Thanks Joe, that's great to hear! I guess my website is a bit of a reaction to the heavy-handed animation that I've been seeing lately — I was hoping to achieve something a bit more delicate that highlights the content. I was also experimenting to see if I could achieve the feel of a "content application"(where it feels like the web is going) without sacrificing design or progressive enhancement. My hypothesis is that it might create a more engaging reading experience and, if you're any indication, it seems like it worked.

As far as inspiration goes, aesthetically I've been very interested in minimal British and Dutch design. I don't think I can point to one individual example but I was attempting to capture their sensitive use of whitespace, scale, contrast, and typography in my redesign.