avolve designs v5.x.2: a complete re-design and rebuild

Some time ago, it was decided that a scratch rebuild of the avolve designs website was the most effective option for us. A scratch reuibuild included scrapping existing content, starting from a blank slate. The last several months have provided ample time to work come up with a structure for the new site alongside coming up with a completely new and original design. Initially, drupal 6 was considered to power this new site—with this being seen as a valuable opportunity to get our hands dirty and gain a hands-on appreciation of the changes made to the drupal core.

Whilst poking around the back-end and enjoying the upgraded usability features of drupal 6, it was determined that the updating and rolling out of existing contributed modules would not meet our timeline to launch this new site. We returned to the familiarity of drupal 5. Based on our experiences, however, we modeled the design of the new avolve designs website on some of the changes and noteworthy predictions regarding the future direction of drupal. Most noteworthy for this site is the selective use of panels 2 (initially intended top take advantage of context and node overrides, now limited to mini panels). In working through this new approach to design a site, we have gained an appreciation of the revolutionary potential of panels for the layout of entire sites. A subsequent post will outline some of the experiences gained, and how these changed ways of thinking.

We think the clean look of the new avolve designs site largely reflects what we were seeking to achieve.