The Paperback Stash through the years....

I stumbled on a neat little site that takes old archive pictures of website through the years. Perfect timing since I've been redesigning the site and trying to remember how it used to look through its various stages. Looking back at these designs, I see a lot of the same elements and themes I keep through the years - mainly I stick to a sidebar focused header image that's on the right, I enjoy uneven sidebar or post starters and margins, and I like to stick a little bit of magic, paranormal, fantasy, and Superman in the themes.


It was a delight seeing these again - brought back memories, and some I forgot about completely. The site has been around since 2007 and has gone through a lot of changes. Web design is so much different now than when I first started out - and I have to say that despite the modern, minimalist look being so prevalent today, I still take to heart the unique, stand-out designs with punches of color and nifty blendings of backgrounds with headers and negative margins.

One of the main reason I'm changing the site design again, even though I still loved the 2015 design, was because I wanted to reduce the sidebar a lot, enlarge the post and sidebar sections, and make these changes in order to simplify things so I could add more elements on the main page besides just posts. This is my version/idea of being minimalist - since the website still has a lot of tweaks left in its redesign, I'm not putting the current design up yet here.

Behold ...

 The Paperback Stash Flashbacks

(Suitably on Museum Print Border Graphics)


2016

While I liked this one, there was something just not sitting right for me with it. The new design is similar, but there are differences and a slightly more retro look. I also changed the menus.

 

2015

I enjoyed this design a lot and hated to let go of it. I changed it because I wanted to enlarge the main post section and sidebar, which would mean removing the background graphics and doing an overhaul anyway to get that done. Now it's color used for the page, sidebar and post elements instead of fixed graphics - much easier. I also wanted more navigation. Otherwise I enjoyed the colors of 2015 - The Superman was fun to put out of the clouds with the floating air balloon, it made me think of whimsy and daydreaming. The girl on the chair talking was a graphic I enjoyed, and I liked the twitter bird....but I was never completely happy with how it seamed in. I will miss the clouds and Superman the most from this design.

2014



What I loved about this version was the colors. I loved the purple background and how it went with the rest of the sites color scheme. I love the girl graphic and it being large and on the side, with the clouds (again reminding me of daydreaming), and I did like the logo and how it had a lit up effect.  This site design was around awhile, but when I switched it, it was because I wanted a little more complexity, was in the mood for some BRIGHT colors, and wanted to added some navigation besides the bar.

Basically I grow bored and feel like changes designs.

2013

In a way the 2013 Design remains my favorite. I loved the girl on the side and how it naturally merged with the sidebar coloring wise, and using an image map for the social networking icons. I loved the background colors, the simple menus, the cat overlapping the border, the coloring, and I loved the logo. The Twitter bird on the top was cute too.

I still think some elements of this design was better than my current ones, but it was restrictive. I was using Nymphont's template and so was heavily locked into graphics that made the design so I couldn't enlarge the sections. I also wanted a more "free" look that wasn't contained in solid borders/colors, which is why I went with a more open feel later.

2012 (later)

This design was a lot of fun. I loved the background and the cloud effects at the top. I had the big moon and tried to be a little paranormal. Not crazy about the blue curved part of the sidebar and body, but I did like way it went down and uneven. Ultimately I changed this because to me it looked a little to....cartoonish. Still was a fun design for awhile though.

Below was the 2012 Halloween Version - Changed the social networking icons and added a witch hat



2012 (Earlier)

This was a design I had with when I returned to blogging. I had taken about three years off and the site sat there for years without any tweaking or change. Part of the return was changing the site design to what you see above under 2012 later to reinvent the site.

I do like this style in a way - I tried to make the background of the posts in a fun comment from the girl, I had interesting colors, but the background border was messed up, the sidebar was amateurish, and it didn't sync with my anymore.

2012....Again

Apparently I changed design in 2012 more than any other, never feeling comfortable. I can't remember if the one above this or this one came first. I was trying to blend the header into the Superman graphic I ended up using in 2015, the girl who was the first vector I bought years ago, and colors. I didn't care for the design much but I was experimenting.

The Earliest (2007)

I'm surprised the website was able to pull this ancient design up. It was the first year the site was up and I was so new to anything with blogging. I had fun with it, but the site has come a long way since then.