This Baheyeldin Dynasty web site, has been on the net since 1999. It started with a simple HTML only design, but quickly changed to a semi dynamic web site using a home brew content management system that used flat files, with includes for menus, statistics, user login, redirects and other functions. Here is how the site looked for almost four years.
In Summer of 2003, I discovered Drupal, and setup a plan to convert my old content to it. Testing continued intermittently over the rest of that year. The conversion to Drupal happened on January 2, 2004.
The site initially used a modified simplistic Bluemarine theme.
Later in fall of 2004, after upgrading to Drupal 4.5, it adopted a Pushbutton theme, looking like this.
Over the past weeks, Ivan Raszl of of Creative Bits has been designing a theme for this web site. His creative art and CSS is unsurpassed. He studied Arabic and Islamic calligraphy and graphic design, and it really shows in his work.
So this is what globalization is about: when you have an Egyptian Canadian getting his web site designed by a Hungarian who studied Arabic and Islamic calligraphy and living in Bahrain!
Here is a funny piece of trivia that highlights the difference between developers (geeks) and themers (artists):
When we were discussing the site design, I wanted to place a banner on top, like I did with the previous theme. Ivan insisted that the header be left alone. I said this is empty space, and that "why do all themers insist on having empty space", recalling what Chris Messina (FactoryJoe of CivicSpace) has told me before! His answer was the funniest thing I heard for days: "Why do you all non-designers have to fill every space there is!"
I already announced the new on Drupal Showcase, and was put for critique on Creative Bits. Most of the feedback is overwhelmingly positive.
The theme was initially called "Red Sea" because it was all blues. Later, oranges were added to it, so perhaps a better term is "Sea Mango".
Good job Ivan, and thanks!
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