This is just an initial redesign before a bigger project. More to come!

And I’ve gotta give big thanks to Vashtie for the recommendation. She rocks!

This photo was taken at the screening of Awesome, I Fuckin’ Shot That (which I fuckin’ shot.) The biggest moment of my Beastie Boys-loving life. Yauch cracked a joke while we paused for the picture, something like “thank you for your vote.”

I wish I could say I knew him or got to spend more than one smiling-like-a-maniac minute with him, but this is all I’ve got. Plus the hundreds (thousands?) of hours of Beastie Boys I’ve listened to over the past twenty-something years.

Rewind a few months before that: I was working at a small, sinking design company in Union Square, doing stuff for banks and doomed dot-coms and growing more cynical by the day. A coworker friend said she had this freelance project, and wondered if I’d be interested in working on it. It was a site for a new record label, run by some guys named “The Neptunes” who I had never heard of. (Not many people had!)

I looked them up (googled them? yahooed them? how did people search back then? I don’t remember.) Apparently they had an album coming out, and their group was called N.E.R.D. I asked around at record stores to find out more, but nobody had heard of them. After I spelled the name to a girl at Best Buy, she laughed and said “nerd?” I eventually found a European version of their album at a store on Montague Street. (The US version hadn’t come out yet.)

I set out designing the site, and loved every minute of it. Even though I had a day job, I’d stay up late working on it. I’d brew a pot of coffee around midnight on weekend nights and stay up until 4 or 5am (and only go slightly crazy.) I poured endless hours into it, making this elaborate Flash animation of a spaceship exploding. (I’d later actually learn how to use Flash, and realize in hindsight that I could’ve created those animations in a fraction of the time, if only I knew what I was doing!)

I built the site with Nirav, another friend & coworker at the day job. He built a forum from scratch, (these were the days before you could click an “Install Forum” button with your web host and get one running with your eyes closed.) That forum was quirky and odd and unlike any of the other forums we’d seen. Admittedly it was hard to use and easy to hack, (which the fans helpfully showed us on numerous occasions,) but it was fun.

So yes. Long story short, the site launched ten years ago today. That night I posted on some other sites to say it was up, and watched. I only had to wait a few minutes before the forum started filling up with posts. The quirky little site I’d spent all those nights and weekends on was a success.

Within a year, I parted ways with my employer and set out to work on my own, and the results of the past decade can be seen at a glance over here.

Big thanks go out to Loic, who directed that project (and many more since then)… Heather and Nirav, for all their work on that first site… Pharrell and Chad, and the whole Star Trak family over the years.

Brand new website just hit the webs this week. Includes a new design and layout, with a fun interactive timeline where you can explore key moments in The Champ’s career. (Attentive viewers of Fishbucket projects may remember several classic sites that had some hot parallax scrolling action. Well, the parallax is back, but now Flash free!)

Special thanks to the folks over at KIT Digital, who managed the project. And I suppose I should also thank some guy named Anthony, who said something along the lines of: “hey, I know a guy who makes websites.” Thanks guy!

I handled design and Flash, but not the illustrations. Those were created by KiKi. (that’s all I know. KiKi. If anyone knows more about KiKi, like maybe her full name or website, please tell! I’d love to link her up and give proper credit.)

Head on over and make yourself a Bitchie Chick at bitchiechicks.com.

Tumblr themes aren’t generally the Fishbucket focus, but this is another project in our partnership with Cinematic Music Group. On to the next one!

This was the first project in a new partnership between Fishbucket and Cinematic Music Group. We’re planning to do some ongoing work together; revamping the sites in their current lineup and putting together some new ones. Stay tuned!

(Offer only valid for users with modern browsers. Actual backwardness may vary.)

Happy holidays from Fishbucket and Bishfucket!

Also worth noting: Things move! Without Flash! I still like Flash and hope it doesn’t die off completely, but it’s been good to try out some alternatives so I can make things move without relying on it. (Only in the most recent non-IE browsers, of course.)

Big thanks to Loic Villepontoux. I’ve been working with him for about a decade now, and his art direction and instincts are always on point. (Thanks to Phillip and Mimi and Chief too!)

October saw three different sites launch. One of these days they may just make an appearance in the portfolio, but in the meantime here’s an overview…

Buddy

This is a single-page site for Pharrell’s new protégé, Buddy. It had a quick turnaround time, but luckily we had some great photography to work with. This one has a liquid design^* and can work at various window sizes.

*Not related to Liquid Design, the company where this writer started his web design career in the late 90s.

Violette New York

A remade site for Vashtie’s clothing line, Violette. It’s always a pleasure working with Vashtie. I’d like to think it’s because we both grew up in the Capital District and can relate to each other on a 518 level, but it’s probably because she’s generally a great person to work with. She wanted to go simple and use a lot of black & white for this one, so we worked in some desaturation magic and kept everything smooth and slick.

The shop uses Big Cartel, which I’d been looking forward to using for a while. I was pleasantly surprised, it was very easy to work with.

The Rens

This was a quick site, (still in progress,) for an NYC youth basketball league, The New Renaissance. This site is currently just a quick overview of this new program, and will grow in the near future to show more about the teams.

The client requested an auto-playing Flash intro. (classic!)

Note: Parts of this site are based on an excellent theme by MKNY Studio.