EPT
since there's tons of people who have better knowledge of starcraft and the pro-scene I decided to let my blogposts revolve around my passion: graphics.
I've been doing graphics for a few years now. My schoolcareer and other hobbies however prevented me from truly focusing on this. I have however now chosen to go study Graphic Design next year, which I'm very much looking forward to.
Now, for something quite different, I present to you:
The foundations of my nickname
(warning: pretty elaborate text which may or may not be indirectly connected to the main subject at times)
Years ago, when I had just started getting familiar with the internet I joined an online site-creation app called "moonfruit". Moonfruit still exists to this day but back then it was completely free and it was filled with happy kids like me who used the premade clipart and added their own uploaded images. I quickly became more 'driven' at this and I even got to like 10,000 visitors after a while, which was pretty good for a little site that was just about diablo, starcraft and Rurouni Kenshin.
I wanted more though.
As I saw other people who had sites on moonfruit using some tool called "Flash" I wanted to know more about what in godsname this was. Desperately I searched my own pc only to find flashplayer which didnt seem to do much by opening it and some application that had to do with my 56k modem back then (Please mind that I was like 12 years old and had nobody to teach me how to work with a pc).
I figured out a while after that and downloaded the Flash 5 demo version, in which I started making my own fun animations through trial and error.
(Oooh, which reminds me, one of the first things I created was DJ FENIX! Man that thing was AWESOME.
The file is like 3mb so I'm not gonna bother uploading it, but it was this image with moving arms and 'DJ FENIX' flashing in different colours and some mp3 I found on morpheus that was a remix of some trance song with fenix' voice files mixed through it- Click me! )
So anyway, I was getting more and more into flash, learning how to properly animate and make buttons, etc. I was constantly looking for tutorials which I found at a place called flashplanet.com. They also had this feature called 'Flash site of the month', which I decided to check out.
I was shocked. Utterly shocked. For the site I was witnessing was just about the most awesome thing I had ever seen. XEOFREESTYLE.COM. I was not exactly sure what this was all about at first, since I had no clue there were people making a living out of webdesign, but man I knew one thing: this stuff was amazing.
Now, I'm sure all this suspense is killing you folks so here's the link: Click me!
Please do keep in mind that this site was made in 2000. It was WAY ahead of its time and a true pioneer for flash design. I understand the lens flares are a little bit bothersome by now, hahah.
Anyway, the site wasnt updated until 2002, which again showcased the amazing talent of Chris J. Gardner, the lead designer of Xeofreestyle.
Click!
And the main page.
All good things must end though, and Xeofreestyle happens to be no more. I remember seeing other work but I cant seem to find it anymore, even through web archive.
I'm sure Chris is somewhere lurking, preparing the next wave of flash design which will dazzle the world once more.
Some people dont like how I based my nickname off of this. But I am merely showing my respect and love for design which innovates and inspires.
