03 February 2011 Everything has changed, everything is the same
Welcome to the all new Swiss Cheese and Bullets. Yes, once again, I've gone for a major redesign. Not just out of boredom this time – there were technical and aesthetic reasons this time. Honest.
In short (and trust me, it is short … I was planning a lengthy rant here), my previous platform, tumblr, became massively unreliable. Certain basic blogging features such as "reliable searching", "post scheduling" and "being online" are apparently beyond tumblr's capabilities. Plus the actual design tools were pretty much non-existent, and although I was using a damn nice template (Scaffold by Mike Harding), it just wasn't me.
So after a lot of mulling-over (and tweetly advice from you lot) I moved to Squarespace. The CSS editing tools are a joy to work with, so my blog now looks like my blog, and the whole infrastructure behind the curtain is now solid. Customer support is also excellent. I'm sure I'll have problems with it at some point, or I'll want it to do something tumblish and I'll get frustrated, but for now I'm happy.
I've moved a lot of content over from the old design, plus I've dug up some of my old binkythedoormat posts as well. I still have hundreds of old posts to shift across, but there should already be plenty in here to keep you distracted.
Amongst other new features, you can now comment on posts, search through the index, and stare at a long list of absurdly disparate categories. It's almost as if it's a real grown-up blog.
(Of course, all of this may mean nothing to you, because you never leave the safe confines of your RSS reader, and homogenous convenience takes precedence over considered design, character and variety. I'm guilty of this myself, but trust me, it's worth taking the RSS blinkers off every now and then.)
Big thanks to Stuart Hobday for the advice and coding help, Khoi Vinh for writing Ordering Disorder: Grid Principles for Web Design, and Dr B for critical guidance (and for tolerating inane, relentless questions about column-widths and font sizes).
Feedback is of course welcome – good or bad. And if anything isn't working very well, please let me know! I still have a lot of tweaking to do, but regular posts about chairs and maps and scotch eggs will resume shortly.
Reader Comments (8)
Looking great Dan!
I miss the moon though :¬(
Like the new look. I really enjoyed the one experience I had with Squarespace optimizing and adjusting a client's site. I've never attempted a full build with it. Good idea to step away from Tumblr. If you enjoy design and want to really put your own creativity and feel into your blog, it just doesn't do the trick and as of late from what I've seen, it crashes constantly.
Good luck from here on out. I'd be interested to see a post on your Squarespace experience.
Yay! Comments! (Hopefully most of them a little more erudite than this one.)
Oh i am disappointed.
Your blog felt original. now this place feels like every generic corner on the internet.
It really is beautiful.
Tell me (tell me), what is the name (or Pantone reference if you like) of that amazing greeny hue?
xxx
@Glenn Thanks. Get your moon fix here.
@Timothy Thanks. I'll be writing about my ongoing Squarespace adventures in a few weeks, once I've had the opportunity to really get my hands in there and make a mess of the whole thing.
@Dan. WOOT!
@DawnPenn Sorry it's all a bit too generic for you. The content is still exactly the same though, so I hope you'll continue reading.
@Dr B Thank you for the kind words Doctor. The colour is probably closest to Pantone 7473M. I call it Swanley Grue.
xxx
I have to agree, I kinda miss the moon :s To be honest, this looks a bit like 'seen this before', but it's right down my street: neat, clean and tidy. And it works, so keep up the good work.
does this mean you are no longer following the tumblrs you used to follow?
but tumblr or no, still bookmarked your site.