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stanwood.dev // redesign-rolodex

Redesign Rolodex

Paste a URL. Spin through alternate-universe redesigns.

Best for landing pages, products, portfolios, tools, and marketing sites.

Try:

when this is actually useful

Four reasons to spin one.

A rolodex isn't a finished design — it's a brainstorm. Here's when it's worth your sixty seconds.

★
stuck pitching

Client wants three options.

You've got direction one. Direction two is a tweak. Spin and steal direction three from a place you'd never have looked yourself.

tipStay in client-safe mode. The picks stay plausible enough to actually present.

▤
pre-pitch

Mood board in one minute.

Need vibe references for a kickoff? Spin a hero brand, a competitor, or just example.com. Drop the cards straight into your slides.

tipHit "more" twice for nine directions across one site.

↻
rebrand brainstorm

Your own site, six universes over.

Identity feels stale. Boss says "freshen it up." Spin your own URL and see what an editorial press, an arcade, or a brutalist redesign would look like.

tipFlip to alt-timeline mode for the version no committee would approve.

⌘
ai handoff

Sketch to working draft.

Each card ships with a copy-paste prompt. Drop it into Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor and you've got a starting layout in minutes — not hours.

tipThe prompts include palette + font notes, so the first render lands close.

pick your weirdness

Three dials. One spin.

Same URL, three very different stacks of cards. The mode toggle right above the URL field decides how far the rolodex strays from the original — pitch-deck-safe to fever-dream.

01 client-safe

Polished & plausible

Reads like real agency comps. Familiar grids, restrained palettes, tight type pairings. You could screenshare these in a kickoff with no caveats.

when to spin real client work, three-direction pitches, conservative brands
Sample directions
  • Modern Editorial
  • Minimal SaaS
  • Coastal Boutique
02 designer

Daring & expressive

The default. Real moves, strong opinions, but still sellable. Editorial stretches, branded systems with personality, layouts that take a stance.

when to spin portfolio refreshes, side projects, anything that needs a point of view
Sample directions
  • Brutalist Library
  • Botanical Press
  • Sunset Arcade
03 alt timeline

Weird & wonderful

The version no committee would approve. Anti-design, ASCII webrings, Memphis grids on speed, Geocities-by-way-of-2026. Use sparingly — but use it.

when to spin creative warmups, art experiments, escaping a stale brief
Sample directions
  • Chrome Cathedral
  • Tape Loop Bulletin
  • Liquid Aughts

Flip the toggle before you spin — or hit "more" with a different mode to layer takes from all three on the same site.

what the cards are reading

Taste, translated into moves.

The useful part is not the aesthetic label. It is the concrete move underneath it: grid, type, palette, density, motion, and how brave the page can afford to be.

Structure

layout

What gets bigger, what gets quieter, and where the eye lands first.

look forhero shape, nav density, section rhythm, card count, and whether the page wants scanning or reading.

Surface

visual system

Color, type, texture, borders, and the amount of polish the brand can carry.

look forone dominant type choice, one accent behavior, and a background that supports the content instead of showing off.

Risk

weirdness

How far the concept moves before it stops helping the original site.

look forwhich idea you would actually ship, which one belongs in a mood board, and which one exists just to loosen the room.

a peek at the rolodex

What a spin actually gives you.

Each spin returns three to nine design directions — every card is a fresh take on the same site, with a concept screenshot, a color palette, font notes, and a copy-paste prompt you can hand to ChatGPT, Claude, or your code editor. Below: three sample directions from a fictional run.

redesigning example.com

On Reading. CONTINUE READING →
Card 01

Brutalist Library

Everything in service of reading. Decoration is suspect.

Stark serifs. Generous body type. No flourishes, no rounded corners.

RETRO .PIXEL [ INSERT COIN ]
Card 02

Sunset Arcade

Your site at 2am — neon humming, scanlines, a quarter on the cabinet.

Bold display monospace. Glowing buttons. Subtle CRT scanlines on top.

— WINTER ISSUE — Bloom A quarterly almanac of slow things. vol. 4
Card 03

Botanical Press

Slow design. Pressed flowers between pages. Hand-set type.

Editorial italic serif. Warm cream paper. Hand-drawn botanical accents.

how to spin one

01

Paste a URL

Any landing page, product, portfolio, or marketing site. We screenshot it.

02

Pick a mode

Designer mode stays plausible. Weirdness mode goes off the rails.

03

Copy the prompt

Each card has a ready-made prompt to paste into your favorite AI assistant.