Redesign: Aurgasm’s so fresh

identity

Four and a half years after its inception, Aurgasm is now sporting some new looks. I worked together with designer Tom Kershaw to craft a more engaging, more rich, and more 2009 look. Larger imagery, a fresh identity, and enhanced visual clarity join the usable music listening experience you’ve gotten used to.

This redesign is a gift from us at Aurgasm to you, our faithful readers. We truly enjoy sharing music with you. We hope you like the design. I’m still ironing out some bugs, but please leave a comment if you see something out of sorts.

Thanks!

Posted by Paul Irish on Tuesday, January 13th, 2009 under aurgasm news.

44 Responses to “Redesign: Aurgasm’s so fresh”

  1. Antony said on January 13th at 12:40 am :

    Looking good, I must say.
    Keep up the awesome work! :)

  2. Stephen said on January 13th at 12:51 am :

    Really digging the new site, Paul. Congrats on the redesign. Time to crank it to 11.

  3. Ryan said on January 13th at 2:43 am :

    I feel like the right quarter of my screen (viewing it at 1280×1024) is wasted to the blue — it almost looks like the back of a display stand, like you’re just waiting to peg in some more shelves of content. The text could also use a bit of alteration since it looks like it’s bleeding in a few areas (the bold in the link list, for example).

    Other than those two small deficits, and they really are small in light of this great site, the new redesign is wonderful. Thanks for the tunes.

  4. Nikos said on January 13th at 3:57 am :

    i especially like the new logo! And also digg the color-code fpr the categories. its obvious that you put a lot of luv into this! well done, keep up the great work :)

  5. Sam said on January 13th at 5:37 am :

    I like it. Simple, elegant, colourful and very easy to navigate.

    Been really digging some of your recent recommendations. Keep it up!

  6. Mathieu said on January 13th at 6:30 am :

    Hey guys, great new clean design and thanks for all the tunes!

  7. Lucas said on January 13th at 6:55 am :

    Love it.

  8. Ali said on January 13th at 7:43 am :

    Like the new design. Looks fresh and easy to navigate on it. Keep up the good work!

  9. NameCy said on January 13th at 8:27 am :

    nice look!

  10. Sig said on January 13th at 8:38 am :

    Very sharp. It’s pretty without being bloated. I wish you guys would update more, though. It’s always fun to see “Aurgasm (1 new item)” in my reader.

  11. Shawn said on January 13th at 9:08 am :

    I’ve noticed a lot of websites ‘modernizing’ their look and creating a big mess. The new Aurgasm, however looks good and navigates as easily as it did before. Great accomplishment guys!

  12. Paul Irish said on January 13th at 10:23 am :

    Ryan,
    Yah I’ve been hearing that feedback around left-justified-ness and wasted space, etc. I might introduce a feature to center the site in the browser, like it was.

    Sig,
    Definitely hear you on that. We’re gonna have much more content in ’09 than we did in ’08.

    Shawn,
    Great feedback thank you so much. :-D

    Thanks everyone. I’m glad to see such a great reaction.

  13. Eric Mill said on January 13th at 10:24 am :

    Awesome look, Paul, good work on the redesign. Aurgasm is now set for 2009.

  14. phoenix said on January 13th at 12:14 pm :

    Why is it when I read “so fresh” I can only think of this:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNwxv6TgsuU

    In any event, SNAP. Great job, looks lovely. :)

  15. adam said on January 13th at 1:45 pm :

    First, I think the design looks very good. At first I thought the old design was better (it was also very good), but the more I look at the new design the more I like it.

    Two comments that aren’t really that important.

    1) You might want to extend the main content box with whitespace on pages where it doesn’t go all the way past the sidebar. I noticed the main content does not extend past the end of the sidebar on the “about the authors” page, and it just looks like it should go down farther.

    2) I block javascript on your site (that player hanging on the side bothers me), so a way to post comments without re-enabling javascript would be a pleasant bonus.

    I also think an option to center it would be good. I’m not sure if I’d prefer it centered, but you can’t go wrong with more options.

  16. Tom said on January 13th at 3:50 pm :

    Thanks for the feedback guys, glad you like the new logo. Look for some funky fresh applications of it soon. T :)

  17. Chris said on January 13th at 3:51 pm :

    Really like the new design!!!

  18. Ricardo Salema said on January 13th at 3:54 pm :

    Looks awesome guys! Congrats!

  19. zIP said on January 13th at 4:19 pm :

    SIMPLY COMFORTABLE

  20. partypoopah said on January 13th at 4:20 pm :

    What’s the point of redesigning a website you never update?

  21. Leslie said on January 13th at 5:01 pm :

    Hi Paul –
    I like your blog a lot but I’m having problems streaming tracks after scrolling down several pages from the top. Don’t know why but the track selected does not play (e.g Sidney Bechet “Summertime”), the next several tracks are cued in turn without any of them playing, then the message “Unable to play etc., refresh page and try again” appears in the player. Just thought you might find this useful.

