Malarkey is Andy Clarke, a creative designer with a passion for accessibility and web standards. This is his personal website.

The all new And All That Malarkey

Well, I’ve been hinting at it for a little while now and now here it is, an all new And All That Malarkey. Not simply a lick of paint, but a complete new design, ground-up re-code and a CSS shake-up.

In this design I want to try to capture more of my new personality and confidence, out go the black and browns of my old, depressive self and in comes colour to reflect my new found confidence.

I’ve continued with the Mod theme, brought it up to date whilst trying to retain design motifs from traditional Mod folklore and design. Targets, arrows and badges abound and on each template I have attempted to add new twists to the underlying themes. The new layout pays homage to magazine pages, something I’m planning to write about at some point in the future.

Content

There have been changes to the content structure too, with new, separate sections for design, code and for CSS. I’ve added refined archives and a search which I hope will make older columns easier to find. In addition, there is a new editorials section for a monthly editorial on something I feel deserves to stay center stage for a month.

Of course, replies will be open on most, if not all columns (and have all been retained from the previous site) as it’s your feedback which makes the site fun to make. I’ve tried hard to reformat all the old columns and check for dead links or inaccurate information. If you find any gotchas, please let me know.

Explaining how it was done

I thought it might be fun to write up a little about,

in three new columns all at the same time, rather than spread them across a few days.

One amazing year

It’s hard to believe that this site has been live for a whole year and what an amazing year it’s been for me.

Work

It’s been a great year for work. I have been lucky to work on projects for Disney Store UK, WWF (three times), Dig Business and a host of other interesting projects and great people. I’ve also had the pleasure to work with Brothercake and the utterly lovely talented Holly Lloyd.

Play

Personally it’s been a great year too. I’ve come to terms with my depression and even got my first dog. I had an amazing experience at SXSW and met some great people, I’ve been published in A List Apart, included in the CSS Zen Garden, and mentioned in The Zen of CSS Design, Professional CSS and Web Designer 2.0. I’ve been a regular judge on the Web Standards Awards and a (not-so-regular) news contributor to the stunning StyleGala.

The rest

I’d like to say a few thank-you’s too,

To the BritPack, and in particular to Andy Budd for originally inspiring me and to Jon Hicks for being a real buddy during SXSW when I needed him.

And to you guys for reading and for all your support. I hope next year will be just as good.

(Ed says: Right! Enough with the Oscar’s speech, you’ve got work to do Malarkey!

Replies

  1. #1 On May 11, 2005 10:30 AM John said:

    What a stunner… retains the whole feel of the darker version yet looks so different, bright and informative. Well done.

  2. #2 On May 11, 2005 10:52 AM Andy Peatling said:

    I like it, it’s refreshing, and you’ve clearly thought about the different sections for content.

    Nice work!

  3. #3 On May 11, 2005 11:04 AM Matt Wilcox said:

    Very nice indeed! Well done.

    I hope this posts this time, but ether way I’ve noticed the RSS feed is working again. :-)

  4. #4 On May 11, 2005 11:33 AM mohodin rageh said:

    Your new design is a breath of fresh air but I miss one thing. The scooter with its rider taking a center stage. For me that was the defining feature of your site.

    By the way, may I ask why did you pick up stuffandnonesense as your domain name? I must admit I has got some funny ring to it. I laugh at it and I always wonder what you have chosen it. here must be reason. If you don’t want say it, I can understand and that is alright.

    Thanks for the great content you have at stuffandnonesnse :-)

    Woow… I have just noticed the live preview. very great.

  5. #5 On May 11, 2005 12:02 PM Jason Santa Maria said:

    Beautiful job Andy :D

  6. #6 On May 11, 2005 12:25 PM Malarkey said:

    @ Mohodin: Here is why…
    Underpants over my trousers

  7. #7 On May 11, 2005 02:25 PM laia said:

    Long time reader first time poster here.
    The redesign is awesome, all these arrows, targets and all the mod stuff looks really great. But… there is a slight problem at least in my computer. When pages start loading they are displayed properly (well I think, see https://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=13405285&size=o) but after it has fully loaded it ’jumps’ and appears like this: https://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=13405286&size=o.

    I tried enabling cookies on your site, clearing cookies, clearing cache and restarting Firefox but none of these worked. It’s Firefox on WinXP. I even launched IE for the first time in months but this didn’t work either ;) IE version looks really good too.

    This happens in the article pages, the recommended things pages, the archives, the recent projects and the contact page. The main page, the main archive page and the search results seem to be ok.

    Maybe it’s just my computer… but I’d love to see your site properly again, it looks too good to miss!

