Mon 23 Jan
2006
Awards Season
Quite unexpectedly, I woke up this morning to an email from Nikolai Nolan alerting me to the fact that Subtraction.com is one of five finalists nominated for the title “Best Designed Weblog” in this year’s Annual Weblog Awards — it’s amazing, but I can now make an authentic claim to being “Bloggie-nominated.” I’m quite flattered by the whole thing of course, having never expected to achieve enough notoriety to ever register on the same level as a site as universally well-read and well-regarded as fellow nominee Kottke.org.
Of course, it’s a short distance from incredulous surprise to shameless self-promotion, so I’m beggin’ you: won’t you please vote for me? Head on over to Bloggies.com and cast your vote to make this the most successful colorless Web site ever. And be sure to attend the 2006 South by Southwest Interactive Festival in March, where the Bloggies award ceremony will be held in person with a real audience and everything — the single funnest place where you can find out for yourself whether or not a roomful of bloggers really do glow in the dark. Thanks for your support.
Remarks 13 total remarks were added before the post was closed.
I voted for you, Mr. Vinh. Subtraction is certainly the best use of bold Helvetica on the web.
What are you going to spend your $20.06 on? And how will you abuse your eternal fame?
Not to put you down or anything, but I voted for Delicious Days. I think the layout is superb, the color scheme is excellent, and it has nice little touches like round corners on the screenshots.
Don’t get me wrong, I like the content you publish… though I tend to read it through my news reader. But I’m not particularly fond of the colorless theme, especially since Macs (and later, PC’s) have had color since, what, the late 80’s? Like, before I can remember?
Anyway, congratulations on even being nominated. That’s much more than I can say for li’l ol’ Deep Thought.
Arden: Thanks for your input regarding color. I just don’t know if I’m ready to give up on my core user type: Web surfers using modern, CSS 2.0-compliant browsers with monochrome displays. I just can’t imagine going to a full-color design and leaving such a big audience behind.
It’s what’s on the inside that counts. Great, easy-to-read content trumps a flashy-color design any day in my eyes.
Congratulations Khoi! You’ve got my vote - love your content and your design!
24 Jan 2006, 12:56 pm
‘Grats Khoi. I really admire the layout of this site, especially the use of grids - it is by far the most effective advert for grid-style design I’ve seen, and it also pushes the cause that design does not need to equal colour.
To be honest, I view the black / white / occasional-orange scheme to be so much more affective than the pastel-blues in, oh, let’s say Delicious Days. Which is nice, but it’s simply blue / white / orange rather than black / white / orange. Just because it’s lacking in vibrance, doesn’t mean it’s colourless.
Good luck in the voting!
Congrats on the nomination. The visual and informational design of this site is fantastic. It’s a pleasure to visit regularly as well as a lot of fun to explore the posts of the past.
The monochromatic design of subtraction is it’s appeal. Just because you can use color it doesn’t mean you should or have to. Arden, what do you consider the orange of the rollovers, a shade of gray?
I consider it something I didn’t notice, because I usually read this site through NetNewsWire. ;)
To add an opposing voice: I voted for Subtraction because of the lack of colour… and the pixel-perfect grid, incredible attention to detail, and wonderful balance the design has. There are quite enough bright, flashy sites out there—I wouldn’t want to encourage them!
26 Jan 2006, 10:42 am
Well, today was my first vist to Subtraction…and I’m not going to waste my time with Delicious Days, or anyone else for that matter. You’ve got my vote, specifically because you may have helped me with my Chrystanthemum garden! I appreciate the no frills approach especially with the glut of flash and color that’s out here in cyberspace. It’s refreshing, you cut to the chase and get the information out there.
Maybe when I get back to blogging, I’ll take a few tips from you Khoi!
Thanks!