From left to right, Bandito homepage V2 built with Index Exhibit in 2010, Bandito homepage V3 built with Squarespace in 2014. Not pictured: Bandito hompage V1 built with broken twigs and saliva in 2009.
Back when Bandito Design Co. started in 2009, website creation was a little... different. I had just graduated from arts school where my Graphic Design major required me to take three "web design" classes. I suppose the web world was in flux at that moment because all I learned to do was build websites with TABLES and FLASH. I still have action script nightmares. IF THIS, THEN WHAT?!?!
The very first Bandito site was all custom built in Dreamweaver and used an Etsy shop. I even managed to toss some sloppy javascript in there. This was fine, because I only had about three posters to talk about, no blog, and an external shop. This "short bus" of a website was up and running, and boy was I proud. I am happy to say there is no current record of this site.
A year later, I heard about Index Exhibit. All the new graduating seniors from CCAD were building their portfolio sites with this, so I had to pick up my game. I fumbled my way through creating a very simple site with six pages, an embedded Tumblr feed (fancy), and still had an external shop (Big Cartel). This worked, and it stayed this way for a good while, but I yearned for a website that had everything in one place.
After making a few small event websites for work using Squarespace, I realized how much things have changed for the non-developer. I could make decent looking websites, easily, and fast. So I decided to see what a new Bandito site would look like. (look for yourself)
Well, Squarespace let me import all my old blog posts from Tumblr, import all product images and information from Big Cartel, and keep everything in one place. The usability of the website editor also really impressed me. Everything was really straight-forward and if I couldn't figure it out, there was an answer from the SS community somewhere online. (I did get some help embedding a Dribbble feed into the homepage from Rogie)
In summation: The times are a changin', I can officially say "back in my day" while referring to the internet, and I somehow managed to cobble together a website I am proud of with my limited knowledge of internets.