On April 20th, Signalnoise.com is turning 9 years old.
I registered this website a couple of months after landing my first job in the design industry in 1999 and started exploring my artistic and design capabilities now that I was free from school. I remember back then wanting something that was uniquely my own, free of client alterations and without boundaries. It was a very very long process of figuring out what I wanted, what artistic avenue to pursue, and how I could make an area of the internet I felt comfortable with and also worked properly. I tried all kinds of layouts, designs and styles as I learned my tools while being exposed to new exciting artwork from around the world. I tried everything I could, as it was a huge personal growing process in a universe of infinite artistic possibilities.
I’m a very nostalgic person, and to celebrate Signalnoise turning 9 years old I uploaded the Signalnoise Graveyard, a ZIP file containing 48 jpegs of my Signalnoise designs spanning the past 9 years. I started these at the age of 22, very early in my career. Some bear obvious influences of my favorite artists, some are unfinished and others are simply silly :) Enjoy.
Wow!, there’s a lot of pixel art on this layouts, very nice.
I also recognize the wa007 and 2advanced looks. I think everyone gets inspired by their work. The most difficult thing is to create a website for your own work, because is so hard to decide which one is the correct for you! And I think this layouts are the prove of that.
Very interesting process.
Thanks for sharing this. :)
Happy Birthday SN!
James, continue to write your own history in life.
Congratulations!!!!
Cheers ;^)
Congratulations James! It’s very interesting to see how your site evolved.
this is so much alike my story. I remember those industrial melancholic web interfaces of the beginning of the 00’s
This is a really interesting post. Even though I haven’t known your work for long at all this graveyard reminds me a lot of my own defunct web designs over the years. Particularly the orange and grey flash design with line art and arial text (009).
The problem with personal projects is that you’ll never be satisfied, or able to commit to a single style.
Wow, it’s really great to know that you wrestle with the web design process as much as I do. One of the designs said that you were plagued and inspired by your own web site. That pretty much sums up the love/hate relationship I have with working on my own site. Hey, guess what? I’m redesigning mine right now, and it’s a pain!
Thanks everyone. When it comes to my own past website designs, I worked a lot of late nights by myself trying new things and jumping on design trends of the moment. I’m glad to hear that other designers go through the same trials when trying to design a shell to hold and display their art.
These were mostly before I realized “the simpler the website, the easier to update.”
That is pure fuckin insanity! hug!
Haha, you also managed to get Chris Cornell in there! Nerd ;-)
I’m glad to see I am not the only one that went through a process like this, and I’m looking at the next revision coming up.
The winged skull logo! I have one of James business cards with that design, got it when I bought the Commodore poster in 08.
I think every designer should do stuff like this, or start now if they haven’t already. Nice evolution, you’ve gone through a lot of different styles – a great ability!
Have you ever done much / any interface or chrome design for software or browsers? A few of these pieces feel like I’m looking at an OS screenshot rather than a website (meant in the best way). I do know you have a theme on the Chrome site, but was just curious about other works.
Keep it up!
Congratulations for the 12th SignalNoise birthday! You’ll certainly keep rocking for lots of years to come.
And thanks for this journey through your evolution, very insightful.
I loved the first one with your personal info! It’s funny that 12 years ago you disliked people and now you broadcast yourself to a lot of people on the internet and have fun with them!
And do you still have a love-hate relationship with solitude? Apparently this relation is true for most designer/artists/creative people!
Happy Digital Birthday, James + Signalnoise! 12 years is just the start. What is creation but one rebirth after another? Tomorrow will be totally different from today. But for today, revel in your art.
haha, James EVIL!