user49: As you may have already noticed, our new design is live! ✧*｡٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و✧*
Thanks for all the input over the years, and particularly in the most recent Meta posts around this (here and here). As was mentioned in last month's update, we commissioned an artist with experience in the style to execute this community's design, and I'm really excited to present y'all with the final work, which I believe addresses most (if not all) of the concerns y'all had raised about our previous attempt.
Here are some screenshots, for posterity:  
Main site:

Meta site:

As mentioned previously, the logo also got some tweaks (feedback), thanks to Lisa! Our chat theme and Twitter account also got a refresh and will be updated soon, and you should also see some changes in the newsletter!
I mentioned in the last update that since the design would be generated outside our usual process, we'll only be doing any styling tweaks, or fixing egregious issues we somehow missed — so if you stumble upon bugs, please post 'em as an answer here! :)
I'd like to once again thank everyone here for their feedback and patience, and hope everyone enjoys this design! :D

Thanks for all the feedback below. I've added status-completed to stuff we worked on, and cleared some other doubts around stuff we didn't work on. In addition to that, there were also a few things we spotted we'd missed the first time around:

Fixed contrast issues on "site rooms" button in chat;
Fixed contrast issues on "help | faq | legal | privacy policy | mobile" links at the bottom of the page in chat;
Added the flying hat to the chat bar, to spruce it up a bit (will prolly take a bit longer to build, FYI);
Some fixes to the Twitter logo.


user102: I'm faced with a paradox.
On the one hand, this still doesn't really incorporate the designs we talked about in a few of these sessions.  I use that loosely since we still got the panning sky shot.
...and yet, I actually like this.  The theme fits well.  There are stylistic choices which I feel just click together instead of it feeling awkward or rash.
I kind of wish it were a bit...more, since not every series deals with panning sky shots, and on its face this is actually fairly blank without any real indication that there's anything to do with anime or manga except the look and feel, but this is definitely good work.  I'm satisfied!

user38138: support
Why is footer taking too much space when compared to other graduated sites with custom design? 
Following is Anime main site footer which is leaving empty space 

When I compared with other sites with a custom design, the footer is looking like it is taking more space. 
Is this intentional to give space for the picture?

These screenshots are taken on 1024x768 resolution with responsiveness enabled.

user2516: A nice to have but not necessarily required (and might be controversial?), 
since the kite is already scrolling, make the whole 5 clouds (top-left, top-right, mid, bottom-left, bottom-right) also scroll very slowly to simulate parallax effect.
... unless the scrolling kite is actually a bug and should be static (then this is all moot)...

user45677: As Aki, Dimitri, and Nog have all mentioned: the variety of appearances for different users ought to be amalgamated somehow. I can't reproduce the appearance of Jnat's view by any combination of browser or "Hide Left Navigation" and "Hide Hot Network Questions" checkbox settings.
Instead of seeing this on the bottom (or Jnat's view):

I see this (full page, and bottom):

Even playing with "Hide Left Navigation" and "Hide Hot Network Questions" checkboxes doesn't bring the kite into view. 
Using an unusual browser (TubeMate) produces a slightly better view (though it's unlikely many people use it):

I believe that the genius and subtlety of the CSS positioning is lost for many.
A fix would be to push everything to the bottom when the user is at the bottom of the webpage and proportionately scroll the kite, hat, and their 'background clouds' upward when the user is at the top of the webpage - thus providing a parallax movement that works for a majority of our users and doesn't leave some elements always hidden.

user19948: status-completed
Can the white outlines on the Meta images be removed?
There doesn't seem to be, on the surface, any extra border on the images on main.

These are more easily seen when using something like Dark Reader:

Below shows the difference between the two. It looks like the transformation sets the background to white when metaizing the images, and doesn't accurately handle alpha-transparency because of this. As it seems to only remove pixels that are exactly #ffffff.



Note: The meta footer doesn't have these white borders, but main's footer does.

user102: status-bydesign
https://anime.stackexchange.com/404 is still generic.  Can we spruce that up, too?

user19948: status-completed
The meta icon has a white artifact:


user1458: status-completed
On Firefox, Windows 10, with a screen size of 1920x1080, the leaves seem to overlap the word "licensed" on the footer.

