Beardfluff v.2.0 has just gone live and I hope it is to you liking. Most radical change is the structure of the homepage. I really wanted this site to be about more then just showing a comic and be done with it. Of course comics are still the focal point of Beardfluff but it’s also the place where I put my sketches and illustrations. So those two got their own little window, along with the news so you can instantly see what’s going on. Below that, a variety of links related to the comic (category navigation, contact and social media stuff, commercial links). For example, there’s now a handy little tab to direct you to the TNP Chatroom where you can ask questions or just sociallize with the artists.

For structure and concept, I took a bit of inspiration from various other webcomics, like Dresden Codak who in my opinion has one of the best designed webcomic sites right now. I may not be the most stunning visually, but everything you need in on there in a clear and approachable way and what you don’t need is disposed off. Best of all, it stays clear of that out-of-the-box ComicPress look that 90% of webcomics have. No offense towards Comicpress – they did a great job making it easy for creators to put up a webcomics – but I’m sick of the uniformity. Most people will change the colors and add a few illustrations but they won’t have an overall concept for the site. More often than not, it’s a question of webdesign skill of course. I don’t expect every artist to be a designer and developer. And I have my tastes as well. I’ve got a thing for the practical and ‘less’ mentality when it comes to sites.
Some other nice examples: PvP Online, Pajama Forest and Octopus Pie

The design stays close to the previous version (colors and some visual elements) but also refers to my other site, PaperblackNinja which focuses more on design and acts as my professional portfolio. I felt that since these are 2 aspects of myself that are closely related anyway, I might as well show it in the design as well.

No doubt I’ll be cursing at this redesign by this time next week, since I’m never happy with anything that comes out of these hands, but for now I’m satisfied with what I’ve made. Let me know if anything’s broken because their might still be a couple of bugs and oversights. And if you’re watching this on IE6, you’re trying too hard.

Cheers!