v122025
Framer
Framer
The version this site replaces. A poster ticker, a live Des Moines clock, and project cards that blur and bloom on hover.
A complete static mirror captured before the move.
Past versions.
This site has been rebuilt a dozen times since 2005, and I was on the web for years before that. I keep the old versions around to hold their links open and to see how far the work has come.
- v112022
Uncode
WordPress on Uncode, hosted at Flywheel
“Hello! I'm Josh.” Work, photography, about and contact, with a shop and the blog carried forward.
A complete server backup: files and database both.
- v102019
Beautiful Chaos
Squarespace 7
A full design-portfolio index built from stacked sections. The most heavily archived version of the site, with 342 captures in 2019 alone.
Wayback Machine, May 2020.
- v92016
Visual culture
Squarespace 7
A portfolio landing page set in Playfair Display, opening with “We live in a visual culture”, with posters for sale.
Wayback Machine, October 2017.
- v82014
Squarespace, blog first
Squarespace 7
The move off WordPress, explained at the time in a post called Why I Chose Squarespace Over WordPress.
Wayback Machine, October 2014.
- v72013
JoshByers 2013
WordPress on Genesis, own child theme
Near-black on off-white with one hot orange-red accent, set in Lato. Ran alongside a digital products store.
Wayback Machine, July 2013, plus the local theme and the store database.
- v62011
Minimal Fabric
WordPress on Genesis, own child theme
A fabric texture, a circular jb monogram, and the line “josh byers writes about books, culture, ministry, wordpress, design and family”. The first design that was entirely his own code.
Wayback Machine, April 2012, patched from the local theme and its Photoshop files.
- v52009
Clean Home
WordPress, Clean Home theme
Two columns with a right sidebar and a widgetised strip under the header. The WordPress admin was custom-branded to match.
Wayback Machine, January 2010, plus the local theme files.
- v42007
Simplicity
WordPress, Simplicity10 theme
Subtitled My Digital Playground of Fun and Frivolity. Pure blog, no portfolio.
Wayback Machine, April 2008.
- v32006
Joshingway
WordPress, custom theme
Blog plus a portfolio teaser, with Flickr feeds and a lightbox. The first version to call itself Graphic Designer / Web Developer.
Wayback Machine, March 2007.
- v22006
Mocha
WordPress 2.0
A 780px column on pale grey-blue, image-button navigation, chocolate and olive accents. The first joshbyers.com blog, announced with a post called Change Is In The Air.
Wayback Machine, August 2006.
- v12005
Flash portfolio
Hand-built HTML, Flash galleries, ASP contact form
Chocolate brown and gold, an 800×600 sliced table, and five self-contained Flash galleries. Never captured by the Internet Archive; it survives only as a local backup.
Local backup. The galleries can be rebuilt in HTML from the surviving photos.xml manifests and image sets.
Before this site.
Studio brands and family sites that ran alongside or before joshbyers.com.
1998–2005 The Byers Family
FrontPage, then Dreamweaver, Flash chrome
byershome.com. A family site with a Flash menu, a forum, a newsletter and photo albums, which became a WordPress blog tagged “Part of Your Complete Breakfast…”.
Local backup with its database, plus three eras from the Wayback Machine.
Visit2005 The Byers Family, CSS redesign
Dreamweaver templates
byershome.com. A family site with a Flash menu, a forum, a newsletter and photo albums, which became a WordPress blog tagged “Part of Your Complete Breakfast…”.
Local backup with its database, plus three eras from the Wayback Machine.
Visit2005–2006 ByersHome.com
WordPress 2.0, Blix
byershome.com. A family site with a Flash menu, a forum, a newsletter and photo albums, which became a WordPress blog tagged “Part of Your Complete Breakfast…”.
Local backup with its database, plus three eras from the Wayback Machine.
Visit2003–2004 Jayberz Design
Hand-built HTML
The first freelance brand with a domain of its own.
Wayback Machine, September 2004.
Visit2004–2005 Red Letters Studio
Flash
The studio brand through five distinct designs, from a full-Flash site with a music player to a WordPress theme shop. It closed with the line “not accepting new projects at this time”.
Five eras from the Wayback Machine.
Visit2005–2007 Red Letters Studio
Flash
The studio brand through five distinct designs, from a full-Flash site with a music player to a WordPress theme shop. It closed with the line “not accepting new projects at this time”.
Five eras from the Wayback Machine.
Visit2007–2008 Red Letters Studio
WordPress 2.2
The studio brand through five distinct designs, from a full-Flash site with a music player to a WordPress theme shop. It closed with the line “not accepting new projects at this time”.
Five eras from the Wayback Machine.
Visit2009–2010 Red Letters Studio
WordPress, portfolio theme
The studio brand through five distinct designs, from a full-Flash site with a music player to a WordPress theme shop. It closed with the line “not accepting new projects at this time”.
Five eras from the Wayback Machine.
Visit2010–2013 Red Letters Studio
WordPress on Genesis
The studio brand through five distinct designs, from a full-Flash site with a music player to a WordPress theme shop. It closed with the line “not accepting new projects at this time”.
Five eras from the Wayback Machine.
Visit2010–2012 Yellow Brick Studio
WordPress.com
The first freelance brand. Nothing of it survives: the Internet Archive holds only a parking page's robots file, and the Flash source referenced on the family site is missing from every backup.
Not recovered.
Visit2023–2026 The Infinite Design Co
WordPress on Uncode
A black canvas, one hot magenta accent, and a subscription design service. Four rounds of copy and pricing on a single page.
A complete capture of the live site, plus three earlier versions rebuilt from the archive.
Visit2003–2004 Josh and Mickie
FrontPage
A married-couple homepage in butter yellow and cornflower blue, with a Flash navigation bar. It lived in a folder on the church's website and was never crawled.
Local backup only, merged from two partial copies.
No copy survives1997–1999 GeoCities
FrontPage on GeoCities
The first site of all, built the summer after high school for an a cappella group, and remembered mostly for its movie sound clips. Late-nineties GeoCities addresses were a neighbourhood and a number, so there is no name to search on.
Not recovered.
No copy survives