Layout archive

These are old designs this website has been through, listed in chronological order (aside from a blurb about the current layout, which is listed first). As a bonus, there are also a few layouts I've salvaged from websites I had in the late 2000s/early 2010s.

Current layout

Effective: December 14, 2023 to present

Welcome to the Kalechips juice cleanse era.

I went full text-based minimalist on this one. It's easy to read and it loads fast, which was the goal. The color palette is based on the one I'm using for my terminal, although it may as well just be a rehash of the same one I've been using for the last year and a half. I'm predictable that way.

Old Kalechips layouts

Version 0

Effective: March 13, 2022 to April 11, 2022

This layout lasted for a whopping 28 days, so I don't think it's appropriate to version it with a nonzero number. It was an upcycled version of a layout I had made back in the stone age.

This layout got cycled out quickly for two major reasons: First, there were so many pages that the sidebar was becoming unwieldy. Second, I had no idea how to do responsive design — an attempt was made, but it was clunky and suboptimal in every way possible. In the time since then, I've figured out the whole responsive design thing, so you can download an improved version at the layout thrift store.

You can still see a remnant of the leaf background on one of the website buttons! I got the pattern from an online wallpaper store, which stored digital versions of all its designs. Great for demoing the wallpaper, but also great for idiots like me to steal for unrelated purposes.

Version 1

Effective: April 11, 2022 to July 24, 2022

For version 1, I chucked all the site content into one directory page so I could significantly condense the navigation. All the styling components were more or less retained from version 0, just with a new 1-column layout that was way less clunky on mobile and less of a pain in the ass to maintain.

Version 2

Effective: July 24, 2022 to June 10, 2023

Version 2 was a really drastic change in visual branding from version 1. I was starting to lean pretty hard into written content at this point, and the old layout wasn't the nicest thing to read on (awkward width, busy backgrounds). So I scrapped that and went for something that was easier on the eyes and had less negative space. I ended up settling on a full-height fixed sidebar, with the content taking up the rest of the screen.

All the sidebar background images were public domain biological illustrations. This was also the beginning of the Kalechips beige epoch, which has continued to this day.

Version 3

Effective: June 10, 2023 to December 14, 2023

I couldn't think of a better replacement for the full-width-fixed-sidebar configuration from version 2, so I ended up just building a new design around it. The background images are from DigitalCurio on Etsy. I finally replaced the placeholder logo with a wonderfully faux-corporate thing I made using Logo.com, kale and all!

I didn't really have much in mind for a theme or visual identity other than "make something cooler than what I had last time." Curi thought the page looked like it belonged to an artisanal deli, so that works.

Ancient layouts

2009

This layout was from my first website, The Sky Pillar, which was a Pokémon fansite but also with a bunch of other projects. It was one of the first real serious CSS boy designs I made. I was very proud.

2010

This is another Sky Pillar layout. I'd figured a lot of projects out by this point, so this one actually looks polished and readable. And I figured out how to use Photoshop!

2011

This was from my next major website project, Haphazard, which was a graphics site. Here, I have learned about importing fonts and fun new CSS3 tricks like text shadows! This is very peak 2011 web design.