So I redid the 404 page on my website because I read a webpage about good 404 pages, and decided my existing page just wasn’t. I mean, well, look at it. I was kind of tired of the worn quote about missing pages. I contemplated several other design ideas before finally settling on the talking tree reading poetry that I made up about the missing file.
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Its kind of funny how creative inspiration comes sometimes. I wasn’t inspired by other sites other than it needs something not text to liven it up, was coming up with some ideas but they were all cheesy or impractical. But then I randomly thought “gee maybe it’d be neat to put a scripture on the page” and then one thing led to another. All of a sudden, it had a theme and unique original content.
For the record, I didn’t draw the talking tree, though I did contemplate redrawing it myself, but ultimately decided to take the clip-art coloring book page and just do what it was meant for–coloring, but in the the new-fangled digital way! And there’s some scattered scripture references and quotes if you look carefully, though I didn’t cite the references on the site. (For the record they are: Ecclesiastes 2:12, 2:19, 3:1, 3:6)
For reference, for those of you who are unfamiliar with UCSD’s Stuart Art collection, one of the art pieces is a set of three sculpted “trees” in a eucalyptus grove near the center of campus. One of them, my inspiration, is the talking tree, it reads poetry at all hours of the day and night. There’s a second tree is the singing tree, and the third is the silent tree.
Here’s a few pictures from flickr of UCSD’s talking tree from flickr users:
