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Time for Change

1 April 2004

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82 comments

Feeling inspiration from others who’ve been redesigning, I finally decided it’s time to take this site’s design in a slightly new direction. I’ve been working on this one in the background for a while, whenever I’ve had spare time. The colors were inspired by a photo I took of the Brockton Point Lighthouse in Stanley Park while visiting Vancouver last year for the AIGA National Design Conference.

The Brockton Point Lighthouse in Stanley Park, Vancouver, B.C.

The column structure is basically the same, though I’ve shifted some of the content and navigation around. The redesign is still partially in progress, so bear with me while I continue to update pages throughout the site. All feedback is welcome. Love it? Hate it? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments for this entry.

Update: The design referred to in this entry is now permanently archived on two static pages: Home page, Entry page.

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82 comments (Comments closed)

1. At 10:54pm on 31 mar 2004, Kristian wrote:  Edit Delete

*chortle*

Shouldn’t this entry be entitled ‘time to put on the flak jacket’?

2. At 10:54pm on 31 mar 2004, Ruth wrote:  Edit Delete

This is fantastic. I can’t stop laughing.

3. At 10:55pm on 31 mar 2004, vlado wrote:  Edit Delete

Sharing the love with Dave (http://www.mezzoblue.com/) I see… wouldn’t have anything to do with it being the 1st day of April…

4. At 10:58pm on 31 mar 2004, s t e f wrote:  Edit Delete

You both are sick.

I don’t know which site I’m reading anymore.

Talk about applied usability. Tsk tsk.

5. At 10:59pm on 31 mar 2004, Micah Goulart wrote:  Edit Delete

very clever. one of the best CSS jokes ever. :)

6. At 10:59pm on 31 mar 2004, Ischa Gast wrote:  Edit Delete

Muhaha

7. At 11:01pm on 31 mar 2004, Conspi wrote:  Edit Delete

exchanging the 2 sites is a really funny idea

congrats

8. At 11:07pm on 31 mar 2004, Chris M. Cooper wrote:  Edit Delete

Please tell all of us that this is some sort of practical joke.

9. At 11:09pm on 31 mar 2004, Chris M. Cooper wrote:  Edit Delete

duh, i should have known. /bonk.

10. At 11:22pm on 31 mar 2004, mjh wrote:  Edit Delete

Hehe, I was confused for a moment, jumping back and forth between here and Mezzoblue. I kept thinking, “I know I’m tired, but wtf?!”

11. At 11:23pm on 31 mar 2004, -jw- wrote:  Edit Delete

please..please tell me how to get the *stupid* grin of my face. I still have to talk to my clients today…
creativity rulez!!

12. At 11:24pm on 31 mar 2004, Andrew Dupont wrote:  Edit Delete

This is both brilliant and hilarious, and beats any April Fools’ stuff that’ll be posted on Slashdot today. You and Dave rock in both shared and separate ways.

13. At 11:25pm on 31 mar 2004, ephi wrote:  Edit Delete

well, at least, you got the comment page look like mezzoblue too, but it’s a shame only doing it on the blog part :)

14. At 11:26pm on 31 mar 2004, Jordi wrote:  Edit Delete

Niiiiiiiice …… I heard mezzoblue also redesigned recently …

15. At 11:54pm on 31 mar 2004, France wrote:  Edit Delete

That’ll teach me to quit working into the wee hours too many months in a row.

16. At 12:03am on 1 apr 2004, Jonathan Stanley wrote:  Edit Delete

Ack… Mr. Dave Bowman and Mr. Douglas Shea stealing each other’s design… what is the world coming too?!

17. At 12:07am on 1 apr 2004, GaBuBu wrote:  Edit Delete

I would never imagine this from stopdesign!

18. At 12:11am on 1 apr 2004, Subzero Blue wrote:  Edit Delete

looooool…
This is so funny…

Good one, really good one…

19. At 12:12am on 1 apr 2004, GaBuBu wrote:  Edit Delete

Except for the 1st of April! I guess in 24 hours everything will be back to normal! :D

20. At 12:13am on 1 apr 2004, Michael Ward wrote:  Edit Delete

I was more than a little confused for a short while…

I only realised that this wasn’t Mezzoblue when I noticed the site was flickering like a maniac in IE6…

A nice April Fools :D

21. At 12:30am on 1 apr 2004, Dominik Droescher wrote:  Edit Delete

Awesome. Simply awesome. Best one I came across so far.

22. At 12:34am on 1 apr 2004, chrisp wrote:  Edit Delete

Great joke - your CSS hadn’t downloaded at the time I had to unplug and dash for the morning commute, so i saw it completely unstyled - but when I saw Dave Shea’s site I knew what you guys had done. I haven’t laughed out loud on the train for ages!

23. At 12:51am on 1 apr 2004, arjenvr wrote:  Edit Delete

Should have seen this coming.

CSS: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly: Design theft is in an increasing problem

24. At 1:13am on 1 apr 2004, LintHuman wrote:  Edit Delete

You know, I think I prefer to see Dave’s content in Doug’s design and vice versa… All this time spent struggling to get it right and a swap solves all your problems!