As pointed out by Peilonrayz, on higher resolutions, it seems to overlap the footer even more.


user2516: status-bydesign
Not sure if this is a bug or not, but the hat on the left doesn't scroll, compared to the kite on the right. Not sure which behavior is the correct one, but currently it feels inconsistent.
Observed on Chrome 75, Windows 10, with & without userscript, and additionally in incognito mode.

user32564: We were discussing the design a while ago in chat, I wrote this and the comment received four stars:

@Jnat It's hard to pin style down into precise words. To me the mockup looks like somebody was told to make something look japanese, but rather than using the vibrant colors and thick outlines characteristic of comics and animation, they went for more of a traditional style with soft pastels and thin lines more characteristic of traditional Japanese art, kind of like this:


Utagawa Hiroshige, 1st Station: Shinagawa from series The Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido, 183(3/4)
I feel like you folk did a great job listening to that feedback and that the new background design is a good improvement in these regards, and the flatter more vibrant look helps to give it a look much more characteristic of anime. Moreover, I feel like the specific design choices invite a sense of an impending adventure with the way the folliage spreads out and the hat being blown away by the wind, just begging somebody to up between the grassy hills to get to the other side and retrieve it.
I am pleasantly surprised to say that I like the new design overall, and find it more befitting of our particular scope than what we had before. It reminds me of the appearance of a Studio Ghibili film much more-so than I anticipated. I think the only thing left is to make minor tweaks to fix minor errors such as what the others have demonstrated.
Speaking of which, if I may make one comment, I think the C.S.S. colors used in chat still appear to be optimized for the prior background. We may want to make the greens somewhat darker and earthier so that they match the grass better. It applies especially so to the area containing the chatbox.

49: <p><strong>As you may have already noticed, our new design is live!</strong> ✧*｡٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و✧*</p>

<p>Thanks for all the input over the years, and particularly in the most recent Meta posts around this (<a href="https://anime.meta.stackexchange.com/q/4245/49">here</a> and <a href="https://anime.meta.stackexchange.com/q/4229/49">here</a>). As was mentioned in <a href="https://anime.meta.stackexchange.com/q/4264/49">last month's update</a>, we commissioned an artist with experience in the style to execute this community's design, and I'm <em>really</em> excited to present y'all with the final work, which I believe addresses most (if not all) of the concerns y'all had raised about our previous attempt.</p>

<p>Here are some screenshots, for posterity:  </p>

<p><strong>Main site:</strong></p>

<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/svTS9.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/svTS9.png" alt="screenshot"></a></p>

<p><strong>Meta site:</strong></p>

<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/MVgRX.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/MVgRX.png" alt="screenshot"></a></p>

<p>As mentioned previously, the logo also got some tweaks (<a href="https://anime.meta.stackexchange.com/a/4254/49">feedback</a>), thanks to Lisa! Our chat theme and <a href="https://twitter.com/StackAnime" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Twitter account</a> also got a refresh and will be updated soon, and you should also see some changes in the newsletter!</p>

<p>I mentioned in the last update that since the design would be generated outside our usual process, we'll only be doing any styling tweaks, or fixing egregious issues we somehow missed — so <strong>if you stumble upon bugs, please post 'em as an answer here!</strong> :)</p>

<p>I'd like to once again thank everyone here for their feedback and patience, and hope everyone enjoys this design! :D</p>

<hr>

<p>Thanks for all the feedback below. I've added <a href="/questions/tagged/status-completed" class="post-tag moderator-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;status-completed&#39;" rel="tag">status-completed</a> to stuff we worked on, and cleared some other doubts around stuff we didn't work on. In addition to that, there were also a few things we spotted we'd missed the first time around:</p>

<ul>
<li>Fixed contrast issues on "site rooms" button in chat;</li>
<li>Fixed contrast issues on "help | faq | legal | privacy policy | mobile" links at the bottom of the page in chat;</li>
<li>Added the flying hat to the chat bar, to spruce it up a bit (will prolly take a bit longer to build, FYI);</li>
<li>Some fixes to the Twitter logo.</li>
</ul>
 102: <p>I'm faced with a paradox.</p>

<p>On the one hand, this still doesn't <em>really</em> incorporate the designs we talked about in a few of these sessions.  I use that loosely since we still got the <a href="https://anime.meta.stackexchange.com/a/4231/102">panning sky shot</a>.</p>

