When I started the process of developing my web design skills to compliment my pre press experience around 1996-7 there really wasn’t a lot to go on in terms of online resources for advice, learning and inspiration to develop your skills in this area. There certainly was nothing in terms of classes and university courses. Of course these days online resources are a dime a dozen and there are many design blogs out there discussing best practices and showing off some amazing designs. Over the course of the past 12-13 years, many courses and subjects have flourished in the industry of web design and web development, making their mark on university campuses around the world, creating jobs that did not exist only a matter of a few years ago.
In 1997 web design resources were seldom, I soon discovered a website called AndyArt.com (now Scream Design), or Andy’s Art Attack created by Andy Evans of Utah. In 1997 this was for me the benchmark in web design, cleverly placed and animated gifs with rollovers with a 3D look and feel. It was something to behold and at the time there was nothing around to match the way Andy had carefully sliced and animated the individual images. Of course then I downloaded FutureSplash (bought out by Macromedia and now Adobe Flash), and the rest is history (a blog for another day).
Andy's Art Attack was one of the only online resources around in the 90's
Andy’s site grew into a plethora of FREE images, tips and tutorials on how to get the best results for designing for the web. He even had a CD rom for sale which I purchased by faxing payment details to the Untied States, and I still have it to this day. I couldn’t believe my luck in finding this awesome resource and it really catapulted my transition into screen design and inspired me from early on. Andy inspired me and helped me transition into full time commercial website design and development and I am happily still going strong to this day. So if you’re out there somewhere Andy, cheers my web Brother.
The CD Rom I purchased in 1997, started me on my way to transitioning to screen design
Tutorials was something of hige value back in the day
Update: New post and the old website
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Ha! The CD! I almost forgot about that!
I was so excited about getting access to the button vault 🙂
Good times
I just hit up Google to see if anyone else remembered this site and found this blog and your post. I never was able to buy the CD, but I think I had a short subscription to the Button Vault which I never actually used anything from, but I did draw SO much inspiration and learning from that site.
What a great blast from the past. I still miss that website to this day; it was such a great place to refer new Photoshop learners to. Thanks for the post. =D
Unbelievabley, this is exactly how I started to. I remember looking at Andy’s Art and thinking this is what I want to do. Of course he used Paint Shop Pro at the time (now defunct) and by the time I was master of PSP, Photoshop was all the rage and I am still breaking PSP habits to this day. Thanks for sharing!
Hello,
I also so excited to see the old Andy’s Art Attack Interface and CD. I am looking for Andy Evans. He disappeared suddenly. I can not believe how a famous man disapperad.
anyone know where is he, or what he does?
Thanks
Mesut TUNGA
I tried searching for him through Facebook with no luck. Would be great to touch base with him and see where he is and what he is up to.
Glad to meet some people who shared this experience.
Hello Brusca,
Also I wonder where did you find the interface and tutorials screenshot?
Thanks
Mesut TUNGA
The website is on the CD. Maybe I should republish it… LOL.
Ah.. Those were the days my friend 🙂
That logo still rocks!
I just post the old website. Enjoy. http://www.brucelevick.com/andyart/
very interesting to read it 😛
[…] back in April I posted Blast from the past, which was a post in regards to Andy Evans, who provided the web world with a plethora of FREE […]
[…] back in April I posted Blast from the past, which was a post in regards to Andy Evans, who provided the web world with a plethora of FREE […]
I need that CD ROM! I started out in digital design with Andy’s Art Attack too. My disc broke in 2001. Any chance there’s a zip of it somewhere on here? Thanks for the article and the archive of the site. I wish all the rest of the front page interfaces were on here too.
I haven’t done any zip of it. Will look into it for you.
Hi Brusca. I stumbled across your blog here by chance and saw the Andy Art Attack logo. It brought back some memories. I too was incredibly inspired by Andy and lived on his site during many dark cold evenings back in the late nineties. Designed a few web sites and ended up teaching it at university for a while. Still build some sites but its all CMS these days. I recall reading Andy’s story about how he got into digital art and web design and his statement that he couldn’t imagine doing anything else. I bought the CD too and still have it today and treasure it – it was so unique for its time and the graphics on it have stood the test of time (it’s really a valuable part of web history) – it seems to be somewhat of a collectible! I notice that Scream Design is still there on the web but seems abandoned. When Andy’s Art Attack was usurped by the Scream Design site, it never felt the same. It would be fascinating to know what happened to Andy and if he is still out there somewhere. It’s quite a mystery that such a legend just disappeared like that! Anyway, thanks for the memories mate. Cheers.
Hi Jeff,
Great to connect with you too through this awesome piece of web history. It is unfortunate that he has just disappeared and Scream Design is not something anybody can connect with the way you would with Andy so personally. I might have another search and see if I can dig anything up.
Brusca
Hi Brusca,
Thank you so very much for posting this. For me, and I’m sure MANY others, Andy’s Art Attack literally gave us the the encouragement to prove to ourselves that we can do this stuff. I was so intimidated by all of this until Andy’s Art Attack. Today I run my own online leather business on a site I built. I also build sites for others too. I loved learning and couldn’t get enough.
I’m wondering if http://www.andyevansdesign.com/ isn’t Andy’s site.
Your thoughts,
Ron
Hi Ron,
I can imagine we are only a select few who were inspired by Andy. Congrats on your online leather business. I think the Andy Evans you refer to is a bit young, some nice stuff there though.
Bruce
by the way, Scream Design was NO way near Andy’s Art Attack.
Ron
Indeed
I just pulled out my CD of Andy’s Art Attack which I purchased in 1996. It truly open my eyes to a new world of Web Design, back in the beginning. On occasions I will pull it out and use some his design just to remind me how much it has helped me. ;-7
Yeah indeed good times, That cd was evensomething to look at many times, there where no transparent cds back then and thoe interfaces, made me too a better designer back then…
I loved that site. The idiots that run scream design forced him out.
I’m glad I found this blog and I can relate to everyone who was around at that time building websites. AndyArt was a good inspiration to the beginning of that whole era.