new digs for basel
Post #417 • November 29, 2004, 7:05 AM • 28 Comments
I wanted to gussy things up around here for Basel. The image above switches out between the available ten (and counting) at random. I only request one behavioral change from you: you will now find the comment link under the last comment, rather than at the end of the post (thanks Hovig).
Hasn't been tested in Windows or other terrible operating systems, so if anything goes wack, let me know.
2.
November 29, 2004, 7:32 PM
Looks great! It's a simple design, easy to read, the art is inspiring, as well as appropriate. I like it.
3.
November 29, 2004, 8:06 PM
It is very hard for me to read the text against the intense blue background (Jack sees black; I guess a conputer will read whatever color it wants to read) because the values are so similar - in my case a dark red against the dark blue - and the type face is so small.
Moving the content link is a very good idea, however. The rough B&W drawings are graphically strong & work fine.
4.
November 29, 2004, 8:26 PM
Jack - design was made to match the drawings. Drawings are in black and white. And the old site looked corporate. Catering? I'm catering to my tastes.
Anna - thanks.
Oldpro - Dark red against dark blue?!
Text should be appearing as black and dark gray. Hypertext is dark purple. Background is white. "Artblog.net" appears as white on very dark gray.
Re: your computer - are you pedaling it? ;o)
5.
November 29, 2004, 8:38 PM
All I see is black and white. It looks decidedly funereal to me. And the old font was better.
6.
November 29, 2004, 8:41 PM
Jack, the old font was the same.
7.
November 29, 2004, 9:04 PM
i think this blog looks great!
8.
November 29, 2004, 9:22 PM
Depending on which browser you use the color does indeed change. I just checked Internet Explore for Mac 5.2 and background is nasty link blue. Safari on the other hand does a fine job with the code. How does it look out in PC land I wonder?
9.
November 29, 2004, 9:27 PM
It may have been the same font, but it looks different, so it must be bigger and angrier-looking now. I still prefer the previous look for the text.
10.
November 29, 2004, 9:34 PM
I am using explorer 5 on a mac G4 with a 9.2 operating system. I get the same "nasty link blue" that back row guy is referring to. And I am pedalling real hard.
11.
November 29, 2004, 9:36 PM
I am referring to the surrounding color, with tthe menu on it, of course, not the message board.
12.
November 29, 2004, 10:04 PM
I'm with Anna. I like the drawings (they illustrate the "go see art" concept, but they're witty too; and I like the way drawings are selected at random, which I think is pretty unique and notable), and I also like the austerity and simplicity of the new design. It seems to work just fine on a machine running IE 6 on Windows 2000 (black text on a white background, every block in the right place).
13.
November 29, 2004, 10:06 PM
Oldpro: try these two browsers, you'll be glad you did:
http://www.mozilla.org/
or
http://www.apple.com/safari/download/
14.
November 29, 2004, 10:22 PM
Thank you, Franklin. Much better now.
15.
November 29, 2004, 10:23 PM
I know what's going on... I'm using Firefox on XP at home and 2000 at work. The background of the site defaults to whatever is the "window text" background color is set to in the machine's Display Properties. There should be some way for the site to override that, though many don't, because setting that color to almost anything other then whilte makes many programs look funny.
Obviously this doesn't directly apply to Mac, but i'd bet it's something related.
Re the aesthetics of the new site, I'm not mad about it but i'm usually slow to accept change. The last time you overhauled the design i hated it at first and now i think it's great. The comments button at the end is for sure a good idea.
16.
November 29, 2004, 10:59 PM
holy crap: Comments close after two weeks.
Since I love handing out coding assignments, here's one:
Instead of one of a number of pictures at the top, how about breaking up the pictures into smaller pieces (since most of them have distinct pieces), then allowing the page to display a random number of them (say 1 to 5), and at random sizes and random placement within that space along the top. Since they're going to be grayscale images, maybe for extra credit you can have it tint each one a random color first, too? Let's keep those web geeks impressed!
17.
November 29, 2004, 11:19 PM
Thanks for helping, everybody.
Okay, I figured out the glitch in the background, which is set to "#white" instead of "white". I'll take care of that later.
Guy's right, Oldpro, you need Mozilla - I'm not sure Safari runs on 9.2.
Jack, does something look different? I didn't change anything. (Note to web people: shit - "bigger and angrier" sounds like an em-height interpretation problem. Does the font look oversized to anyone?)
Alesh. Thanks. The letter bomb will be arriving shortly.
Actually, I had considered something like what you're suggesting, but decided against. One cool thing, though - I can load up new images into a folder, and the PHP script on the site will detect them automatically and put them into the array that it picks from. No need to touch the code. Neat, eh?
18.
November 30, 2004, 12:35 AM
Franklin: I get a blue background on my mac os10 with Internet Explorer at home and black images on white background on my PC at work.
19.
November 30, 2004, 1:09 AM
Mac users - IE sucks. If you're running OS 10 use Safari or Firefox.
Bethea - Thanks. Background glitch will be fixed imminently.
20.
November 30, 2004, 1:59 AM
Franklin:
I was just about to say Firefox for Mac users.
I like the new banner(s), especially the cats. Black cat to white cat: "Does that look like a carrot to you?"
Have fun in the artstorm. At least the hurricanes are gone.
JdB
21.
November 30, 2004, 2:02 AM
Yes, Franklin, the text is back to its normal, reasonably civilized and tolerably elegant former state. When I first checked in this morning, it was too big, too heavy and too black.
22.
November 30, 2004, 2:46 AM
Jack, like I said, I didn't do anything to cause the change you saw. Have you been using the Internet irresponsibly? I wonder if you bumped a shrink-text button or something.
Okay, body {background-color: white} now. Does it work for all you folks who were seeing blue?
Thanks to all for props.
23.
November 30, 2004, 3:09 AM
Franklin, I couldn't "use the Internet irresponsibly" if I wanted to; I'm way too low-tech. All I know is, early in the day, the text looked loud, harsh and generally unbecoming. It's fine now.
24.
November 30, 2004, 3:18 AM
By the way, the "Artblog.net" in the black bar under the drawings is a dingy purplish color which barely stands out from the black. Not good.
Also, if you want to impress the Baselites, drawings of people looking at paintings or "traditional" work on a wall won't do. Try drawings of a performance piece re-enacting the making of a video of the making of an installation consisting of giant photographs of other performance pieces. That should get their attention.
25.
November 30, 2004, 3:20 AM
i am getting huge black text, some if it is all jumbled together. just to let you know.
26.
November 30, 2004, 3:28 AM
Ajax - thanks for letting me know. What operating system and browser are you using?
27.
November 30, 2004, 7:19 AM
windows 98 and america on line. hope this helps.
28.
November 30, 2004, 6:45 PM
Dear Franklin,
I love your new changeable banners! What I love about them is that they make it look like such a pleasure to go to an art exhibition. Don't you wish it was more fun, more often? I don't mean nonchallenging; I just mean it would seem really fresh to eliminate the wanky, enraging crapola.
I also want to say again, thanks for your important and generous groundbreaking blogging.
Sincerely,
Catherine King
1.
Jack
November 29, 2004, 6:31 PM
Franklin, maybe I'm grumpier than usual on Monday morning, but if you had to redecorate, you could have done better than this funereal stuff. I suppose all-black is more Baseloid, but I object to even yet more catering to these people, as if their arrival necessitates that everyone in town bend over backward to get their notice. It does not.