<p>...and yet, I actually <em>like</em> this.  The theme fits well.  There are stylistic choices which I feel just click together instead of it feeling awkward or rash.</p>

<p>I kind of wish it were a bit...<em>more</em>, since not every series deals with panning sky shots, and on its face this is actually fairly blank without any real indication that there's anything to do with anime or manga <em>except</em> the look and feel, but this is definitely good work.  I'm satisfied!</p>
 38138: <p><a href="/questions/tagged/support" class="post-tag required-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;support&#39;" rel="tag">support</a></p>

<p>Why is footer taking too much space when compared to other graduated sites with custom design? </p>

<p>Following is Anime main site footer which is leaving empty space </p>

<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/jH6WP.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/jH6WP.jpg" alt="Anime Stack Exchange footer"></a></p>

<p>When I compared with other sites with a custom design, the footer is looking like it is taking more space. </p>

<p>Is this intentional to give space for the picture?
<a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/TPGeM.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/TPGeM.jpg" alt="Movies &amp; TV site footer"></a></p>

<p>These screenshots are taken on 1024x768 resolution with responsiveness enabled.</p>
 2516: <p>A nice to have but not necessarily required (and might be controversial?), 
since the kite is already scrolling, make the whole 5 clouds (<a href="https://cdn.sstatic.net/Sites/anime/img/site-background-image-cl-tl.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer">top-left</a>, <a href="https://cdn.sstatic.net/Sites/anime/img/site-background-image-cl-tr.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer">top-right</a>, <a href="https://cdn.sstatic.net/Sites/anime/img/site-background-image-cl-mid.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer">mid</a>, <a href="https://cdn.sstatic.net/Sites/anime/img/site-background-image-cl-bl.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer">bottom-left</a>, <a href="https://cdn.sstatic.net/Sites/anime/img/site-background-image-cl-br.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer">bottom-right</a>) also scroll very slowly to simulate <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallax_scrolling" rel="nofollow noreferrer">parallax effect</a>.</p>

<p>... unless the scrolling kite is actually a bug and should be static (then this is all moot)...</p>
 45677: <p>As <a href="https://anime.meta.stackexchange.com/a/4278/45677">Aki</a>, <a href="https://anime.meta.stackexchange.com/a/4276/45677">Dimitri</a>, and <a href="https://anime.meta.stackexchange.com/a/4283/45677">Nog</a> have all mentioned: the variety of appearances for different users ought to be amalgamated somehow. I can't reproduce the appearance of <a href="https://anime.meta.stackexchange.com/q/4272/45677">Jnat's view</a> by any combination of browser or "Hide Left Navigation" and "Hide Hot Network Questions" <a href="https://anime.stackexchange.com/users/preferences/current">checkbox settings</a>.</p>

<p>Instead of seeing this on the bottom (or Jnat's view):</p>

<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/UviuI.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/UviuI.png" alt="Preferred appearance"></a></p>

<p>I see this (full page, and bottom):</p>

<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/GcaSH.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/GcaSH.jpg" alt="Whole Webpage"></a></p>

<p>Even playing with "Hide Left Navigation" and "Hide Hot Network Questions" checkboxes doesn't bring the kite into view. </p>

<p>Using an unusual browser (TubeMate) produces a slightly better view (though it's unlikely many people use it):</p>

<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/u3Akb.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/u3Akb.jpg" alt="TubeMate Browser View"></a></p>

<p>I believe that the genius and subtlety of the CSS positioning is lost for many.</p>

<p>A fix would be to push everything to the bottom when the user is at the bottom of the webpage and proportionately scroll the kite, hat, and their 'background clouds' upward when the user is at the top of the webpage - thus providing a parallax movement that works for a majority of our users and doesn't leave some elements always hidden.</p>
 19948: <p><a href="/questions/tagged/status-completed" class="post-tag moderator-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;status-completed&#39;" rel="tag">status-completed</a></p>

<p>Can the white outlines on the Meta images be removed?<br>
There doesn't seem to be, on the surface, any extra border on the images on main.</p>

<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/w3xOr.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/w3xOr.png" alt="enter image description here"></a><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/iOMfZ.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/iOMfZ.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

