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A few quick notes about the design

Wednesday March 23, 2005

Okay, I have had enough emails, comments and questions to warrant a post explaining a few things about this design. I have checked with my shrink and he says that I am indeed an ego maniac but that's m'kay, it just makes me one of many. The builders are in, widening the doors in the house to accommodate my enormous head and my missus and her girly mates are stood outside the front door screaming my name, collapsing, swooning, so on and so forth...annnnyway...

First and foremost, it's not finished yet, I have a a number of things to do and if you have any suggestions here is the place to leave them.

The blue lines

A few people wondered if the blue lines were a mistake, that maybe I hadn't noticed them, or that they didn't like them, or whatever. Anyhoo they are meant to be there but they were a bit of a happy accident, I was fiddling with the design and thought the selector lines looked quite nice, plus they made the main content area stand out from the side bar, so I mocked them up for the design. So there you have it -- and yes they are staying.

A brief history of the flowers

The idea for a website full of flowers has been in my head for about three years. It all started when I did some mock ups for one of my very first clients as a freelancer. I did a vine full of fruits and leaves, it was rejected, and though I can't find the damn file to show you, it was no surprise, it was shit! The next attempt came when rebuilding the Mantra Tattoo website in 2003, I asked the guys to draw me up some flowers to put on the website, they are busy busy boys at Mantra and didn't really have the time it would have taken to give me what I wanted, still, there is a hint of things to come but it still wasn't quite there yet.

Last year Jon Hicks introduced me to a crazy Eastern European dude, called Denis Radenkovic, who for some reason had moved to the glamorous Cotswold town of Whitney. We did lunch, I took this piss, as I do, and thought no more of it until I logged on to his site and spotted his promotional wallpaper Sunflowers. In my bestest camp middle England accent I told him that I simply had to have some of those flowers, darling. And that is what you see today.

I have to be honest, I feel like a bit of a prat making this post but I am still a bit overwhelmed by the response and am struggling to keep up with the mail etc... so this is easiest. Normal service will resume soon!

  1. Rob

    1254 days ago

    Thanks for clearing that up, great stuff :)

  2. Martin W

    1254 days ago

    I just thought the country air was getting to you and you were going all Tom and Barbara in the Good Life!! :O)

  3. Phil Baines

    1254 days ago

    Absolutely beautiful design John. I am quite jelous!

    Must redesign, must redesign, must redesign…

  4. Anton

    1254 days ago

    Always the bridesmaid, but never the bride?
    Shrug off the naysayers and just do your thing, man.
    It’s what your good at.

  5. Kev

    1254 days ago

    Always interesting to hear the backstory. Personally, I think the guides complete the design in a very unique way.

    Anyway, I’ve now upgraded your Project: New snippet quotes from ‘expert’ to ‘demigod’ ;o)

  6. Denis Radenkovic

    1254 days ago

    ...now that you’ve learned to spell my surname without copy and paste from my site, you should know that is Witney I moved to ; )

  7. Jay McKinnon

    1254 days ago

    I’m doing a redesign and have been surfing around for inspiration. I came across your site via stylegala.com.

    Beautiful. Like, wow, man.

    I feel like Big Blue and MaBell had little babies that ran rampant across the web redesigning everything in their image.

    But this… this is fresh.

  8. Anton

    1254 days ago

    I want a version with weeds and snakes, dark trees and headless horsemen. ;)

  9. Jeff Croft

    1254 days ago

    John-

    I’m behind because I’ve been sick the past few days, but this design is stunning. I love it. Way to go!

  10. Laura Zucchetti

    1253 days ago

    Oh interesting stuff. I wondered who had designed those Beautiful flowers. :)

  11. mohodin rageh

    1253 days ago

    Your design is the most inspirational. Simply the best. I am speechless. Man! What a design. I am just amazed to the last degree.

  12. Alex Giron

    1253 days ago

    Simple and detail rich design… love it…

    Cheers!

  13. Dawn (aka Pink Lady)

    1252 days ago

    I love the design. Not sure how I stumbled in here, but I really like the flowers and the way they weave onto the page. It’s late, but I’ve bookmarked this site and I will be back to read more.

  14. Jens Meiert

    1250 days ago

    No remarks, I enjoy the design, too! :)

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