1

On the web

In 2000, when I was just back from my service in the Peace Corps and working at an Internet start-up company (PlanetKnowHow), I engaged my co-worker Amy Ringholz to design elements for a new Web site. The first design depicted aspen trees at the family campground in Wisconsin and a Raven's Roost signpost. Amy and I hand-coded the home page, I launched it in July, and I updated it throughout the year.

Zuiker Chronicles Online continued the tradition of my grandfather, who got to see the site just before he died in September of that year.

See the site in its original form, with pages about Frank the Beachcomber and my post-service travel with Erin.

2

Over the next few years as I evolved this site (and built others), I cycled through various blogging software, including Greymatter, Blogger, TypePad, Movable Type, pMachine Pro, and Expression Engine. I also embedded dozens of tools including webmail, maps, bulletin board, photo galleries, and family tree.

3

A new brand

Having followed the work of Dean Allen, I was determined to use his new Textpattern CMS for both the Zuiker Chronicles and my personal blog, which started at anton.zuiker.com and then moved to mistersugar.com.

In November 2005, I relaunched the Chronicles on Textpattern and introduced an updated “Raven’s Roost” logo designed by Kelly Marks. The font for the logo was meant to evoke the original typewritten Zuiker Chronicles sent out by Frank the Beachcomber and others. Because I was blogging almost daily at mistersugar, posts to this site were few and far between.

4

A minimal look

After a blogging and social media sabbatical, I ended my run at mistersugar.com and returned to zuiker.com.

For a redesign, I considered Foundation and UIKit and other frameworks, then settled on the Skeleton CSS boilerplate. Leo Babauta’s minimal web ethos inspired my approach to an updated yet simple site that didn't use any of the logo designs. Fonts were Concourse and Equity, and the tutorials Butterick’s Practical Typography and Interactive Guide to Blog Typography were instructive.

5

Now, a turtle

When I wrote a "vivid vision" to describe the next years of my life (health, family & friends, finances, work, writing), I promised myself a new look, including for this site.

So, in January 2025, I engaged designer Ning Kantida to create a new brand for the Zuiker Chronicles that would continue to honor Frank the Beachcomber but also reflect my interest in turtles and my slowish writing. Read more about the assignment.

In May, I launched a redesign of the site following Ning's design guide. I studied many CSS packages and chose to use the older Mustard CSS framework (mostly because I wanted to use the cool stepper component as you're reading now). Fonts are Figtree, Wilco Loft Sans, and Bitter ht.