What's New

29 July 2026

Second round of feedback fixes

• The red statement text on the manifesto page is bolder now — same weight as the black text it sits with — so it reads clearly through the floating stills behind it.
• Floating stills on the manifesto and essay pages are clickable across their whole area again. Previously the text column sat invisibly on top of them and swallowed the clicks.
• “What we do” sits lower on the manifesto page.
• The CRT scanlines over the essay hero no longer bleed onto the sub-heading.
• The essay page’s pull-quotes now use the same typeface, size and weight as the manifesto statements, and the gap between them is about 40% tighter.
• The essay page’s pull-quotes also pick up the manifesto page’s overlap-colour trick — the text switches colour exactly where a drifting still crosses it.
• Ticker headlines are links — every one points at the essay page for now, with hover and keyboard-focus states. The ticker pauses when you hover or focus it, so a moving headline can actually be clicked.
• “Enter the Blip” sits closer under the Enlist button, with tighter letter-spacing.

16 July 2026

• Ticker titles are separated by bullets, with an “Anarchist Film Club” ransom-note marker punctuating every third title.
• The event section on the alternate homepage is flanked by tickers top and bottom.

15 July 2026

• CRT scanlines applied to the full-frame stills on the essay page.
• New glitch work: a pattern sweep on the animated event page and a disruption modal on the essay page, plus shared tuning across the glitch styles.
• The manifesto hero is now a looping scramble-text line instead of a static headline.
• Homepage fixes: removed a wrong nav highlight, a ticker breaker per title, scanline treatment on red, working article links, and a “Featured” label.

8 July 2026

• Two new pages showing image effects in real layouts: an alternate event page and an alternate essay page.
• New showcases: an animated event page and a set of image-effect studies (glitch, pixel dissolve, disintegration, scroll-linked reveals).
• The essay hero image is the new cinema-as-protest still.
• Overlap-colour on the manifesto stills — text changes colour only where a drifting image crosses it — now larger and centred.
• Newly-added strips got previous/next scroll controls.
• A general motion and polish pass: entrance and scroll animations, scanline and header fixes.

30 June 2026

• The two homepages now share components instead of duplicating markup.
• Film page aligned to the type system: ink hero, filmography panel.
• Essay page reworked: floaty-parallax pull-quotes, new second fold, new author panel.
• Event pages share a related-films panel; cream “Don’t miss” section.
• Manifesto page: taller hero, animated statement icons, crisper type.
• Header: bigger left-cropped logo on a slanted red plaque.

29 June 2026

First round of client feedback

• Global typography pass: heavier condensed headings, tighter tracking, sizes reduced roughly 20% across the new pages.
• Header rebuilt — bigger logo, real desktop nav, hides on scroll.
• Homepage: staggered tickers, full-height lead feature, resized trending, bubble counts.
• Shared components reworked: “Don’t miss”, newsletter, footer.
• Event pages: pattern demo, title wipe-in, partners strip, ink FAQ.
• Manifesto page: padding, parallax shadow, stills lightbox, typewriter.

25 June 2026

Rebuilt on Astro

• The site moved from standalone static HTML files to Astro, so pages share one head, one set of fonts and one stylesheet instead of each re-declaring their own.
• All the old pages were ported to Astro routes; pre-June designs are kept as-is under /archive/.
• The June 2026 design pages were built out: home (two variants), manifesto, event (two variants), film and essay.
• Subtle motion from the old pages was adapted onto the new ones.
• The design and asset spec pages were added.

5 May 2026

Red edge-burn dividers and centered article ending

• Hand-painted red edge-burn textures now separate major sections on both the homepage and article page — rendered as CSS pseudo-elements so they overlay cleanly with transparent fade.
• The article ending (last section + byline + author bio) is now a single centered column instead of a side-by-side grid. The author panel uses the same dark theme as the article body — red accent text, ring around the photo, red tag pills.
• A subtle vertical burn texture edges the “Films in this article” sidebar on desktop.

Layout breathing room, animated headlines, and centered copy

• “Enter the Blip” headline now animates in word-by-word on scroll — on both the homepage and article page.
• Hero image focus shifted to the right so the character isn’t cropped on smaller screens.
• The manifesto sidebar (“A Remake Works When It Asks…”) moved below the Salaam Bombay photo section into its own full-width block.
• The Salaam Bombay section is taller with more space between the two quotes. The overlapping text layers got better depth.
• The typewriter quote (“This story deserves to reach a new generation.”) now spans much wider — nearly full screen on desktop.
• All article body copy is centered with equal margins on both sides instead of left-aligned.
• Full-width images break out of the text column cleanly at all screen sizes.

Protest vibes, slower typewriter, manifesto sidebar, and subtle polish

• “Cinema as Protest” now looks like protest placards — dark text on red blocks for each word. Feels more like a statement than a headline.
• The typewriter pull quote is now BLIP red instead of cream, and types much slower so you can actually read it as it appears.
• The “Enter the Blip” newsletter section on the article page has a red background, matching the homepage.
• The sidebar next to “The Difference Between Memory and Recycling” now has a manifesto-style block: “A REMAKE WORKS WHEN IT ASKS: What does this story mean now?” vs “A REBOOT FAILS WHEN IT ASKS: What did audiences already like?” — with ransom-note styled labels that animate in on scroll.
• Section headings throughout the article fade up as you scroll to them.
• A subtle film grain texture on the hero image and homepage featured photo.
• An “Anarchist Film Club” micro-badge appears in the byline on both pages — a small tilted stamp, barely visible, like a zine mark.

Article page polish — layout fixes, author panel, film card

• “Films in this article” is now a centered card — big poster, film title, director, language, and pagination dots all aligned in the middle.
• Fixed a red background bleeding through the right side and top of the article page. The page background is now dark throughout.
• The article ending is a two-column layout: last section and byline on the left, the author’s photo, bio, email and tags on a red panel on the right.

A big round of changes across the homepage and article page

• “Stories that slipped past the system” is now the entire first fold — big, bold, with a strip-based glitch animation that feels like a signal breaking through static.
• The featured article and Latest feed sit side by side on desktop. Latest is text-only headlines — scannable at a glance.
• The featured story headline overlaps the image so photo and title feel like one piece. The buzzing flame icon moved inside the image.
• The mobile homepage uses space better — the headline sits at the bottom of the screen like a poster.
• “Ruins.” changed to cream so it’s readable (was red-on-red).
• Parallax on the featured image — a slow drift and zoom on a 14-second cycle.
• The Latest feed has six stories with types and locations. Thumbnails are bigger on mobile.
• More film posters in “Newly Added” to fill wider screens. Auto-scroll removed — swipe only.
• “Enter the Blip” is roughly 3× bigger with a rounder email field and more breathing room.
• “Don’t Miss” removed — the page flows better without it.
• The buzzing icon is BLIP’s own red flame from the design system instead of a generic emoji.
• Navigation uses the same bold condensed typeface as headlines. The burger menu is mobile-only.
• The article page opens with a full-screen image and “Cinema as Protest” animating in word by word.
• The article body is dark with cream text, sidebar on red. Text is larger with better line spacing.
• Salaam Bombay images are clickable — full-screen gallery with arrow keys. Text colour flips where images overlap.
• “This story deserves to reach a new generation.” types itself out character by character when you scroll to it.
• Logo and burger menu added to the article page header on mobile and desktop.
• “Don’t Miss” images on the article page are greyscale until hovered, then colour with a subtle zoom.
• This changelog page now exists.