  22. Jonathan Alvarez said on January 13th at 5:18 pm :

    Felicidades por este cambio, sin duda es mi blog favorito de música eclectica. Saludos desde México, DF

  23. Paul Irish said on January 13th at 9:38 pm :

    Leslie,
    At some point in the archives, the mp3s aren’t uploaded anymore.
    Blame the RIAA and IFPI. :(
    Sadly we can’t keep them online without the fear of being taken down without notice.

    Partypoopah,
    Man. You just defecated all up in this fiesta. Dayum. :-p

  24. Partypoopah said on January 14th at 12:26 am :

    Paul: Well you can take it as a compliment. I want more new music godamnit! More updatesssss!!!

  25. Leslie said on January 14th at 11:01 am :

    Thanks for the reply, Paul.
    I guess I reached “some indefinite point” without realising that’s what it was – a nice conundrum.
    You may be interested in how I came to Aurgasm (ho ho) – it was from googling “Soha” from the info supplied on the playlist for the BBC3 prog “World on 3”. Prior to that I didn’t know that blogs like yours existed. Recently I’ve learned of counterintuitive business models made possible by apparently new economic benefits of computing and the internet. It would seem that the old copyright bureaucracies will become less and less relevant as the new paradigms become established.

  26. Paul Irish said on January 14th at 9:52 pm :

    Leslie,
    Interesting arrival. We’re glad to have you. :-D
    Cheers

  27. Leslie said on January 15th at 2:34 pm :

    Paul –
    Nice to be here… and interesting :o)

  28. atish said on January 15th at 4:52 pm :

    awesome!
    but where’s the yahoo media player?

  29. Paul Irish said on January 15th at 6:53 pm :

    atish,
    It’s still here.. nothing much changed about it. Are you not seeing it?

  30. Guido said on January 16th at 5:35 am :

    Hey there!

    Following your great music recommendations silently for years…
    Wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for all these revelations as well as give a *thumbs up* for the new design.
    IT’S DAMN GREAT :D

  31. Dana said on January 16th at 5:36 am :

    I love the redesign! Though I do prefer it centered like it used to be. Also, I liked how I can read the comments appear on the same page instead of having to go to a new page and having the music interrupted. Is it possible to have that feature back?

  32. Ed said on January 16th at 9:46 am :

    Like the redesign, but one thing bothers me. In the old site when you reached the bottom previous posts would load automatically without you having to click “previous posts” this was nice because you could continue to listen to music at the very top of the page while looking at old entries. With the “previous posts” link the new site has this functionality is lost…

    I wish you brought it back!

  33. Paul Irish said on January 16th at 2:31 pm :

    Ed,
    It was a bug earlier today; I had messed up when i was mucking with the site.

    Anyway its back now.. And if anyone wants to implement infinite scroll on their site they can grab the code at: infinite-scroll.com

  34. ubercherry said on January 16th at 3:53 pm :

    i really dig the new design. thanks for all the great musical discoveries. and all the best for the new year! :)

  35. Jonathan said on January 17th at 12:09 pm :

    wonderful website – I’ve been reading for a couple years & I love the new design!

  36. Alan said on January 17th at 9:40 pm :

    I love the redesign! So slick and clean. More posts please… I love the music you feature but lately there’s been so little of it.

  37. Kevin C said on January 18th at 7:26 pm :

    I hate this new design! For some reason, it moves VERY slow for me.

  38. Nicolas Yarosz said on January 25th at 1:36 am :

    Thank you Paul and co.
    I’ve been around here a little while and have ya’ll to thank for much of my musical taste.

    The new look feels like blankets wrapped around me on a cool morning at the beach with the sun about to rise over the sea.

  39. Dessy said on January 31st at 3:21 am :

    I love the new design! Exactly the right feel to the amazing music on here.
    Congrats on four years.. wow. and i’ve only been lurking around for a year! :)

    please keep posting! thanks!

  40. IcyS said on February 22nd at 9:35 pm :

    Sorry – “New Look” is horrible. Try again.

  41. kusum said on March 5th at 11:40 pm :

    first time hear…I KNOW…and I sit across from you paul!! digging the name, loving the logo (nice work tom!) and a pleasantly enjoyable site — like the big images– with some very eclectic stuff that am loving…

  42. Le TeeTee said on March 11th at 11:32 am :

    I just love your site :)
    amazing music, nice looks, friendly!!

  43. Paul said on August 31st at 1:30 pm :

    Thank you for your work. A great place to exam non-commercial experiements in sound. Keep up the good work and helping creative people have an opportunity to be heard.

  44. Jeff said on November 17th at 8:30 pm :

    I typed in secret music, and lo the secret was reaveled.

    I knew that if a website like this didn’t exist, someone would have to invent it. Thank you, God!

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