Adam Dorsey of Render Creative designed the new Solspace site. He did a killer job, like a year ago. Chris Ruzin implemented that great design, like 6 months ago. Then we got busy. Or rather, we remained busy and got even more busy, all through that time. Now it’s August of 2010 and people went on vacation or something. So we found a window of time to finalize our QA and be done.
Did I mention that before Adam redesign the site, I redesigned it? No one on the team liked my design work. They told me to stay in the kitchen and keep cooking eggs.
And did I mention that before I redesigned the site, another member of the team redesigned it? Yeah. That was like 2 years ago or something. That design was super extra double fun, but it was too far out there. Too far out there. So it had to die quietly.
So we had a new design. Christy Collins worked really really hard on it along with the rest of the team for months, as she managed all of the projects that go through the Solspace pipeline. Kelsey Martens of course was there to make fun of it. But in so doing, made it better.
The rest of the Solspace team, as you can see from the /about page, laid in their two cents and help as well.
To all I am grateful. And as much fun as it was to hear people hate my years-old design. I bid it goodbye and happy hunting.
mk
P.S. Now for a little waybackmachine lovin’.
Solspace 2001. I paid the rent this way.
Solspace 2003. I actually took these photos myself in the Utah desert. I still like this design!
Solspace 2004. When life gives you lemons, take pictures of them and make a website around it.
Solspace 2005. Then make it look worse.
Solspace 2006. Then change the font size and ignore it for another year.
Solspace 2006a. We were actually offline for like a week before anyone said anything. I just forgot to turn EE back on.
Solspace 2007. This is what you get when you design your own site, and do it while listening to Kid A.
Solspace 2008. And then let it sit for a year while your business explodes with growth.
Solspace 2009. And let it sit for another year while business explodes some more and you have a cute baby.
Solspace 2010. And just for good measure, let it sit until August. People go on vacation. Then you can actually launch what it took 2 years to friggin’ build.
20 Comments
marcus neto
Aug 11, 2010 4:08 pm
#1
nice job. this one definitely fits better.
Joelle
Aug 11, 2010 4:59 pm
#2
Yeah, I can’t figure out who did what either, but I think this looks smashing. Great job, Mitchell and team.
lockwesmonster
Aug 11, 2010 5:10 pm
#3
Congrats on the new site! I’m really digging this.
Oxygen Smith
Aug 11, 2010 5:40 pm
#4
OK, I still can’t keep track of who did what from the explanation, but who cares. Congratulations, folks! Lovely work.
Leslie Camacho
Aug 11, 2010 5:55 pm
#5
Woot! Congrats Mitchell, Chris, Adam, Greg, Jim, & Kelsey! Beautifully done. Simple, striking, and to the point in an honest fashion. The design captures the essence of Solspace perfectly.
Macrike
Aug 11, 2010 6:05 pm
#6
Congratulations on the redesign! I love it.
“We were actually offline for like a week before anyone said anything. I just forgot to turn EE back on.”
This has happened to me on a couple of occasions, but for a day instead of a week. I think there should be a massive alert on the CP to remind the Admin that the site is in fact, offline. Maybe someone can write a plugin or something. lol
Kyle Cotter
Aug 11, 2010 6:32 pm
#7
Would you look at that, you make awesome software, and now have an awesome site to house it in. Nice work guys!
(Honestly I’m going to miss the old site, I finally figured out how to navigate it.)
Congrats again guys!
Russ Lipton
Aug 11, 2010 7:29 pm
#8
The first website is always the best. Wedding websites are always in style. Not to mention: those buttons were quite the thing ... shadows, light, raised lettering, 3-D ... wowser. Products too. What were those?
Solspace 2007 reminds me of some, um, ‘experiences’ I had during the 1960s. Thankfully, they didn’t land me in a mental hospital as yours apparently did ...
As for baby, you’re not kidding about cute. You hit the cute jackpot.
Bottom line?
Congratulations on a lovely new spanking clean, professional website. More Rockport than Birkenstock, and still suitable for wedding work ...
John Fuller
Aug 11, 2010 11:50 pm
#9
Are you guys no longer a web development contraption?
The design is great. My only comment is that the “friends, make some” image might be considered safe for work porn. The tag image could be there also.
Congrats on the design. I’m sure I have complained about the old design a time or two also.
Lee Aston
Aug 12, 2010 1:27 am
#10
Love the site.
Limbo
Aug 12, 2010 1:29 am
#11
Lovely work. Massive improvement.
Cheers, Liam
p.s. your register link at the foot of the blog pages has the wrong path.
e-man
Aug 12, 2010 2:16 am
#12
Nice work guys, congrats.
1 minor niggle: no quick way to scan which add-ons are EE2 ready!
Frank Johnson
Aug 12, 2010 2:48 am
#13
My favorite is 2006a because it’s the kind of thing I would do - makes me think that there’s still hope for me. <grin> Seriously, congrats on the new site - it’s great!
Christy Collins
Solspace
Aug 12, 2010 5:10 am
#14
Thanks Limbo, the links have been fixed.
Kelsey Martens
Solspace
Aug 12, 2010 5:34 am
#15
Thanks everyone
We still plan to make several further improvements to the site in the weeks to come
pbrienesse
Aug 13, 2010 8:47 am
#16
Enjoyed the retrospective and thank you, thank you, thank you for a much more useable site. Nice design and great useability. Maybe one day i will take your queue and actually get around to paying attention to my own site
CreateSean
Aug 16, 2010 7:50 pm
#17
Really liking the new look
dashard
Aug 18, 2010 7:50 pm
#18
*phewwwwwwwwww*
Do I get a prize for having held my breath for three years? Finally get to exhale.
Well done! Looks and behaves great. Can find everything. That makes this site already 100% better!
Geoff Towle
Aug 25, 2010 6:28 am
#19
I was wondering why the old site was the way it was. Happy to see the new!
LANCENettleton
Aug 27, 2010 1:12 am
#20
Good to see the site in it’s new look. Great job for the developer.