Colophon

Vision

This archive was built with a single goal: to create the best possible digital experience for encountering a lifetime of work.

Every design decision serves the work first. Every technical choice prioritizes clarity, accessibility, and permanence.

Technical Architecture

Frontend: Hand-authored HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. No framework dependencies. Pure web standards for maximum longevity.

• Markup: Semantic HTML5, validated against WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards
• Styling: CSS3 with CSS custom properties (variables) for consistent theming across all pages
• Interactivity: Vanilla JavaScript for progressive enhancement—all core content visible without JavaScript
• Icons: Material Symbols Outlined from Google Fonts
• Fonts: Self-hosted Newsreader (display) and IBM Plex Mono (code), avoiding external dependencies

Performance & Caching

• Service Worker: Offline-first strategy for images, cached catalogue JSON, and network-first for HTML/CSS/JS
• Responsive Images: AVIF, WebP, and JPEG fallbacks; lazy loading for performance
• Catalogue: 1,087 documented works loaded dynamically with client-side filtering and search
• Build Tools: Python generators for catalogue pages, bash scripts for asset processing

Data Integrity

• Source of Truth: config/catalog.json — 1,087 works with documented dates, dimensions, materials, and provenance
• Honest Uncertainty: Decade-guesses marked as approx., lost works rendered as absence rather than invention
• Composites Disclosed: 159 imagined or fabricated works explicitly flagged and separated from documentary material
• Verification: All counts derived from source data, not hardcoded—automated gate checks for consistency

Design System

Theme: "The Unbuilt Archive"—a dark/gold Material Design 3 system inspired by museum display cases and archival folios.

• Color Palette: Deep carbon (#0a0a0c) with museum gold (#d4af37) accents, warm bone text (#e5e1e4)
• Typography: Newsreader serif for headlines (evoking lapidary inscriptions), EB Garamond for body text
• Motion: Material Design 3 timing standard (300ms cubic-bezier) for consistent, deliberate transitions
• Accessibility: Focus rings, high contrast text, prefers-reduced-motion compliance throughout

Built & Maintained

This site was designed and built by Jeffrey F. S. Neumann. It is maintained as a living archive, updated as new works are documented or recovered.

The source code is publicly available on GitHub for reference, study, or adaptation by other archivists and practitioners.

Philosophy

"Data-first is the governing design philosophy." This archive prioritizes what is measurably true over what is visually impressive. Uncertainty is visible. Absence is rendered honestly. The archive exists to help a future grandchild understand who Jeffrey was, and what he made—not to perform.