It seems that inspiriation for the Transportica may really just be everything I enjoyed as a child. The Hitchhikder’s Guide to the Galaxy was certainly one of those things.

And probably whack you for reminding him how old he was :)

It seems that inspiriation for the Transportica may really just be everything I enjoyed as a child. The Hitchhikder’s Guide to the Galaxy was certainly one of those things.

I’ve not asked where Tim, the writer behind the inpsired vehicle descriptions, gets his ideas from. I would expect him to be a fan of Douglas Adams too.

Did you show it to your wife as well? :)

I did. She agreed, Douglas would have been fascinated with the site.

And I like the black tape — provides a nice jarring discontinuity that for some reason works with this design. :)

As for the black tape – it stays. I’ve had positive comments for it from trusted sources now so I’m reassured that it gives a more handmade feel to the design – which is exactly what I wanted.

The glow around the letters is meant to resemble the stretching that occurs on the plastic. I’ve discovered this isn’t what happens in reality but when the glow/blur/stretching is removed the tape looks less real – to me, at least.

I still may remove it but as I can’t please everyone I’m content to leave it there. When I start the site changes I will consider taking it.

I shall also consider doing as you say, Vivien, with the ripped paper idea. That is a good compromise. But in defence of the tape, the ripped paper is a little obvious – that’s why the tape was used. I can’t remember seeing that black tape used before in this kind of design and yet it is an instantly recognisable item. Perhaps if I think of something I consider equally non cliché to replace it with then I’ll do that. But the ripped paper idea is certainly a good candidate for now.

I do need to create a few more links/buttons near the top so that area of the header may get eaten up with such things. The tape will then be forced to go.

Now, since we started this discussion, Nick, how about using the same technique you did to get that aged piece of paper for “frequent revelations into pioneering future…” tagline, place a similar strip of paper on top of the book cover with “Codex Transportica” on it. That way it would look that you’ve ripped a piece of paper from the book with its title.

Oh, and could you make the header graphic clickable? I know you have the home button right below, but it’s such a convention to have the title lead back to the homepage.

I thought some people might have trouble reading the main title so I put the tape there to make things clearer. Using tape rather than something else seemed more believable to me as I’m sure I’ve seen it done for real. I also liked the justaposition of the two typefaces – to me, it implies that what you are about to find on the website isn’t serious, it will be quirky, etc., etc. I also liked the idea of not being respectful to the book, the header does imply that I have hacked the cover of the book apart to fix it to a wooden frame. Perhaps I have overthought what I was trying to convey.

I’ll see if anyone else agrees with you and consider removing it. I guess no one has trouble reading the main title anyway so there really isn’t any need for the tape.

Thanks for bringing it to my attention.