1998-2000 Web Site

When it came time to redesign the site again I wanted to create something a little lighter, more open. The darker colors that I was using were starting to feel a bit constricting to me and many users commented that they really didn't like the reversed white text on a black background that I had been using in the preview area.

The Flash support that I had been using in the previous design didn't return the kind of interest that I was hoping for so I decided that this release would not implement Flash or any other technology. Nothing about Flash 1.0 was so groundbreaking that anyone cared that I was using it. I was often just performing tech support calls that should have gone to Macromedia and not to me anyway.

I considered uploading a site that I created for use on an HTML-based CD-ROM that answered these issues for the most part, but when I looked at the site I felt that even though the interface did everything it had to do, it felt empty and boring, and with all the mages on the home page, it was a fairly hefty download even for the 28.8 modems of the day. It's only in hindsight that I look back and realize that the design on this version seems a whole lot more clean and appropriate than the one I ended up using (which you'll see later on).

It was also at this time that I had teamed up with a fellow type designer, Chris Macgregor, to create a new type company called About Type that would be based on this idea of selling collections, or groups, of fonts for a reduced individual price, but a higher overall profit. If I could sell the same collections on SynFonts as I did on About Type, I would be able to cut down on the headaches that having an additional brand name and web site would probably create. I proceeded to reduce my offerings down to a total of seven items, each consisting of a different collection of typefaces in some combination.

1997 Web Site and Interactive Catalog (Cont.)
Usability: the Site Speaks For Itself
1998-2000 Web Site (Cont.)