Website Design
Or, Made in Canada

02/12/08:
ACHOO! I can feel the dust flying off this whole website. The person who made the banner image above has since moved on to bigger and better things, although the last I heard of her was through a blog entry she wrote many moons ago. At the time, she was on her way to taking some adult education college courses while raising her first kid. I hope she's made out OK. In the meantime, I'm continuing to use her banner image to anchor the ultra-simplistic layout of this site until I figure out something snazzy. Hmm, decisions decisions!

11/08/05:
Back to one of the earlier designs. I have no idea who even made those great frog graphics anymore, let alone who originally made this layout that I modified. Most of the design sites I used don't exist anymore. =(

12/28/04:
See: on the cusp (season premiere)

9/11/04:
Well, I'm not sure why I didn't do this before, but I finally decided to research Google for information on Happy Bunny, that bunny you see on the main entry page. I finally figured out who created it, and accordingly, I've posted credit on the entry page.

8/23/04:
I was contemplating putting in a completely new diary layout --- for the Diaryland portion of AFL, anyway. I was even giving serious consideration to using a template. I have no qualms with templates; I've used them in the past. I just don't like how inflexible they can be sometimes; and how, if I want a custom template, I have to shell out time and money to get exactly what I want. At the same time, I'm not exactly the HTML design guru of the ages. My knowledge of HTML these days is very mediocre. I used to be into it when I was a kid. But at some point, I just stopped caring.

In the meantime, I'm all for simple layouts. When I was looking for templates, I actually found a few that I liked, but most of the ones I came across were too --- well, busy. Why is it that bloggers love making their blogs so flashy but the text is barely ever readable? For me, the text is the most important element --- the writing, the story that I have to tell. I gave up looking for templates when I only found a handful that weren't so busy.

But I still wanted a change. I wanted a template that was dreamy in a smart way, like Lost in Translation, or dreamy in a sophisticatedly romantic way, like Sarah McLachlan's "I Love You". But I couldn't come up with anything of my own design, so I just fiddled around with my old graphics program and came up with the new banner header that you now see on the Diaryland part of AFL. I thought it was appropriate because it maintained the "naughtiness" of the middle finger banner while being a little more appealing; cute but not nauseatingly cute. I don't actually know who created that bunny and slogan, but I see it a lot at Hot Topic, where I actually bought a postcard with them on it. (I didn't send it to anyone, though. For a while, it was pinned to a wall in my room.) As for the new AFL tagline, I wanted it to match the sarcastic humor of the bunny, as well as continuing my long tradition of self-deprecation.

Boys do lie, probably more often than girls. But at least girls are nice about it. Boys even lie about lying --- "you misunderstood me" is their favorite mantra. But other than that, I wanted to use the bunny graphic because I think of myself as a boy; not necessarily a lying boy, but a boy in the sense that I still have a lot to learn about life. The colors are pretty infantile; they make me think of baby blankets. I have a baby face that I've never been able to shed. People always automatically assume that I'm not a day over 21. In a way, maybe they're right. I've got miles to go before I sleep.

8/19/04:
No big changes to report, except for a new front page and the middle finger, the bird. Yes, I'm flipping the bird. It's to symbolize my newfound attitude towards life --- well, towards writing, at least. I write what I want, when I want, and how I want. If you don't like it, then screw you. Also, if you're a hot guy, then I definitely wanna screw you. =)

1/31/04:
This simple new layout reflects the same goal as the previous layout, in which the text remains the primary focus. The top image is a detail of "Sunday", an artwork piece by Steve Walker. It is one of my favorite pieces, and I wanted to use it as a header image to represent my queer sexuality, progressive values, and as a bold ending to my diary. Previous layouts have learned more towards the "cutesy", with cartoon frogs and various animated characters/drawings.

Making the header image grayscale and then using a pink-ish color for the text is a direct homage to the ads for Showtime's new series The L World, the ads of which are a direct homage to HBO's Sex and the City.

I've decided not to spread the layout to other parts of the site (in other words, any page that isn't at the diaryland.com address) out of pure laziness. I know that there are programs now where a single update to one page can produce an update for the entire site. But my knowledge of HTML, as well as my software, is stuck in the mid-nineties. I still update pages the old-fashioned way, by sifting through the code myself and going through each individual page. It's tedious, time-consuming and probably time-wasting too, but it's the manner in which I've become accustomed.

This layout features code that was originally authored by Gingerbug.

Late 2003:
AFL has gone through, like, a zillion layouts, making me just one of many layout whores on Diaryland. (So I guess Andy is our pimp? I wouldn't mind that distinction at all.) I try to keep each layout around long enough before the next transition, but I always end up changing the layout after some passage of time. I do this for variety, for my own and for the people who have actually found regular interest in my writing.

In this latest update to the layout, portions of code were used from designs authored by Candy as well as Bug Design by Gingerbug. (I have previously used templates from both of these authors, respectively, for AFL.) The frog graphic you see at the top of the site was created by Luciyen. The picture is so appropriate because, when I started this diary, I never expected that it would last so long. Yet this diary has ended up becoming a lengthy (and quite detailed) chronicle of my growth from naive high school graduate to reluctant young adult, and the imagery of tadpole to frog is an eloquent and artistic representation of that slow and steady advancement.

I decided on this final combination of elements from Candy and Gingerbug's respective layouts because of the clean look it produced. I'm very happy and eternally grateful to Candy for creating my site's last layout, but I wanted to revert to something simpler. I like the white, even though it is said that most people do not like going on their computers to read black text on white background because it can be blinding. (After observing that major, text-heavy sites like Yahoo! News and CNN have white backgrounds, I figured...hey, why not?) The whiteness gives off a cleaner look. And while I'm not exactly aiming for Spartan here, I've always believed that less is more. (I also have to confess that I was inspired by the Apple iBooks my roommates have. Those little laptops are so cute, and I love their smooth white finish. Plus my lifelong dream has been to own a Mac again {I haven't owned one since my parents bought an Apple II C, which was my very first computer}.)

Basically, the point I'm trying to make is that the words should be the Star of the Show. I've seen a lot of elaborate layouts, and while they are initially stunning visually, sometimes their complexity can make reading the actual words very difficult. Sometimes I've had to literally search for the entries by glazing over large, elaborate pictures or navigating through a maze of scrollbars before finally getting to the actual writing. An attractive layout is nice, yes. But as in courtship, appearance is only the wrapping on the package.

Also, for the first time, I am no longer using Arial or Times New Roman. Instead, I've discovered this great font called Trebuchet MS, which my friend Valerie often uses in her IMs. After asking around, I found that this font existed on the computers of many of my friends, so I took this to mean that it has to be pretty common. If you do not have Trebuchet MS, I truly hope that you somehow find a way to obtain it. The combination of readability, elegance, and attraction is very impressive.