Last year was my blue year. I mostly mean that in terms of color, but it definitely applied to my mood more than I care to admit. The old website was nice, it was fine. It gave me a grounded constraint to make things with, which explains my Instagram feed for all of 2023.

I liked it. It was efficient. But also, cold. I made it to accommodate physical products, which I’ve decided to just plop on Etsy instead. Live and learn. A Redesign is always in the back of my mind, for better or for worse, but I took my time with this one. But I also moved, which is kind of a big deal, and it felt appropriate to update some my online home. I wanted something cozy (which I realize is relative) right on the homepage. So I started by building a scene in blender.

I would have just used a real window and wall if I had one that would have worked. But the other reason I wanted to render something was to have the option to position some items on the windowsill and change the “view” easily. A Photo would have worked, but this made way more sense in terms of production and creative freedom.

The items I added to the scene all have some significance. Pretty obvious, probably. I ended up taking all the photos for these objects in my upstairs hallway, with my iphone (12 mini 💪). Again, a perfect windowsill like this would have been easier, but way less fun.

Then it was a matter of arranging things. This is probably something I’ll do a few times a year, swapping out items when I feel like the home page needs a refresh. I mean, I’d live with fall foliage all year, but at some point I might want to swap in a winter photo.

Other odds and ends

I consolidated a lot of things. Instead of a dozen different project pages, I have a single work page now that is just a long scroll. I finally added a music page, with songs that go back 12 years (they’re still OK sounding, too!). I’m also collecting links now. I might change how that is done, though having all of them on one page makes sense to me.

But a big part of my redesign is to focus on this part of the site, the blog. I’m not expecting to be prolific here, or even consistent, but I want to write and share more. Starting now.

Finally

Things that didn’t change: my typetester (making that was tricky enough). The site is still running on wordpress, which is better than ever, in my opinion. In a weird departure for me, I’m using five different typefaces on this website. A Modified Def Sans, a modified Rewrite, Cinegenic, a modified League Spartan, and Southpaw. I modified Spectral to be variable back in November and had planned on using that, but ended up liking this friendlier WIP better. I still have a list of updates I need to get to, but it feels sturdy enough to put out in the world. Then again, I’ll probably be writing a similar blog post this time next year.