Friday, January 20, 2006

The Blog That Never Was

Well before I started this blog I had a false start at getting one going in late 2002/early 2003. I was going to call it "Chiffon Tents" as a reference to the expression 'Camp as a row of pink chiffon tents'. I downloaded MovableType, tried to figure it out and the intricacies of server side blog posting etc. Then I discovered Blogger and ready made templates, and took the path of least resistance.

Before I did that though I had lots of fun making titles and decorations for Chiffon Tents, the blog that never was to be.

One thing rediscovering and revisiting these titles, and the early layout experiments I did, has done is to convince me that I need to work on a nicer template than the one I'm using. I mean, really.


The orange deco version. I think this one was my favourite.


The scary clown version. I consider this a bit of an oddity, and really just an attempt to include the cool scary clown.


Experiments in transparent pastels. The overall look was to be brown and blue, very 2002.


Something a bit 'summery' and retro.


I learned how to blur, the world was my oyster. Bit of a Buffy moment.

7 comments:

Michael Guy said...

All quite fetching, Andrew! I know..I know; I'm so sick of my BLOGGER template but at the time it seemed to fit with "temporary trouble SPOTS" because of the spots. Sorta. Now I feel a need to go all stark, white, TOM FORD moderne on y'all. But my html coding is somewhat limited: it's the same old scenario: "Who do I have to fuck to get a (fill in need) around here?!"

The Other Andrew said...

Michael G, we're two sides of the same template, let's face it. :-)
Perhaps for me it states that I'm a bit dotty? Who can say?

I'm a big fan of white and clean on websites myself, oh and Tom Ford. BIG fan of him.

BTW, one should sometimes ask "Who do you have to fuck to get a fuck around here?!" because sometimes the obvious needs to be asked.

Anonymous said...

WOW what skillz! You should so rock out a new template, it isn't THAT hard. I gave up on MT early on too, but I came back to it, and now I love it. Can't wait to see what you do!

Oh, and PS, in regards to hanging out with bloggers, I am totally going to make it Australia one day, and we are so going for a drink (I know you don't drink, but you can make an exception, or just watch me drink). Can't wait for that day!

yani said...

I have to say that I'm loving the deco "Mercury" art and the purple/green spots thing...

Once the weather returns to something approaching reasonable in my little house I'll have a looky-loo at some of the other Blogger templates :D

You have my email right? Drop me a line and we'll talk ;)

yani said...

Obviously looking at the other templates to help you... not for me...

It's too hot... my brain is leaking out of my ears...

The Other Andrew said...

Duane & yaniboy thanks for the compliments.

I'm about to change over to broadband at home (I'm still on dial-up at home because I'm a LATE ADOPTER you see) and once I've done that I'm going to start investigating this thing a bit deeper. After that is a domain of my very own, and a more serious stab at something prettier. I have the design eye, I just lack the mad html skillz.

I figure I should probably take a more serius stab at this blogging thing, I think I've established that I'm not going to get bored with it anytime soon (as I thought I might initially).

BTW, all that artwork was made laboriously by using Paint and Microsoft Image Composer. Can you imagine, the hours spent pushing pixels?!

The Other Andrew said...

Duane, watching other people drink is no problemo for me, if you ever get to Oz avsolutely we will go out and paint the town pink! That would be a hoot.

yaniboy, I meant to add thanks for the offer of help. I'll definately be in touch!