The Shadow Over Brooklyn
October descends upon us once again. As I stepped outside this morning, I felt as though someone had flipped the season switch to Autumn; the air was chilly and sharp, leaves were congregating in the crease where the street meets the sidewalk, and the breeze carried with it the scent of cedar and apples. Perhaps I’m just aware of these changes now because I’ve been watching the calendar, but whatever the case, this time of year is truly special to me. This year, I experience October and Halloween in a new city. I do take great comfort that I live mere blocks away from Howard Philips Lovecraft lived for a time (and sometimes wrote about).
As in past years, I’ve decked out my site in a Halloween costume for the month of October (you may need to disembowel your cache). This year’s design is in part inspired by Lovecraft and my new neighborhood, making an attempt at loosely emulating some woodcut and ink textures. I drew all of the type and dropcaps by hand to give them some character that would be otherwise absent in crisp font outlines. I can’t remember the last time I used yellow in a design, which is perhaps the most frightful thing of all. Also, For a nice change, Daily Photos this month will be in black and white. I’ll be posting some October and Halloween treats all month, so stick around. And please don’t egg my house.
- Posted at 12:55 pm in Design, New York, Site
Commentary Closed (24)
Beautiful. Love the texture of the spine running down the left side.
Oh, wow. I really thought you were going to put on the same costume as last year. Maybe with some more fake blood to make it seem fresh. This is a nightmare come true. Great work, Stan, Jes is going to love it!!
You’re lucky I’m moving…
You just gave me the greatest idea for a toilet-paper-and-egg Wordpress theme…
Love the October editions as always. I think from now on, I’m just going to say that I’m “disemboweling” my cache whenever I clear it.
Even though your site has gone trough a major redesign it’s original style is left.
I think this new design is great but I like the other one better, it was more friendly, and I hope you’ll switch back after October.
Like you I think autumn is a great part of the year, the very best.
Yellow, combined in the right way is a very nice color.
Emil Johansson: Don’t worry, like past years, this design will only be in effect during October. On November 1st the normal design will be back.
Looks great Jason. I’ll be honest, I was a little spooked at first.
You should keep it after Halloween!
@Jared - I totally agree. From now on I will tell people that I am disemboweling my cache.
Whilst leaves changing hue and bracing winds are generally a fair indication of the changing seasons, nothing puts quite as fine a point on it as the beginning of Stantober (see what I did there). I think this might be my favorite of your ghoulish treatments and the yellow really works. Looking forward to those B&W snaps.
Wasn’t the last time you used yellow in that poster you showed in your @media presentation this year…?
I was hoping you’d do the October thing again. Very nice… as always.
The question that springs to mind is: will you be giving the site a ‘proper’ redesign in the new year? That’s not meant to sound like a criticism of the site’s design at all (because I love it and I don’t think it’s aged in the slightest), but as of January it’ll be 4 years old… I know I’ll be looking to rethink my site come new year.
Mark Boulton: Gah! I knew I remembered it from somewhere ;)
Elliot Jay Stocks: I doubt it. I’ve never been a fan of redesigning for the sake of it. I say “for the sake of it” because I still really like this design and it still suits my needs fairly well. With that said, I have been working on retouching it a little. In fact, my site has changed quite a bit (subtly) in these last four years.
Just release in time for Halloween, I picked up this collection of Lovecraft the other day.
I checked your site yesterday hoping that you would have thrown on the halloween outfit, and perhaps I needed to empty the cache in deed, or perhaps I checked it to early, becasue it was not like this, not even a new post. So I came back this morning with fingers crossed, and your page took a bit of time to actually load up, but what a treat it was.
Sadly living in Austin, we have but two seasons, Summer, and well “not as hot.”
Here you don’t ever see things slowly change and progress as seasons change, instead it is like you wake up one morning and all the trees desided to shake off their leaves and be naked…
So as of yesterday kids were still swimming in the pool outside my apartment, and I’m still sweating when I leave wearing shorts and sandals.
Still I can’t wait for Halloween, my little daughter is 2.5 years old and she should finally be able to grasp the concept and actually get into it. Which gives me a free pass to once again go trick or treating myself.
Fall is my favorite time of year so thanks for kicking it off with the special design and passing the spirit along, Stan!
Yay! Now I know it’s really fall!
I like this one a lot. We’re thinking of making the west-coast Halloween party Lovecraftian this year.
Shane Guymon: I was a bit delayed getting this year’s October Edition online because I was waiting for my DNS to fully propagate from a hosting change. Try to stay cool in Austin!
I just re-read my comments and please forgive the poor spelling. I should really re-read things before I hit “post”
The same seems to have happened here in Blighty. I love this time of year as the town I live in is given a burst of natural, vibrant colour which is a welcome change form the artificial colours of shop fronts.
Another Halloween re-vamp success Jason! Looks really great : )
Spooky. Great job as always on the site costume. I’m really digging the grayscale. Without a few of the Halloween accents, this design would work well year-round.
Gorgeous homage to the spirit of Halloween. Keep up the good work!
I just threw an egg at your site to spite the new design. Then I found out that you don’t actually live here. And I have yolk in my keyboard.