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November 2nd, 2007
Remember When: Design Portals Were the Standard
Now that I’ve grown up a little and stopped making random 3d space fractals and 45 degree angles, I can appreciate those sites for that initial spark. They are a part of the reason why I decided to become a designer.
What design portals and sites did you frequent when you were a young designer?
Source: ekboost
Posted by: Christophe
Comments (30)
www.threeoh.com www.kiiroi.nu
I'm still a "young" designer, but I used to visit Surfstation and Pixelsurgeon on a regular basis, as well as Computerlove not that long ago... those were the days :)
Yea I remember the first iteration of Computerlove way back when. It was weird because I used to frequent 10 sites and I never got tired of clicking links.
There is a screenshot of Computerlove 1.0 here
This really bring me the memory and you are tottally right with the post. ;)
I used to frequently visit linkdup.com way back in 2001.
holodeck73 changed my life, it's a shame Mr Mejia only has the red matrix/trinity version up...
The version with the model photo was one of the best sites back in the day...
You can see a small image of it here on the lower right
Man I miss that site :(
I've been told bd4d was a big one as well. I must've missed it when I was surfing around.
invertebrae, kiiroi, threeoh, and uploading were huge influences for me. i remember the days of feeling like i'd never seen anything like what was happening...(dreamless and lockjaw were also major, even though they weren't portals). oh memories.
ThreeOh.com totally opened up my world, with its inspirational links. I owe a lot to that site for my professional development and for introducing me to so many interesting schools of design at a critical time, and I was really sad when it vanished without a trace.
OH YEAAAH
just for you simplestick :)
not much to look at now, hah.. maybe we should just keep it a memory :D
Mejia, you don't give yourself nearly enough credit,
and thanks for the nostalgia
wow!!! remember: invertebrae, kiiroi, threeoh!!!!
nt before it became spam heaven and stupid thread kingdom..
ah the grey newstoday, some quality links there...
and of course cpluv...
Not sure how many people remember, but before all of the sites listed above there was The Design Posse which was basically a design portal that featured portfolio sites. It was started by Jay David and Anthony Palacios, and then later Mike Cina took it over I believe. I was really proud to be affiliated. Other people in the posse were James from ThreeOh, Jimmy Chen from Typographic.com, John J Hill from 52mm, Harsh Patel, Bradford Cox, Chank, to name a few. Then there was the SwankArmy network... damn I'm getting old
Matt - That Holodeck73 throw back just made my day :D
I also enjoyed when Errol Richardson jokingly ripped off that H73 site and the "community" went into a frenzy! haha good times...
We all went through this for sure. I made my thesis on the subject back in 2003. There's an interesting article on those communities at
Scene360 that was written years ago.
I really liked the computerlove 2.0 version.
i used to visit pixelsurgeon and k10k way way back when i was still in the uni. locally, the best webportal we had was halfproject.com and it was really a trendsetter in our country before. :D i used to do some stuff with their ilustrator before -> baloney of the the null (he was a college mate)... i think it's about time for their next big update. :D yay!
Kiiroi / threeoh / k10K / H73 / DiK / Surfstation ... I think those were the first ones I started visiting.
K10K, Linkdup, H73, ComputerLove !
Matt: Oh yeah I remember The Design Posse (very vaguely though)... I discovered threeoh first (through Macromedia site of the day off all places).. Ha!
Now I feel old-ish.
Portals can still be the "standard" :) it´s all just a big circle... ;)
don't feel old Tom, I remember when ThreeOh was called "Neuralgi Navigator" :D
'Portals can still be the "standard" :) it´s all just a big circle... ;)'
Very true, but ... with few exceptions (cpluv being one of them), they fail to capture the feel of something truly special, kind of like opening up a hardcover design annual printed on thick textured matte stock for the first time, and seeing what's going on outside your own world. The old design portals still had feeling, combined with a huge feeling of discovery in terms of the global design community not being quite as close and personal as it has evolved to be now, so it felt like you were not just taking in what was being done elsewhere in the world, but you were taking your first dip into a much larger cultural sea than what you were used to. I think that's what I miss the most from those days. I can't help but feel there was a lot more elegance and uniqueness in those days that has become a bit lost over the last few years.
How i miss those days... with blogging and all it's like everyone is being selfish these days and all the good communities are dead. Made place for social software like myspace, linkedin etc. blegh. (not that i hate those, but it's all tooo big. i miss the underground forums and the small group of folks that knew what they were doing)
i miss the underground forums and the small group of folks that knew what they were doing
those kinda sites are still around, you just have to be invited.... ;-)
oh hey Greg, long time no chat. hope all is well :D
hmmm
Portals: ThreeOh, Newstoday, DIK, Au Front, k10k
Community: Renascentfused (remember the old "brown" version?), NeueDr
Names: Korngold, Bradley Grosh [wut happened to him?], Nathan Flood [the most talented i guess], Widegren, Kalle Everland, jens karlsson [your majesty?],Tom Muller [great Typography, always luved his Bauhaus style, oh and his 'bjork' logo ^^]