Retro Web Design - by Brad on 08:07 30 Jun 2003
Clunk factor + content + personality = Goooood!
I think, I'm going retro on all the pages I design on Shadowdark.org. I've decides everything on the web has become too corporate looking, too Photoshop perfect.
In reviewing a bunch of sites, I just spent more time on, and enjoying a lot of old sites that have not been updated since approx 1997. By today's design standards I guess they are clunky. But I got to tell you they contained more neat content (mostly text) than all the achingly beautiful modern sites I've seen lately combined. I'm not knocking beautiful websites. But beautiful and pretentious cannot make up for lack of substance for very long.
Some of the best websites I'm finding are old Geocites or ISP hosted sites from about the mid to late 1990's.
I think webmasters are spending way to much time with Photoshop and not enough time generating good unique content.
I'd rather see clunky old pages that talk to me than sleek new pages that are like a Victoria secret model on a fashion show runway somewhere: eye candy, look, don't touch and in a minute she's come and gone.
What is retro? Background textures are retro, letting people see the table borders is retro. Ruled notebookpaper backgrounds are retro. Icons and simple (but good) navigation is retro. I am declaring retro web to be chic for Fall!
Remember Icons?
I found some retro icon sites: Really Retro Icons and some more modern icons.
Okay, the bottom line of what I am saying is, don't judge a site by the way it looks.
Clunk factor + content + personality = Goooood!
I think, I'm going retro on all the pages I design on Shadowdark.org. I've decides everything on the web has become too corporate looking, too Photoshop perfect.
In reviewing a bunch of sites, I just spent more time on, and enjoying a lot of old sites that have not been updated since approx 1997. By today's design standards I guess they are clunky. But I got to tell you they contained more neat content (mostly text) than all the achingly beautiful modern sites I've seen lately combined. I'm not knocking beautiful websites. But beautiful and pretentious cannot make up for lack of substance for very long.
Some of the best websites I'm finding are old Geocites or ISP hosted sites from about the mid to late 1990's.
I think webmasters are spending way to much time with Photoshop and not enough time generating good unique content.
I'd rather see clunky old pages that talk to me than sleek new pages that are like a Victoria secret model on a fashion show runway somewhere: eye candy, look, don't touch and in a minute she's come and gone.
What is retro? Background textures are retro, letting people see the table borders is retro. Ruled notebookpaper backgrounds are retro. Icons and simple (but good) navigation is retro. I am declaring retro web to be chic for Fall!
Remember Icons?
I found some retro icon sites: Really Retro Icons and some more modern icons.
Okay, the bottom line of what I am saying is, don't judge a site by the way it looks.