Other swaps in the pipeline, surely? How about Zeldman / useit.com? Microsoft / Apple?

Keep it up, fellas.

25. At 1:30am on 1 apr 2004, jinesh wrote:  Edit Delete

3 words - OH MY GOD! :)

26. At 1:36am on 1 apr 2004, dnr wrote:  Edit Delete

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

27. At 1:52am on 1 apr 2004, Pete F. wrote:  Edit Delete

Superb.

28. At 1:55am on 1 apr 2004, Cam wrote:  Edit Delete

Classic!

29. At 2:18am on 1 apr 2004, Rimantas wrote:  Edit Delete

Absolutely best.

30. At 2:35am on 1 apr 2004, Jesper wrote:  Edit Delete

This correspondent is impressed. This correspendent also refers to himself in third person.

31. At 2:52am on 1 apr 2004, David Barrett wrote:  Edit Delete

Frickin’ genius. Good work.

32. At 3:02am on 1 apr 2004, ray wrote:  Edit Delete

friggin hilarious!

33. At 3:10am on 1 apr 2004, Ben de Groot wrote:  Edit Delete

Brilliant! Kudos to you and Dave!

34. At 3:33am on 1 apr 2004, Richard Earney wrote:  Edit Delete

heh heh!
took a millisecond, but I got there

35. At 3:46am on 1 apr 2004, Filosof wrote:  Edit Delete

super!

36. At 3:48am on 1 apr 2004, Mike P. wrote:  Edit Delete

Nice work Doug. It’s great that you were able to get some inspiration on your trip to Vancouver; it’s a beautiful city!

37. At 3:48am on 1 apr 2004, mini-d wrote:  Edit Delete

LOL. Really good one for today.

38. At 3:53am on 1 apr 2004, David B wrote:  Edit Delete

Amazing… truly amazing! Nice work boys!

39. At 4:11am on 1 apr 2004, Joe Kaczmarek wrote:  Edit Delete

I love it!

40. At 4:13am on 1 apr 2004, Kris Leslie wrote:  Edit Delete

Not to be getting off topic but when your site is viewed in high contrast mode in win2k your news feeds heading and time/date stamp overlap each other.

Back on subject - good design and I hope that you keep designing more frequently its good to check out quality sites as yours. Good day.

41. At 4:25am on 1 apr 2004, Philip Murphy wrote:  Edit Delete

OK that was SOME April Fool joke!!!

Well done!!! Had me in stitches when I finally copped on to it…

42. At 4:37am on 1 apr 2004, Shaun Inman wrote:  Edit Delete

Two spectacular redesigns in one day. Where do you guys find the time and inspiration to come up with these things? Nice photo too! </naïveté>

43. At 4:41am on 1 apr 2004, ben wrote:  Edit Delete

Stop!

Thief!

::grin::

44. At 4:43am on 1 apr 2004, Faruk Ates wrote:  Edit Delete

Best. Aprils fools joke. Evar.

I’m still laughing, I think this was done brilliantly well, good karma to both of you for this great joke!

However, I do wanna know… who came up with the idea? :)

45. At 4:45am on 1 apr 2004, karsh wrote:  Edit Delete

Poisson d’Avril. ;)

46. At 4:58am on 1 apr 2004, Malarkey wrote:  Edit Delete

Comrades,

That has got to be the funniest thing I have seen (since I looked in the mirror this morning!)

47. At 5:03am on 1 apr 2004, Patrick H. Lauke wrote:  Edit Delete

heh…cute idea…

48. At 5:05am on 1 apr 2004, Chris Vincent wrote:  Edit Delete

This is the best online April Fool’s joke I’ve seen since ResExcellence announced they would become a pay site. Thanks for the morning laugh.

49. At 5:29am on 1 apr 2004, Ryan Brill wrote:  Edit Delete

You guys are awesome. This is just too funny!

50. At 5:39am on 1 apr 2004, Stew wrote:  Edit Delete

Your an ass, I want to beat you with a stick! :P

Nah nice prank. Took me ages to work out what the hell was going on, thought it was my browser fucked up.

ARGH!

51. At 5:41am on 1 apr 2004, Robert Wellock wrote:  Edit Delete

Well, it bet my April Fools Joke…

52. At 6:01am on 1 apr 2004, August Trometer wrote:  Edit Delete

Very well done. It’s like website schizophrenia!

53. At 6:22am on 1 apr 2004, Alistair wrote:  Edit Delete

I can only hope this is a AFDJ, because if it isn’t.. then I am just shocked to hell.

54. At 6:34am on 1 apr 2004, Josh Williams wrote:  Edit Delete

Spotless mind, heh… this is pretty deviant, don’t you think Doug? : )

55. At 6:46am on 1 apr 2004, pea wrote:  Edit Delete

too funny. i knew there were going to be a lot of april fool’s day gags on the net today and yet i still did a double take when the site loaded.

just beautiful.

56. At 6:49am on 1 apr 2004, Phil Baines wrote:  Edit Delete

Argh! my head!

I can’t cope with all this bouncing back and forth. I feel like I have watched to much cricket. Must stop taking these drugs, becuase I am seeing things.

