Steven Garrity’s Web Design Hall of Shame

Since some of you are not me (I have reason to believe a large majority of you may be people other than myself), you may not find this post as interesting as I have. However, if you know me you may enjoy laughing at me and some of the following is a little embarrassing.

After Peter from Reinvented.net pointed out The Wayback Machine web archive, I have been browsing the web of 1997, 1998, and 1999 – particularly sites with which I was involved – and loving it.

Mostly as a gift for my future-self, I spent this Sunday afternoon digging through old CD backups and The Wayback Machine for some of my old site designs. The quality is all over the map and much of it is hilarious (to me, at least).

Steven Garrity's Web Design Hall of Shame
The result: Steven Garrity’s Web Design Hall of Shame.

A particularly noteable of piece from the colletion is The Leaping Website which proves what I have been trying to prove for years: 1. That we invented Extreme Walking. 2. That Extreme Walking is not called Extreme Walking but is actually called Leaping. There are funny pictures too.

I used the site as an experiment in standards compliance as well. It is my first site to adhere completely to the XHTML 4.01 Transisional standards (which means it doesn’t work in Netscape 4.x).

And while we’re dragging skeletons from the Wayback Machine, I think you should all see Matt’s first website (read the reader letters – they are real and they are amazing).

 

11 thoughts on “Steven Garrity’s Web Design Hall of Shame

  1. wow…..Being Steve’s childhood friend this was extremely entertaining. I can’t let Steve take all of the credit for those masterful designs – I believe the excess use of the crop circle font on the leaping website was my doing. Bravo Steve for an entertaining walk down memory lane.

    good times….

  2. Just wanted to point out an alternative name for “Leaping” that I’ve heard used is “Freestyle Walking”. Nice to finally know where it all began…

    Great pictures, as well.

  3. Josh, it’s good to know the sport is spreading around the world – whatever it may be called (although Leaping is clearly the best name)

    Adam, very clever. I’ve been looking at every site I visit all day in the wayback machine.

    I was thinking today while laughing at my old writing and design that someday I will be laughing at today’s writing and design. For the record (and for the peace of mind of my future self), I am aware.

  4. Thanks for turning that into a link. It starts to get hard ro remember which comments systems autolink URLs and which don’t.

    What does it say about you when you start leaving notes for your future self?

  5. Referring to our ‘future selves’ is actually a reference to Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, where “history is about to be rewritten by two guys who can’t spell..”

    You may recall the scene where Bill and Ted test their future selves to see if they are genuine. They ask them to guess what number they are thinking off (which turns out to be 69).

    Be excellent to eachother.

  6. a HEM. http://www.aioku.com/archives/grind/gallery.htm

    For the record, it’s freestyle walking. like freestyle biking/bmxing. you’re taking something that was once a regular mode of transport, and you’re taking it to a new level. We’re not in the early nineties anymore, nothing is Extreme, or, as Dean Gallant put it in the FSW video we made in grade 12, “Xtreem”.

    And also for the record, the number, Steve, was “69, dudes.”

    oh, and you’ll note when you go to our Freestyle Walking page, that our moves were much more complex and “real”. You can actually see the ground in our shots, no weak obvious camera stunts. Pay special attention to Dean’s gallery, as he was crazy motherfucker.

    oh and, also, don’t bother emailing that Superfunk email address. ha.

    Mike.

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