Merry Christmallax is a superb Christmas greeting One Pager that takes us from wire-framing stage to polish as we scroll down the page. I caught up with the man behind the unique idea, Petr Tichy, where we talk about the build.

To start can you please tell our readers where you are from and what you do for a living?

I am originally from the Czech Republic, but have been living in Melbourne, Australia for the past 9 years. I am a co-founder of ClickFork, a passionate front-end web developer and a blogger at www.ihatetomatoes.net. I build pixel perfect digital experiences for my clients and customers.

The ‘Merry Christmallax’ is really unique and pulled off well, did you come up with the idea?

Yes, I did have this simple idea to create something unique and creative. A page where I wanted to wish a Merry Christmas to as many designers and developers out there. Talking to the rest of my team in the office helped to evolve the idea into the final result. Jason Mitsios did a great job on the design and he deserves the full credit for the look and feel of the site.

What was your exact role in this build and who else was involved?

I am a front-end developer so basically all the PSD to HTML cutting up, the coding of HTML/CSS/jQuery and the process of making it all work in the browser was my involvement. I think I scrolled down the page a few hundred times and my fingers are still pretty sore, but it was all worth it.

What scripts and CSS Wizardry are you using to pull off this smooth animation as you scroll down?

I have used a mix of fixed and absolute positioning for the alignment of the elements and Skrollr.js for the animation part of it. This javascript library really does the magic. My job was just to work out the right timing and positioning and the calculator was my biggest friend for a few days before Christmas.

I will be creating The Making of Merry Christmallax as a series of tutorials explaining in more details how the site was put together.

Christmas card/message One Pagers are becoming more popular for companies – do you think they return the investment taken to create them?

This really depends on a case by case. It should all come down to what is the ultimate goal of the page? In our case the goal was to spread the message to as many designers and developers out there and looking at the statistics now, the goal was definitely reached. We have attracted the eyes of folks in more then 132 countries and received a lot of great feedback from the digital peers. If the idea is creative and it’s done well, then these campaign pages can definitely bring a high return on investment.

At the bottom it says “Brought to you by Clickfork” – why not host the site on the Clickfork domain and try pitch the service more at the end of the Christmas message?

Good question Rob. Here is the story and it’s a big lesson for me personally. I have underestimated how well this site will do. We have actually launched the site without crediting ClickFork at all! As soon as we realized how quickly it’s spreading through the internet, we have updated the footer, but it was too late to move the whole site. If we knew then what we know now, we would definitely ClickFork brand it and pitch the service a lot more. Next time.

Last question and a serious one, why is it that you hate tomatoes?

Haha, you really want to hear that? They make me sick, the smell, the taste, the whole thing. On the other hand the domain really has changed my life so I can say I have a love/hate relationship with tomatoes.

Thanks for chatting with us Petr, where can our readers follow you online?

Thanks Rob. You can follow me personally on Twitter and Facebook or get in touch through my website www.ihatetomatoes.net.

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Much love,
Rob

Twitter: @robhope
Email: [email protected]