After all the trials and tribulations of the recent weeks it’s great to get the latest version of Renegade Zen launched.

In some ways it’s a rapid departure from the previous version, in others, I see it more as a continuation of ideas that began before. I’ve kept the humming bird header graphic, although this time the illustration is much more detailed. Some people had commented that they liked the way the banner changed colour from page to page so again this is something that has been incorporated into the design.

The first major change is obviously the colour switch from dark on light to light on dark, and it pretty much speaks for itself. The second big change to the visual design is the website width. I’ve used a progressive layout which is fluid between 800px and 950px and fixed at sizes above that. I really like these layouts as they combine the control of fixed width layouts which the flexibility of liquid designs for smaller screen resolutions. If you actually look as this design on an 800 X 600 screen you’ll see it doesn’t look brilliant, but that was never my intention. It just has to be functional, and avoid horizontal scrollbars. Behind the scenes, the site now runs entirely on Textpattern.

I’ll be continuing to add to the site over the coming weeks, as I still see it as a work in progress, however I was happy enough with it for it to see the light of day.

Let me know what you think?