  8. #8 On May 11, 2005 02:39 PM goodwitch said:

    Lawd have mercy! This site is absolutely authentically Andy!

    Now the question is, do we nominate him for best director, best actor, best css trifle recipe, best earrings or most malarkey???

  9. #9 On May 11, 2005 03:38 PM Brian said:

    I really love the new homepage design/layout. It’s busy without being busy if that makes any sense.

    laia, I’m on WinXP/Firefox and having no problems.

  10. #10 On May 11, 2005 04:17 PM Alex Giron said:

    Great Job.. love the new design. You da man! On the beauty once more! :D

  11. #11 On May 11, 2005 05:00 PM morkof said:

    Today, only a weblog that doesn’t look like a weblog is a good weblog.

  12. #12 On May 11, 2005 05:12 PM Marco said:

    Wow.

    With all the current colourful sites, it’s a breath of fresh air to see such creativity in a black and white design.

    Very, very nice work!

  13. #13 On May 11, 2005 05:22 PM Mohodin Rageh said:

    @Malerkey Well, now I know the reason behind the domain name. And those new the site will see too:-)

    I first viewed your site in IE and I thought the black and white design was intentional…until I read footer. I then tried it with Firefox and here is the site with all its colourful glory. This is a great way to make people dump their IE in favour of the better alternatives. :-)

  14. #14 On May 11, 2005 05:41 PM Andrea said:

    I’m digging it Andy! Couldn’t help but smile when I came, so there’s one of your goals acheived right there. :) Fun colors, interesting layout, quirky… definitley reminds me of you.

  15. #15 On May 11, 2005 06:32 PM Neil Ford said:

    Wow.

    Looks great Andy. Built great too… elastic layout, focus revealed skip links….

    loving it man.

  16. #16 On May 11, 2005 07:49 PM KLS said:

    the new site is so moded. nice one. :)

  17. #17 On May 11, 2005 11:53 PM Maleika E. Attawel said:

    Hi Andy,

    here’s a stranger who does not know you but has admired and frequently visited your site for the longest time. :)

    First off, the design. I do not know how others feel about it, but, I - like you - have been diagnosed with bi-polarity a long time ago … but I personally have still not managed to setup my own portfolio for (perhaps) reasons that I have found within your argumentation on the choice of colors. It’s been more than a pain in the arse to choose the "right" color for my own design. It’s the dichotomy of your true core and your disease … in other words, I automatically tend to choose very
    mute colors as I feel they are the most fitting in terms of personal reflection. But, I do not feel comfortable with these for long. This is due to the disease getting in your way each and every time and - simultaneously - one admires and longs for the "fresh" and vivid look of other site’s designs. It’s as if you’re sucked into the shadows when your most true inner self wants to see something bright and "alive" …
    So, while I’m talking about my own experiences, perhaps you know what I’m trying to express.

    Anyway, just wanted to say that I love your new design and have the deepest respect for your bravery and newly gained confidence. This is wonderful to see and it reflects within this design. There’s a lot of power.

    All the best to you. :)

    Regards from Germany,

    Maleika

  18. #18 On May 12, 2005 12:21 AM Malarkey said:

    @ Maleika E. Attawel: Well… there have been some wonderful things said here today, and that is perhaps the loveliest. Many thanks for your kind words, I wish you all the very, very best.

  19. #19 On May 12, 2005 08:00 AM Kris said:

    Stunning. I miss Sliding Doors on the main menu though and I noticed not all the links on the front page have a hover state as in the rest of the site. Minor glitches.

  20. #20 On May 12, 2005 11:58 AM Rob said:

    I prefer the old one.


    Ahhh just kidding. Very bright, brave and bold. I love it.

  21. #21 On May 12, 2005 11:59 AM Pete Smith said:

    I prefer the IE version myself! :-P

  22. #22 On May 12, 2005 12:18 PM Jon said:

    2 versions? Cool! Wow! I absolutly love it. I mean the old one was nice, but this one… stunning.

    Okay, that’s enough ass-kissing from me.

  23. #23 On May 12, 2005 03:36 PM Blake Scarbrough said:

    I like the strong colors and the fluid layout.
    Nicely done, and you have to keep them retro photos here

  24. #24 On May 12, 2005 04:45 PM laia said:

    Okay… I disabled URI id and everything is working fine now. I’ll have to live without it. Hmm…

  25. #25 On May 13, 2005 11:19 AM Jens Meiert said:

    Nice work - though very heavy (load time). And striking, the two-version-manoeuvre.

  26. #26 On May 14, 2005 12:59 AM Vaughan said:

    Bold and beautiful! Nice work…
    What a difference - viewing this at work on IE then coming home to Safari!!!!!! Sheesh!