Dave Shea of CSS Zen Garden fame has today launched a radical redesign of his website. It’s getting quite a reaction and some mixed reviews, mainly because it’s very different from the previous design. Personally, I’m on the fence a bit. While it still has some kinks to work out, I’m sure it’ll grow on me.
This comes on the heels of Jeffrey Zeldman’s recent and equally drastic redesign, and I wonder if the ripples will spread and we’ll see more overhauls in the coming weeks. I’d like to think I started it all with my relaunch a few weeks back, but let’s face it, these guys have never heard of me.
But if this is to be a new trend, I think I can already see what defines it. Zeldman’s trademark color is orange, and his redesign is noticably lacking in that hue. Dave’s trademark color has been blue (it’s even in the name) and, while the new design still features some prominent blue in the header, the dominant colors are white and a sort of creamy orange. Dave also recently launched his red and gray consultancy site, Bright Creative, and even commented on the deliberate non-blue scheme. So that’s two redesigns and a new site, all of which defy the color pigeonholes their masters were placed in. Buck the system, guys!
So what’s next? Will Josh turn green and purple while Andrei goes to blue and white? Will Keith lose his Lemony wallpaper again? Will Shaun use a legible font-size? The ground is shaking already.
Update: 5/26 – Doug Bowman of StopDesign overhauled his site last night. I don’t know that he had a “trademark color” so to speak, but if he does it’s probably black. You’ll immediately notice that the new version is very much not black. The trend continues…