal rulers. That was what I remember having availible to spruce things up at first :)

My first homepage was made, when I was 12 or 13. I’m 23 today. I made it for the Mosaic browser, and later got Netscape Navigator, that introduced frames. I used a frame for having the navigation in a single file, so that a change in the menu, didn’t mean that I had to change the menu of every page manually.

I think that this page for a Duke Nukem 3D customizer application is like 8 years old. It’s got animated gifs and and a MIDI track. Created with Windows 3.1.

#20

John Oxton said 1245 days ago:

Excellent stuff… quite like that slide thing going on on your Flash version!

Here’s some I prepared earlier

#21

Denis Radenkovic said 1245 days ago:

Hah! I was browsing through my old sites yesterday and thinking if I should put them off line… :) //Hicksdesign Version 5 looks great!

My version one was the first html site I did . Version two was done in Flash… it was some sort of mixture of Flash and html. The third version of 38one unfortunately is not saved, but there is a screenshot of what the home page used to be like.

#22

Brutal said 1245 days ago:

My just love version 6!

#23

Paul Brownsmith said 1245 days ago:

I’m currently wallowing in the grey area between doing the odd job outside of work , or making a go of it full time. I’ve always been employed withing the corporate sector – which has its limitations.
For one recent side project that I particularly wanted to land, I decided to register a domain and throw something together, this is what the rough versions looked like:
http://www.fuzzyoutline.com/v1/
http://www.fuzzyoutline.com/xhtml/
And finally how it stands now:
http://www.fuzzyoutline.com/

#24

Paul Brownsmith said 1245 days ago:

Whoops, no links.
http://www.fuzzyoutline.com/v1
http://www.fuzzyoutline.com/xhtml
And finally
http://www.fuzzyoutline.com

#25

Gordon said 1245 days ago:

Great idea – I’ve had archive screenshots for my site going back to 1999. However I’ve just checked and I must’ve lost the images in the last hosting move (er… over a year ago?) so I’m guessing that not many people have been looking…

I’ll get them updated from a backup tonight.

I recognise your site from version 5 onwards, and I think we all went through that “black is cool” spell. Same with frames (I’m particularly guilty of that. I wish I could find my first company design from ‘96…

#26

jordan said 1245 days ago:

Why, it just so happens that I have all the major stuff from my first year of making webpages. It was 1999, and I’d never used the internet – I didn’t even have a connection ‘til 2002, but that didn’t stop me. You’ll have to excuse the poor quality of the pages, since the only things I had to work with were IE3 and 5.5, as well as NS4.75 (huzzah for the utter crap!).

The only reason I ever attempted to make a webpage was because I’d read an article in an astronomy magazine (!), was amazed by how easy it looked, and simply had to try it.

And so, without further whatever – My Projects . The relevant stuff is under the ”/old” section. The page doesn’t match anything else on my site (heck, nothing on my site matches my site), but it’s a nifty effect and it’s all done in CSS. :)

#27

Alexis Gallisa said 1245 days ago:

I sat on my design for about 2 months because of that “other browser”. I finally gave in to using conditional statements and was able to overcome its inability to use fixed positioning by using
html { overflow: hidden; }body { height: 100%; overflow: auto; width:100%;}
Its a hack, and I wouldn’t use it on client site but I guess that’s the freedom you get when working on your own personal site.

#28

Kim Siever said 1245 days ago:

This is very cool. I am going to have to track down my previous versions and do something similar.

#29

Jason Beaird said 1245 days ago:

Sometimes the past hurts. I went through some previous incarnations of my site as a result of your post and decided that I am Like the Jared Fogle of Design

#30

Richard Rutter said 1245 days ago:

Any skeletons you ask. Well, yes. How about this bad boy still hosted on VirginNet. A pre-blog personal page, dontcha know. I’m still kinda fond of it, in an odd sort of way.

#31

Alexis Gallisa said 1245 days ago:

I completely forgot that my college still hosts my site which was done back in 99 and even worse in 97

#32

Sebastian Schmieg said 1245 days ago:

I really like your Flash version (only with speakers turned off!). The first one I have seen was v6, while the transition from v6 to v7 markes the time when I became I regular reader.

Funny thing: In the beginning I thought you were black, don’t ask me why!

#33

goodwitch said 1245 days ago:

Awwwww, it is like watching home movies of you growing up! There is something special about Design 6. It feels so organic with the creative left treatment.

But I must say, my fav feature of your current design is the “Head Tilting Fun”, which still elicts a chuckle.

#34

bvweb said 1244 days ago:

Here’s one you may like – click click :-)

#35

robert3 said 1243 days ago:

My first site was tablelicious, a dash of javascript, sprinkled with some font tags, and a sliver of CSS. Ah the memories.

#36

robert3 said 1243 days ago:

forgot the link…..

#37

robert3 said 1243 days ago:

Found it… http://halographik.net/hgv1/

it was one of those “best viewed in IE” sites. ;)

#38

Jon Hicks said 1243 days ago:

Thanks to everyone for sharing your skeletons – although some are less embarrassing than others.

#39

bvweb said 1242 days ago:

didn’t work last time. here it is again – you may find this interesting:

http://web.archive.org/web/20010202023500/http://www.brightonwebdesign.com/

#40

Patrick Haney said 1235 days ago:

I’ve only had 2 major versions of my site (with a few experiments here and there) sadly. I have both versions mentioned with little screenshots, though I don’t even want to think about that old design anymore….