I couldn’t help but grab the arms of my office chair to keep from falling over this afternoon as I checked out Bryan Veloso’s latest redesign of avalonstar. The layered textures, unorthodox structure and analogous color scheme really set it apart from anything else out there.

avalonstar xi
In the words of Levar Burton, “Don’t take my word for it!”

For the last few years, it seems the web-design community has been in a bit of a rut. I’ve seen a lot of unique design flicker through the CSS galleries, but we (myself included) have been relying too much on cozy conventions. We know the principles of beautiful design, but we’re too stuck on standard site structures, browser limitations, and popular opinions to really put those principles to test. It seems the times they are a changing though as Bryan isn’t the only high-profile blogger pushing the envelope:

  • In January, Dan Cedarholm realigned with a gridlastic (grid-based, but scalable) version of his current site design.
  • Then, in February Jeff Croft unveiled a redesign consisting of brown, pink, and yellow. While that isn’t a color combination I recommended in my book, he pulled it off and it looks great.
  • Finally, Nathan Smith created a whole new CSS Framework in response to a personal “design itch”, and has announced that he’s using that new framework in his latest redesign.

That’s by no means a cumulative list; I’m just saying that exciting, industry-changing experimentation is coming back into style. I’ve personally had the redesign bug crawling around on my back for over a year now, but the desire to do something “different” has been keeping my mind churning and my hand from moving. Recent redesigns like Bryan’s are definitely fuel for the fire, and I’d love to see this glimmer of change flame up into a revitalization of the personal website. I think it’s time for us all to take a a step back and realize that, “We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of the dreams!”