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C2F Winter 2008 Web Site Theme

Winter 2008 Catalog Cover
Jeff's cover design

I'm quite late on the delivery of the latest C2F web site iteration. This new design relates to "winter" in name only. My designs mirror the seasonal promotional catalogs, winter being one of those annual seasons. Rather than a snowy or otherwise seasonal theme, the marketing and art departments chose to promote our sustainable products this winter.

I totally appreciate the simplicity of Jeff's cover design. Obviously it is to be seen both as trees and as a hand. The message of the image is that we too are a part of the environment and are responsible for treating it well.

While fiddling with the design elements, I got lucky to fall on two other potential uses of the box and scribble elements. By changing the green vegetation white, and the brown trunk blue, it can represent fluffy white clouds in a blue sky. Then there is the gray clouds pouring down rain. I would say I'm proud of myself for this cool little discovery, but it was only half intentional, the other half accidental.

C2F Winter 2008 theme
web site theme adaption

What continues to make these quarterly theme changes fun for me is to see how my original XHTML template accommodates a wide variety of possible appearances. I admit to modifying it slightly over the years, but the modifications are very minor. The choice to separate structure from appearance way back when has been a rewarding experience. The only down side to this approach is that it speeds up the process too much! I would prefer to spend more time on this, my favorite aspect. Using common includes and efficient code makes it too quick a job each time! I spent a bit more time on this theme because I had to create quite a number of graphics for the various widths of the windows. Normally I create components for the window elements that are "stretchy". Since the scribbles had to span the entire width of the windows without breaking up, they couldn't be reasonably composed of tiling parts. I had to make separate graphics for each width and color of window.

Click here to see the theme in action

Ah cool. Apparently I didn't make any changes to the XHTML source since the last theme (I was thinking I had). The markup is exactly the same, and the theme simply works. Cool, cool. Fun stuff.

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