what are all those annoying animated graphics on all these indie sites?

*affecting granny voice* "back in my day", websites used to have tons of obnoxious animation because it was just the graphic design choice du jour. under construction banners that broke over and over again, scrolling text, and trailing cursors were all over the place. the mentality was almost to build these things just because we finally could. (if you think creepy targeted ads are annoying, imagine accidentally stumbling into a part of the web that was full of pop-ups.)

however, these animated graphics actually all served distinct purposes. to carefully curate a website full of animated gifs like blinkies and stamps meant to align oneself subculturally with whatever you were interested in. 100px by 100px animated icons were for LiveJournal and Xanga, and 50px by 50px animated icons were for AIM. remember: web 1.0 and early web 2.0 were opportunities for self-expression, and truly, not in the weird 140 max characters way of later web 2.0.

on this page, we'll explore the various kinds of retro graphics you can use to decorate your website, where to get your hands on them, and how to use them tastefully. (or as tastefully as one can use a flashing rainbow blinkie that literally screams BEST PUSSY DISORDER!!! in all caps.) (oh, warning, by the way: there's going to be NSFW content on this page. not, like, super NSFW, but NSFW enough that you shouldn't be on this site on your work computer, or if you are a minor. which... if either of those things are true, what are you doing on this site in the first place?)

the ubiquitous blinkie

blinkies do exactly what it says on their tin: they blink! they are quite thin animated banners, almost universally with proportions of 15:2, most classically with the dimensions 150px by 20px but sometimes bigger (almost never smaller) depending on what purpose they serve. you can find all the blinkies I've collected or made for this site over at the me page of this site. (I used to have them all on my left sidebar, but I collected too many and it started making my site look messy.)

the greater social purpose a blinkie serves is to send a message. what message might that be? whatever you want it to be! mine are, as you can see, mostly music, but there are also some about who I am and how I live my life, too. people might pick blinkies of their favorite fandoms for TV, movies, or music; animals; or just snarky, joke-y little sayings.

you get your blinkies either by finding them off other people's websites, or making them. when you get your blinkies from other people's websites, it's a good idea to link to the website you got it from. while it's possible that they got their blinkie off of someone else, it's also possible they made the blinkie. you can make blinkies either using blinkie template sites, or a photo editing software like Photoshop.

here are some great websites for getting/making blinkies:

buttons

buttons are images, most often animated .gifs, with the dimensions 88px by 31px. like blinkies, a button's job is to convey a message. unlike blinkies, rather than showing affinity for an interest, fandom, or subculture, buttons are more likely to convey a technological message. this is because--again, unlike blinkies--the button's fixed dimensions of 88px by 31px is a reference to the Start menu from Windows 95 (swoon).

still, though, buttons don't need to convey a technical message. they can be about anything you want them to be, including your website itself. it's common to make a button for your website, then trade buttons with your friends so that you can use their buttons to link to their sites. here are some great starter resources for making buttons:

  • sadness97 button maker: super straightforward button generator. upload a background, insert text, bam. you can also use the Start button template.
  • datakra.sh button generator: a more extensive button generator with dozens of templates, as well as some premade buttons.
  • hekate2's button maker: a button maker with some options for including logos like Windows and Netscape (NETSCAPE! do you DIE?!)

likewise, you can use the k1yosh1k1tsun3 tutorial or the blinkies.cafe tutorial for blinkies we talked about before to make buttons, too. you just have to make your images 88px by 31px specifically instead.

here are some places where you can download and save some buttons: