Yesterday was a pretty big day. I updated the website with a completely new template, which is the result of many months of design work. Things are far from complete – so please be patient with any glitches you encounter.
I’m very pleased with the new visual impact. The redesign has come about after a lot of work to develop a visual concept that I think genuinely reflects me and my brand. I think about it as “professional, with a slight edge”.
You’ll continue to see changes on the site over the next few days and months as I refine things. It’s always tough to take a new design live. Even when I’ve worked extensively with a local server and beta versions, there always seems to be some aspect of the site which doesn’t hang together when it goes live. In the dynamic environment of a live site there are always more considerations than in a controlled development site.
Second Guessing
The biggest issue I’ve faced hasn’t been coding. It’s been coming up with a visual concept in the first place. I’ve lost count of the number of designs I’ve drafted which seemed good at first, but when I looked at them after a day or two, I decided I hated. it became infuriating. When it comes to client work I’m generally happier with my designs a lot faster. It seems I found it difficult to reflect myself than I did a client, which is kind of strange.
Thankfully I’ve now got a visual impact that I think is a genuine reflection of myself and my work. I’ll be examing aspects of my redesign, and why I chose those options, as the site comes together even more over the coming days.
Any feedback is, of course, much appreciated.
2 Comments
Hey Robin – nice to see you posting again and I love the new site design. I find it almost impossible to design personal projects – hence the fact that my own blog has been stripped down to almost nothing (the fact that I do almost no design these days doesn’t help).
Hey Ben – good to be back posting. Glad you like the design – can’t think how many iterations I went through before coming up with something I was happy to work with. I know entirely what you mean though, designing for myself seems so much harder than anything else. Mind you, I think you’ve achieved a really strong minimalist look with BombayCrow, so that it’s pared down but still memorable.