57. At 7:24am on 1 apr 2004, Mike wrote:  Edit Delete

Oh, s**t!!!!!!!!!

You know when I first double-clicked in from NetNewsWire, I didn’t get it. I thought I landed on stopdesign’s site by accident even though the link I was clicking on said mezzoblue.

Supa freakin’ cool guys, still provin’ to the community that y’all are the man!

58. At 7:24am on 1 apr 2004, Keith wrote:  Edit Delete

I think the best part is all the set up you guys did. You in your panel at SXSW and Dave on his site. Classic.

59. At 7:35am on 1 apr 2004, Zelnox wrote:  Edit Delete

^_^

60. At 7:58am on 1 apr 2004, forgetfoo wrote:  Edit Delete

damn, took me a second to “get it”… co-workers looking at me with that strange look on their faces as i busted out laughing…. hahahahaha

*claps and cheers* Bravo! Bravo!

61. At 8:23am on 1 apr 2004, Andrea Piernock wrote:  Edit Delete

Classic, just classic. I saw Dave’s site first, then started laughing, them came here and laughed some more.

62. At 8:24am on 1 apr 2004, beto wrote:  Edit Delete

LOL! Best April Fool’s in a while!

63. At 8:35am on 1 apr 2004, afrael wrote:  Edit Delete

both of you rule ;-)

64. At 8:47am on 1 apr 2004, Linda wrote:  Edit Delete

You’re both too funny! I really needed a laugh today! Thanks. :D

65. At 8:51am on 1 apr 2004, marv wrote:  Edit Delete

You two are crazy…but very original, I had a nice laugh.

66. At 8:53am on 1 apr 2004, Daedlus wrote:  Edit Delete

AHAHAHAHAHAHAH! That’s got to be the funniest April Fool’s joke ever! I love it.

Keep it up Dave! Err….. Douglas!…. Errrr…… ?!?! Whoever!

67. At 9:21am on 1 apr 2004, woozy wrote:  Edit Delete

very convincing, I actually had to view the comments before I got it. The reasoning and photograph on the front page made it very convincing!

68. At 9:26am on 1 apr 2004, Ed Sharrer wrote:  Edit Delete

I have to admit, I visited this site first and bought it for a minute. I kept looking at it, thinking “um… err… this looks a lot like… certainly he knows…”

Hats off to you gents. But you honestly do need to tell us how/when you hatched the plan and which one of you came up with the idea. Certainly there had to be adult beverages involved. :}

69. At 9:54am on 1 apr 2004, Tate wrote:  Edit Delete

Oh right, April fools. Good one =D

70. At 10:20am on 1 apr 2004, blake wrote:  Edit Delete

Beautifully orchestrated. *Hats off*

71. At 10:58am on 1 apr 2004, supercrisis wrote:  Edit Delete

Simply brilliant. This is the best thing on the Internet today.

72. At 11:41am on 1 apr 2004, Carole Guevin wrote:  Edit Delete

Oh Doug… what have I done… Sleep deprived and stressed and having to DO something before I leave for a conf… I checked your site… and had a FIT! I mean not only did I not get it… in the wee hours… but I shared with a colleague how completely… never mind! I fell for it.

Colleague DID write back to mention which date it is… More power to you(s)… back to the pile.

.c

73. At 12:40pm on 1 apr 2004, Brian wrote:  Edit Delete

HAHAHA. Oh god, that photo just frickn’ topped it.

74. At 1:24pm on 1 apr 2004, Panagiotis Galatis wrote:  Edit Delete

Ooops, and I fell for it! DOH!! LOL!! It was funny and inspired though :D

75. At 2:55pm on 1 apr 2004, Joey wrote:  Edit Delete

wow, that threw me for a loop for a bit….im still spinning!!! oh noo!

76. At 3:23pm on 1 apr 2004, Phil Baines wrote:  Edit Delete

Man, I wonder how dave feels about that photo? Are you implying that is how he got his inspiration? lol.

I wanna hear the story of the night you cames concieved this plan!!

p.s. the comment form is all messed up in firefox. :)

77. At 4:30pm on 1 apr 2004, Yannick wrote:  Edit Delete

LMAO. I was like wth is going on!!!

I’m still laughing…

78. At 7:13pm on 1 apr 2004, Renato Carvalho wrote:  Edit Delete

uhauhauahauhauhauahauhauhaua…..Very Good!!!

79. At 9:41pm on 1 apr 2004, Sage wrote:  Edit Delete

Best April Fool’s joke EVER. Seriously, you guys kick ass!

80. At 6:34am on 2 apr 2004, olli wrote:  Edit Delete

Nice joke with CSS.

81. At 1:18pm on 2 apr 2004, Cameron Barrett wrote:  Edit Delete

On April 1, 2001 I was inspired to redesign as well. Reload this link to see how I was inspired.

82. At 10:57am on 7 apr 2004, renish wrote:  Edit Delete

You know when I first double-clicked in from NetNewsWire, I didn’t get it. I thought I landed on stopdesign’s site by accident even though the link I was clicking on said mezzoblue.

Supa freakin’ cool guys, still provin’ to the community that y’all are the man!

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