"In early 2004, the world was shaking it like a Polaroid picture, flocking to theaters to see what was going to happen with all those hobbits, and wondering if that Tom Brady guy was something special. Meanwhile, a few folks around the world were inventing the web as we know it now: A world-shaking social network was brewing in a Harvard dorm room. A Google employee was dreaming up the future of email in their spare time. The coolest cellphone of all time was just about to drop. The internet was still a niche activity, but that was about to change — and fast."
"2004" is a custom designed microsite with 17 uniquely designed articles and a homepage with 3 different skins. Inspired by the PNG frames and deep-fried GIFs of the early aughts, we wanted to express the wide array of aethetics present on the internet at that time. As teenagers and kids, lots of us were learning how to mold our little corners of the internet to make something that expressed who we were. "2004" is a nostalgia-addled trip back in time to a simpler, messier, but more human, time in internet history.
Managing 17 unique layouts and one home layout with 3 unique skins was no simple feat. Creative director Kristen Radtke and I divvied up the existing articles and designed them over the course of months. We also developed a rigorous system for tracking each piece's progress through wireframe, design, as well as the drafting and editing process. Graham MacAree, a developer with bottomless patience and magnanimousness, hard-code each and every piece in a very short-turnaround time to meet our deadline.