<p>These are more easily seen when using something like <a href="https://darkreader.org/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Dark Reader</a>:</p>

<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/8Rnhd.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/8Rnhd.png" alt="enter image description here"></a><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/2IF1y.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/2IF1y.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

<p>Below shows the difference between the two. It looks like the transformation sets the background to white when metaizing the images, and doesn't accurately handle alpha-transparency because of this. As it seems to only remove pixels that are exactly #ffffff.</p>

<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/MKD66.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/MKD66.png" alt="enter image description here"></a>
<a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/H8duG.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/H8duG.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

<hr>

<p><strong>Note</strong>: <a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/dBuHk.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer">The meta footer doesn't have these white borders</a>, but <a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/DAWN0.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer">main's footer does</a>.</p>
 102: <p><a href="/questions/tagged/status-bydesign" class="post-tag moderator-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;status-bydesign&#39;" rel="tag">status-bydesign</a></p>

<p><a href="https://anime.stackexchange.com/404">https://anime.stackexchange.com/404</a> is still generic.  Can we spruce that up, too?</p>
 19948: <p><a href="/questions/tagged/status-completed" class="post-tag moderator-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;status-completed&#39;" rel="tag">status-completed</a></p>

<p>The meta icon has a white artifact:</p>

<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/qM0aV.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/qM0aV.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
 1458: <p><a href="/questions/tagged/status-completed" class="post-tag moderator-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;status-completed&#39;" rel="tag">status-completed</a></p>

<p>On Firefox, Windows 10, with a screen size of 1920x1080, the leaves seem to overlap the word "licensed" on the footer.</p>

<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/wWrge.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/wWrge.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

<p>As pointed out by <a href="https://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/50966048#50966048">Peilonrayz</a>, on higher resolutions, it seems to overlap the footer even more.</p>

<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/4Thcp.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/4Thcp.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
 2516: <p><a href="/questions/tagged/status-bydesign" class="post-tag moderator-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;status-bydesign&#39;" rel="tag">status-bydesign</a></p>

<p>Not sure if this is a bug or not, but <a href="https://cdn.sstatic.net/Sites/anime/img/site-background-image-hat.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the hat</a> on the left doesn't scroll, compared to <a href="https://cdn.sstatic.net/Sites/anime/img/site-background-image-kite.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the kite</a> on the right. Not sure which behavior is the correct one, but currently it feels inconsistent.</p>

<p>Observed on Chrome 75, Windows 10, with &amp; without userscript, and additionally in incognito mode.</p>
 32564: <p>We were discussing the design a while ago in chat, I wrote this and <a href="https://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/50119499#50119499">the comment</a> received four stars:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>@Jnat It's hard to pin style down into precise words. To me the mockup looks like somebody was told to make something look japanese, but rather than using the vibrant colors and thick outlines characteristic of comics and animation, they went for more of a traditional style with soft pastels and thin lines more characteristic of traditional Japanese art, kind of like this:</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1374/8369/files/Hiroshige_Shinagawa_Station_large.jpeg?v=1496699672" alt="The image I used to illustrate the point." /></p>
</blockquote>
<p><em><a href="http://blog.japanesecreations.com/traditional-japanese-art-the-floating-world-of-ukiyo-e" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Utagawa Hiroshige, 1st Station: Shinagawa from series The Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido, 183(3/4)</a></em></p>
<p>I feel like you folk did a great job listening to that feedback and that the new background design is a good improvement in these regards, and the flatter more vibrant look helps to give it a look much more characteristic of anime. Moreover, I feel like the specific design choices invite a sense of an impending adventure with the way the folliage spreads out and the hat being blown away by the wind, just begging somebody to up between the grassy hills to get to the other side and retrieve it.</p>
<p>I am pleasantly surprised to say that I like the new design overall, and find it more befitting of our particular scope than what we had before. It reminds me of the appearance of a Studio Ghibili film much more-so than I anticipated. I think the only thing left is to make minor tweaks to fix minor errors such as what the others have demonstrated.</p>
<p>Speaking of which, if I may make one comment, I think the C.S.S. colors used in chat still appear to be optimized for the prior background. We may want to make the greens <em>somewhat</em> darker and earthier so that they match the grass better. It applies especially so to the area containing the chatbox.</p>
