WSA Winner
Friday June 11th, 2004
As Standards gradually make their way out of the "weblog only" phase of their development, people are beginning to take notice of the sites that push the boundaries of layout. Infosion's unusual but usable layout caught the eye of a few of our judges, but it's hard to beat a personal site that doesn't have commercial restrictions.
Justwatchthesky took out this month's Golden Star because it's simply too smooth to believe. The unusual palette has a way of capturing your imagination, yet it is blended so finely and flawlessly that it complements the content perfectly. Congratulations Ryan.
“This is a chromatic exercise taken to the ninth! As someone so involved with colors I can really appreciate the work — the incredible long hours put into designing the layout with so many brillantly picked shades of blue. How color acts as content zone is outstanding!”
Carole Guevin
“Lovely color palette, very soothing. Clean code underneath. I do not usually pick personal/portfolio sites but this one is a real winner!”
Makiko Itoh
“There is nothing too special about this site — it's just very, very pleasing to the eye. I like the use of Flash, it's subtile and restrained, yet adds a nice, functional little "treat" for the user. It's fun, clean and very well designed.”
D. Keith Robinson
Original review:
Sometimes it's good to hassle someone. After one quick e-mail, 26 validation errors disappear and I can award a site with one of the most striking palettes out there.
Ryan Sims' stuff is smooth with a capital SMOO. Blending myriad soft tones of blue with that deep red highlight, the site just rolls into your eye, and you can't help but devour the lush contents. Understated, classy, modern; nothing bad to be said.
Reviewed by Cameron Adams
#1
Agreed; clean, saturated and elegant ala shaunInman. Extremely nice work. Cheers
Posted by Jeremy Koempel :: June 11th, 2004 at 02:11 PM
#2
why wasn't css used to give the images the padded and shadow look?
Posted by huphtur :: June 11th, 2004 at 04:51 PM
#3
Very Nice.
Posted by Aaron Cain :: June 11th, 2004 at 08:34 PM
#4
Ah, so beautiful. And, may I add... Pretty impressive portfolio you have there (especially the CSS Zen Garden submission, Oceans Aparts; wow). Really loved how you made use of Inman's IFR.
Just love the work of this guy, Ryan Sims, (also Lead Designer of Neubix Sutdios). Nice work, bud.
Posted by Christopher :: June 12th, 2004 at 07:35 AM
#5
Beautiful and original. My favorite site on the web right now.
Posted by Peter Zignego :: June 17th, 2004 at 05:28 AM
#6
I think the old justwatchthesky layout was more interesting
Posted by Angel Rodriguez :: June 17th, 2004 at 09:07 AM
#7
Agreed. Ryan's work is top notch. Seems as though everything he touches turns to gold. One of my favorite designers on the web. I visit Justwatchthesky almost every day to see what's new.
Posted by Harold Emsheimer :: July 8th, 2004 at 05:04 AM
#8
Agreed, too. Nice work, clean design and really wonderful colors... congratulations ;-)
Posted by Patrick Ehrlich :: July 8th, 2004 at 11:57 AM
#9
Justwatchthesky is one of my favorite site designs out there right now. And I have to echo Christopher's comment, Ryan's Ocean's Apart Zen Garden design is jaw droppingly beautiful. Congrats Ryan.
Posted by Todd :: July 8th, 2004 at 04:09 PM
#10
Great choice for the award. I love the small touches on the site. I really like his use of flash too. An inspiration for us all.
Posted by Felix :: July 14th, 2004 at 02:08 PM
#11
I like me, but is too surgeon, medical, aseptic color.
It need any humanity. any brong, any grabagge....
Posted by Francisco :: July 20th, 2004 at 10:07 AM
#12
Am I missing something here. It fails the w3c validator both for xhtml(badly) & css. It's a beautiful design but web standards it is not. Css should have been used to create borders etc etc.
Posted by Karen :: August 1st, 2004 at 11:46 PM
#13
What, just because one entry on the frontpage has a couple of incorrect characters? Get a life.
Posted by Cameron Adams :: August 2nd, 2004 at 03:08 AM
Comments on: Justwatchthesky