“The digital canvas is boundless, limited only by imagination and rendering time.” - Greg Aster
Site Overview
dndiy.org
DNDIY.org serves as the digital hub for Greg Aster, an experimental filmmaker and animator whose work blends surrealism, satire, and cultural commentary. The site functions as both portfolio and playground, showcasing Aster’s projects while embodying his distinct aesthetic sensibilities.
The website’s design balances accessibility with artistic expression, featuring an intuitive navigation system that guides visitors through Aster’s body of work while maintaining visual intrigue through thoughtful typography, color usage, and interactive elements.
Perhaps most notably, dndiy.org doesn’t just display creative work—it extends the creative experience through purposeful design choices that complement the content’s themes and tones.
Site Philosophy:
“DNDIY stands for ‘Do Not Do It Yourself’—an ironic statement from someone who primarily works solo. The name encapsulates the tension between independent creation and collaborative possibility, acknowledging that even the most personal projects draw from collective cultural contexts.”
Featured Projects
The site showcases several of Aster’s distinctive projects, each presented with immersive documentation that extends beyond simple video embeds to include process materials, explanatory text, and contextual information.
MEGA MEAL Universe
A satirical multimedia project exploring fast food culture, corporate dystopia, and consumer identity through parody trailers, character lore, and an expansive fictional universe. The project includes an intricate timeline spanning from “The Beginning of Time” through the “Transtemporal Singularity Conflict” and beyond.
The Melancholy Adventures of Steamboat Willie
A reimagining of the recently public domain “Steamboat Willie” cartoon, infusing it with themes of mortality and loss. This project blends rotoscoping, colorization, and original audio to transform the classic animation into a reflection on time and memory.
Design Elements
The site employs several distinctive design elements that enhance the user experience while reflecting Aster’s creative sensibilities:
Visual Aesthetics
- Interactive Timeline: For the MEGA MEAL Universe, visitors can explore key events through multiple view modes including Timeline, List, Tree, and Map visualizations
- Collapsible Content Sections: Playful “meal size” sections (Kiddie, Large, MEGA) that expand to reveal varying depths of content
- Dynamic Color Schemes: Thoughtful implementation of both light and dark modes with accent color variations
- Custom Card Components: Information is presented in visually distinct card layouts that create rhythm and hierarchy
- Animated GIF Integration: Strategic use of motion graphics to highlight key concepts and add visual interest
- Typographic Variety: Purposeful mixing of typefaces to delineate content types and establish mood
Content Strategy
The site’s content strategy reflects a careful balance of accessibility and depth:
Layered Information Architecture
Content is structured in progressive layers, allowing casual visitors to browse surface-level information while offering deeper dives for those who want comprehensive understanding of projects.
Multimedia Integration
Each project page integrates various media types—videos, images, GIFs, interactive elements—creating a rich tapestry that more fully represents the work than any single medium could.
Process Documentation
Behind-the-scenes material and creative process insights accompany finished work, providing context and deepening appreciation for the technical and conceptual aspects of each project.
Narrative Framing
Project descriptions are crafted with narrative sophistication, situating the work within both personal creative evolution and broader cultural contexts.
Technical Implementation
Modern Web Architecture
DNDIY.org leverages contemporary web technologies to create a responsive, performant experience that accommodates Aster’s media-rich content without sacrificing load times or accessibility.
The site is built using a React-based framework with MDX for content management, allowing for the seamless integration of interactive components within markdown documentation. This hybrid approach enables rich media presentation while maintaining content portability and separation of concerns.
Key technical features include:
- Responsive design optimized for both desktop and mobile experiences
- Progressive image loading with blur-up placeholders for performance
- Client-side interactive components embedded within static content
- Custom video players with enhanced playback controls
- Integrated timeline visualization system with multiple view modes
- Dark/light mode toggle with color theme persistence
Inspirational Elements for Template Users
For creators using this template, DNDIY.org offers several noteworthy implementation strategies:
Adaptable Patterns
- Content Progression: The “meal size” approach to content display (Kiddie, Large, MEGA) offers an elegant solution for presenting information at varying depths
- Media Integration: Techniques for embedding and enhancing video content with supporting materials
- Timeline Components: The interactive timeline system provides a compelling way to present chronological information
- Card-Based Layouts: Various card implementations demonstrate flexible content containers
- Typography Combinations: Thoughtful pairing of fonts for different content types
- Color Theme Implementation: Sophisticated approach to color schemes with dynamic accent colors
Conclusion
DNDIY.org exemplifies how a personal creative website can transcend simple portfolio presentation to become an extension of the creator’s artistic practice. The site doesn’t merely document Greg Aster’s work—it amplifies it through thoughtful design, innovative presentation, and technological implementation that serves the content rather than overshadowing it.
For template users, the site offers valuable inspiration in balancing artistic expression with usability, depth with accessibility, and technical sophistication with content primacy. Whether adapting specific components or drawing broader conceptual inspiration, DNDIY.org demonstrates the potential of the modern web as a canvas for creative expression.
“A website is more than a container—it’s a context that shapes how work is perceived. The medium is part of the message, especially in digital space where the boundaries between content and presentation are increasingly fluid.”
— Greg Aster