Introducing: andy-pearson.com
My latest project has not even been online for a month and I am already rolling out my next little project. Ok, so it’s not quite on the same scale of Scorched Archive, but it’s been fun to try out some new things with this simple one page site.
I wanted to really keep this site simple, but at the same time make it good to look at. As it is such a personal thing, I decided to take some risks. The whole site is set in Helvetica Neue, sorry anyone with out it, but when a page is based solely on text it really helps to use a good looking typeface. I also chose to forget about IE6, it’s just a hassle I could do without, maybe I will go back and sort it out but for now I just wanted to have 100% fun with it.
The main header text, is heavily inspired by Twitter. I know it’s pretty lame, and probably a fad but I’m really obsessed with the way tweets are always prefixed with the users name (and now screen name). It’s such a great constraint, and I do my best to make sure I create a proper sentence when I post a tweet.
Streaming My Days Away
Ever since I read Jeremy Keith’s post on creating his life stream I knew if would be pretty cool to do something similar. I also knew that my name domain (unfortunately with a hyphen, bloody squatters) was pretty useless in it’s previous state, I saw the opportunity to combine the two and ran with it.
I am using a modified version of Jeremy’s original script. After having some reliability issues with some of the feeds I was planning to use I decided to set up some sort of caching system. Now, every 15 minutes a script is run via Cron which finds all my feeds, sticks them in an array, loops through them and if they are not already in my database table then they are added. Seems to be working pretty well so far and means that in a couple of months you will be able to look back at everything I have done on the net.
I decided against republishing another feed of everything as I really think it’s unnecessary. I can’t believe anyone would be that interested in what the hell I’ve been up to.
I Heart Grids
Designing with grids is getting more and more popular these days, and I can see why. Although this is a simple 2 column design I have made sure that the text all sticks to a constant vertical rhythm. Each line of text hits a 5 pixel baseline grid. Have a look yourself by showing the grid.
Also Introducing
Ok, so it’s not quite a whole new site, but I have taken the time to create a custom virb theme based on this design. This was pretty fun to do and will hopefully encourage me to get in on this whole social thing. Virb is pretty rad, leaps and bounds ahead of Myspace and the like in terms of design and usability. If you aren’t already on Virb then let me know, I have 96 invites (though I thought it had gone public) and would be more than happy to hook you up with one.
Other Bits
Did I forget to mention the use of transparency to fad out older items on the home page, or the fact that the site comes in a selection of different colours? Better check it out yourself and let me know what you think.
Ian Halliday
March 31st, 2007 at 11:06 pm
Excellent work on the site Andy! A great implementation of Jeremy’s idea but with your own twist and a wicked style.
I just came across your site via Flickr, then remembered I’ve been here before some time. It’s good to come across other designers in the on this side of the pond though!
Feeling your pain on needing a hyphen though, I bought www.ian-halliday.co.uk a few weeks ago, and couldnt get the non hyphenated version as it was bought by a dad for his wee boy 2 days before I decided the URL. Other combinations of my name threw up the same problem of domain squatters!