The Create version eight layout was probably the most well received Create layout outside of the original one. This layout borrows a lot from some previous layouts I had worked on, including the versions six and seven Create layouts which share a similar color profile and header setup, as well as the Synthetic Art layout which was the one that inspired those two previous Create layouts. Where the version eight layout differs was in it’s basic structure, there was a lot more going on. From the animated feature area, something I had toyed with on the version five and six layouts but finally got right here, to the more detailed navigation area. All in all this may have been the best layout Create ever sported, and it probably should have stuck around a little longer than it did. This layout was made in Photoshop 7, the banner was borrowed from my wallpaper Dream of Change, with some coloration to fit this theme more.

This layout is kinda a bridge between two different points of my designing era on groups. Before this I had spent quite awhile working in a very simply, yet detailed, style. This style was generally white or grey in nature. Through 8 previous layouts create had pretty much stuck to this style with very few deviations, especially the 3-4 layouts directly before this one. After this point however, I started to branch out more, and while this wasn’t really the defining layout that caused me to do so, it was one of them. To this day I’m still really happy with this one, I think it’s a pretty nice design, it’s well organized, it has nice pattern work and the fonts look nice. All in all I probably should have kept this one around a little longer before moving on to version ten and eleven, which were less well received.

Ah the first redesign of Create, which happened probably a good 3 months or so into it’s life, which was about the norm for a redesign for the site, every few months or so. This version was a big shift from the original design, but still somewhat minimal. As I recall I went through about three concept designs before I ended up with this one, I picked a few things from each of them and together they kinda fused into the final layout (I still have the concept designs, I will upload them at some point). Looking back I’m very fond of the content area of this layout, it was the first time I had done avatars this way, something that would be a staple of my layouts for about 6 months. It also blends very well, perhaps a little more color would have been nice. Also I’m still very disappointed with the upper area and banner for this layout, as I recall I had a lot of trouble fitting something into the design and it shows, I wish I would have spent more time on it and perhaps version 3 would have been vastly different then what it ended up being.

Create was one of the biggest and best things I ever did on MSN Groups, as a community it opened in the summer of 2005, in fact just about this time 7 years ago. Before I joined the Create team I was working on some RPGs but I had largely removed myself from the greater community, Create was my chance to get back into the game and make a place for myself again. Over the next 3 some odd years Create thrived as a community, we went through 11 different designs, 4 different groups, and a .com of sorts. In the end everything went to shit, but that’s how community sites always end so that was to be expected, but during my time as a member of the Create team we did some pretty awesome things and this layout was the start of all of them.