flatmatt.com Header Image

Here you can read about and view past designs of flatmatt.com. Click a thumbnail image in the left column to view a full-sized image of each design.

flatmatt.com v1

Version 1.0

Debut: May-2001

This was, of course, the first design for flatmatt.com. It was a pretty simple design, with none of the fancy CSS or anything that would come later. It did, however, set up the basic pages of the site and the lefthand navigation menu that would continue until version 5.0.

flatmatt.com v2

Version 2.0

Debut: Jan-2002

The second version of flatmatt.com was a (somewhat ill-conceived) red-on-black design, mostly following the layout of the first version. It did introduce images for the navigation menu for the first time.

flatmatt.com v3

Version 3.0

Debut: 21-Apr-2003

The third redesign was a pretty big step forward graphically, though the code was still much the same as the second version. This version was based on my Boy Meets World skin, which released the same day the site went live. The Gallery section was also introduced while this version of the website was live. The colors are a bit too bright perhaps, but it worked alright at the time.

flatmatt.com v3.5

Version 3.5

Debut: 13-Aug-2003

Version 3.5 was visually much the same as version 3.0, but it represented a major revision in the code by implementing CSS as a major component of the site. Other than that, there wasn't much new in this version.

flatmatt.com v4

Version 4.0

Debut: 1-Jan-2004

Version 4.0 became the last redesign for over five years, largely due to a dramatic slowdown in new releases on my part. It made greater use of skin and preset screenshots in the imagery of the site and was a significantly more readable design than the second and third versions. It was also the first design to place importance on having valid HTML and CSS, as indicated by the validation links on each page. The classic and modern skins were also split from each other during this version's life.

flatmatt.com v5 Prototype

Version 5.0 Prototype

Debut: N/A

This attempt at a redesign was based largely on the Echoes skin I was working on at the time. It also came with a new Skins section design that had some influence on what I eventually ended up doing for version 5.0 of the site. This redesign was never finished due to several factors, including the eventual conclusion that I simply liked the design from version 4.0 more.

flatmatt.com v5

Version 5.0

Debut: 28-Jul-2009

This is, quite obviously, the most recent redesign of flatmatt.com. It represents a complete redesign of the site from the ground up. Whereas past redesigns had always started with the last version and made alterations from there, this version started with a blank text file and was designed from there. It loses some of the color of previous versions, but is a much cleaner, readable site for it. It also marks a switch from HTML to XHTML in the coding.