Drew Wilson

Dec 27 2007, 6:50 pm

I just finished the final details on the brand new face for my website. And I love the way it turned out. The re-design took many of my nights and weekends over the last 2 months. An its not just a re-design, but a re-development as well.

The reason for this re-design is not because I was tired of my old design (I loved it), but to make it faster and easier to browse. I wanted something much simpler than my old website, and something that was more personal. Also something that did a much better job of displaying my work. Not only that, but the work on my last site was very outdated. Check out all the new and more recent stuff up now.

Some cool features I added are the "Share This" link on all my blog posts (use it to share my posts with your friends ). Also "The Tunes" section, music is the main inspiration for my work and I am stoked to now share some of my favorite tunes with you all.

Let me know your thoughts on the new design.

Peace,
Drew

Thoughts

9 Comments

Drew Wilson Says,

Thanks a ton for the encouragement Maya!

I have actually thought about doing tutorials a bunch of times.. and I still want to. It's just finding the time to do so.
I also have a ton of code tutorials (Javascript & PHP) that I want to do, but don't have the time.

Maybe once Firebolt & Outsource are released I will have the time. What kind of tutorial would you want to see?

Peace,
Drew

6 January 2008, 8:12 am

maya Says,

Love the new site - and the old one. Your work is inspiring. I love your style. Seeing as lots of designers visit the site, have you ever thought of doing any tutorials on techniques in photoshop etc - as you are obviously a master =)

6 January 2008, 5:19 am

Matt Says,

Drew, you're super talented bro! Its very inspiring to see another Christian designer (assuming cause of little hints around the site) who just kills it! Lovein it, keep up the work and if you have a moment check out this temp site I put up for our company: www.globacore.com Keep the momentum going, you're def using your gifts! L8s, Matt

2 January 2008, 9:32 am

Ben Says,

Sometimes I hate people like you. People like you who force me into a state of depression - because I feel it's time (once again) to redesign my site. Good work. Agree with italics critique (gets even crazier with cleartype turned off). I like Valio.

31 December 2007, 6:00 pm

Drew Wilson Says,

Thanks for the comment Noel!

You make a good point about the italics. I have never used italics for as a body font before for that very reason, it can be hard to read. But I really like the way it looks on my site, so it is here to stay.

The text-shadow property when used with Safari renders text the same way photoshop does, and I wanted the super "skinny" look on my text. I love it, so it is also here to stay.

Thanks so much!

Peace,
Drew

31 December 2007, 3:39 pm

Noel Hurtley Says,

Hey Drew, I love the new site. It's easier to navigate, faster and looks incredible. But I have two (major) issues with the typography. First is the italicized copy, which looks cool but is difficult to read. Second would be the use of the text-shadow CSS property which makes Safari fall back to standard anti-aliasing (instead of sub-pixel anti-aliasing). This makes typography jagged on most LCD monitors. Outside of those complaints (which I hope you take seriously), I love your site and I think your work is just excellent.

31 December 2007, 3:27 pm

Drew Wilson Says,

Thanks for the comment Brady!

Not sure what you mean by "zero semantic structure"? I purposely did not include fall-backs for handicapped readers, and didn't include fall-backs for readers with CSS turned off either.

Your comment combined with Cameron's inspired a new blog post on this subject. Check it out!

Thanks Brady!

28 December 2007, 3:53 pm

Brady J. Frey Says,

It's beautiful, fantastic job! Chock full of visual goodies and the like, my only critique would be it's code is heavy divitis, and just about zero semantic structure. Can't it be just as pretty with structured code? You'd get the improved SEO, joy for your handicap visitors, and save weight on avoiding the excessive classes/ids.

28 December 2007, 12:19 pm

Cameron Moll Says,

Gorgeous, Drew! Love it. Only suggestion would be to use image replacement or similar to replace the header/logo with HTML text (i.e. "Drew Wilson, Art Direction" would show when styles are disabled). Nice work.

28 December 2007, 8:36 am