Yesterday my boss called me into his office in the morning. After assuring me I wasn't in trouble he told me that he had shown some print catalog mock-ups I did to the owner and the lead programmer. They were really impressed with them and wanted me to do a mockup of the website, which they are planning on overhauling.

They gave me two days and my boss told me to just work on the mock-up and set aside my regular duties. So here are my results after the first two days.

My first attempt was a disaster. The tabs at the top didn't quite work, and the categories heading looks really stupid. In fact, just about nothing works here.

This was my second design, which is also really stupid. It's way to bubbly and Disney-ish. As Oli said "It looks like OS X from 2001."

So I actually took some time to consider a stylish and functional design. I kept the tabs and drop shadows, but toned everything way down. It's still not right though, and I didn't like the color of the tab bar very much. But rather than changing it I scraped the whole thing.

This is my fourth attempt and by far the most refined. I toned down the drop shadows and brought everything under control, finalized a color scheme, and tied everything together. You can see the tab bar in regular as well as brushed metal - I'm not sure which one I like better. I think brushed metal is cool, but it will probably go out of style sooner.

So that's what I've been up to.