So, the other day I got this weird urge. I was looking through some old files, backups from backups, you know how it is. And I stumbled upon a project folder simply labeled ‘Website_2017’. Curiosity got the better of me, so I decided, what the heck, let’s try and rebuild something with that kinda feel, that ‘2017 style’.
First thing was trying to remember what that even meant. It wasn’t that long ago, but feels like a different era in web stuff. I fired up my code editor. Didn’t need fancy frameworks, not for this trip down memory lane. I just started with a basic HTML file.
Getting Hands Dirty
I remembered big images were a thing. Like, huge background photos right at the top. So, I grabbed a decent-looking landscape photo. Slapped that into the CSS as a background for the header section. Easy enough.
Then, fonts. What were we using back then? Seemed like lots of clean sans-serifs were popular, maybe Open Sans or Lato? Pulled one of those in. Felt kinda… plain, but familiar.
Next up, I recalled those ghost buttons. You know, the buttons with just an outline, transparent inside? Threw one of those onto the big header image. Simple border, white text. Yeah, that looked very 2017.
Building out the sections:
- Needed some flat color blocks. Grabbed a few muted blues and grays.
- Icons! Font Awesome was everywhere. Had to remember how to link that up again. Put some simple icons next to text sections.
- Tried to add one of those parallax scrolling effects on a background image further down the page. Took a bit of fiddling with JavaScript, simpler stuff, probably jQuery back then. It kinda worked, but felt a bit jittery compared to modern ways.
Honestly, putting it together felt way simpler in some ways. Less complex tooling, less setup. Just HTML, CSS, a sprinkle of jQuery maybe. But also, kinda limited? Making things responsive took more manual effort, more tweaking specific pixel values in media queries. Felt clunky.
Looking Back at It
The whole process was interesting. It wasn’t about making the ‘best’ site by today’s standards. It was about remembering how we did things. That style, it was clean, focused on big visuals and clear typography. But it also relied on tricks and libraries that feel a bit dated now.
The final result? It looked… well, it looked like a website from 2017. Functional, kinda stylish in its own way, but definitely not cutting edge. It was a fun little exercise, though. Reminded me how fast things change. What felt modern just a few years back now has this distinct ‘period’ look. Makes you wonder what people will think of today’s styles in 2029, right?
