Pixelicious: Pixelicious - The Grassy Mallard

Pixelicious - The Grassy Mallard

Sunday May 1, 2005 - Permanent link to this post -

Refresh your cache. My CSS Reboot / May 1st Reboot entry has now officially … erm … booted.

This is the most considered redesign of this site to date. It’s certainly the one I’ve spent the most time on. Most of my personal redesigns have been done in the half hour before I’ve fallen asleep on the sofa when I’ve got home from the pub. The Reboot thing has given my endless opportunities to refine the design, weeks after I would normally have considered it finished. Hopefully it’s been worth the effort, and hopefully it works in whatever combination of browser and monitor resolution you’re plumping for.

The design. The design is pretty simple, in itself. I wanted something green. How long do you think I brainstormed the word “green” before coming up with the lawn in my header? The design is liquid and the grass works well with that as it’s a repeating tile. I could have probably got the joins a little neater, but I might work on that later.

In a week where everyone’s talking about Tigers, let’s turn the attention to ducks. The duck you see walking along the top of the word “Pixelicious”, and in fact the type for the word itself, are my new logo. I say my new logo, it was designed for me by the incredibly talented and, by all accounts, particularly handsome and nice smelling Rob Mientjes of Zooiblog fame. Can’t thank him enough for it. I asked Rob if he’d do a logo quite early on in the design process. The first thing he brought back to me was the type. I loved it. I could have used it on its own, but I wanted something I could take with me. Something that could be taken from the logo and still used to represent this site, without the word Pixelicious having to be tied to it. After some conversations I decided on a duck, and Rob seemed to know exactly what I meant. After all, what better than a duck to swim around my liquid layout and rest on my grass? Cheers Rob. Do you know Rob, everyone? He’s available for hire you know.

So, I hope you like my redesign. If you don’t, tell me why. If you find any bugs, tell me those too. If you love it, thanks. I do too.

On 1 May, 00:27, Adam Michela did say:
Love it! So very nice. The logo fits perfectly! Nice job Rob.

My only complaint would be the 6px font size in this here comment box :)
On 1 May, 00:31, Andy Hume did say:
Hey… very swish Pete. And nice work by the Mientjes fella.

I had forgotten about the Re-boot today – I hope this is the first of many cracking redesigns I get to goggle over.

Nice one.
On 1 May, 00:45, Garrett did say:
Very nice work. Love the duck.
On 1 May, 03:44, Joakim did say:
It’s pixelicious!
On 1 May, 09:25, John Oxton did say:
Hey Pete, Looking really nice here. Minimal, clean, yum.

If I may offer, in a friendly manner of course, a few opinions, and they are only opinions.

The links in the lists to the right could do with a little more line height I think. And by that, I don’t mean the space between the actual list items but the links within them, where they wrap onto two lines. Does that make sense?

Also the inputs here on the comments are perhaps in need of some extra height to accomodate the text.

That’s about it from me, nice job! :)
On 1 May, 10:10, Peter J.Lambert did say:
Guys, thanks for the kind words and the heads-up on some of the things I’d missed. I’m making changes as the requests come in (within reason, of course).

@John: the low line-height on those links was semi-intentional. A happy-accident, if you will. I quite liked them, but I realise they can cause a readability issue, and you weren’t the first person to mention them, so I’ve changed them now.

Oh, and I’m working on the comment form sizing.
On 1 May, 10:14, Schultzy did say:
Maybe I shouldnt release mine lol.
Oh an when you click the logo and drag it moves magic? weird.

cool design though
On 1 May, 12:17, Denis Radenkovic did say:
WOW, looking good! I nearly forgot about the May Reboot.

The duck fits nicely, great job Rob!
On 1 May, 13:11, Jc did say:
Maybe it was spring pessimism in the air or the friendly bacteria running through my veins, but I have to admit, I feared an anti-climax after such a long build up to this redesign.

Have to say though. It’s beautiful and fresh. I love it. Well impressed.

inspired logo too. (is that actually your lawn? – you can see the bbq footprints.)
On 1 May, 13:13, Jc did say:
How do i get one of those logos that you’ve all got above your comments?

I feel so naked.
On 1 May, 15:15, Mathias Bynens did say:
Great design! Excellent work, the both of you!

By the way, I love the way “your” logo matches your Gravatar :)
On 1 May, 18:13, Sean did say:
Very nice. Minimal is very nice, when done right. And you did it!
On 1 May, 18:13, SteveC did say:
JC: You need a Gravatar
On 1 May, 19:33, Jc did say:
Cheers big steve.

The supreme order of “gravatar rating experts” are assessing my humble request.
On 1 May, 21:00, Dan did say:
I really like the new look. Very clean, very easy on the eye, very nice indeed.
On 1 May, 22:17, Turnip did say:
Very nice : ). I like it.
On 1 May, 22:47, If..Else did say:
Clean and understated but perfectly formed. Good job!
On 2 May, 01:13, Graham Bancroft did say:
Turftastic!

Agghhh, the draggable duck. I clicked and I dragged and FF crashed. I am never, ever gonna drag your duck…ever again.

Jahu; One thing I have noticed though, on the right hand side at the bottom of your grassy knoll, just were your curve is. I’ve got about two pixels of turf overlaping in FireFox.

I’ve tried my damndest to rub it off but it won’t budgie.

Is it your header or do I need a new monitor?
On 2 May, 07:12, Indranil did say:
Wow! It’s really clean and a beauty to behold. Keep it up, Pete!
On 2 May, 08:54, Peter J.Lambert did say:
FF/Win seems to have an issue with the bottom right corner of the lawn on resize of the window. Can’t figure out why, but I will be trying harder.

As for the draggable duck, it’s not supposed to be draggable. I can only advise “Don’t pull my duck!”.
On 2 May, 09:39, Indranil did say:
Hey, this is so cool!
You can place the logo wherever you want in the header!! Don’t like it? Drag it to the left, and poof! it vanishes. :)