Redesigns are always tricky, especially when it comes to working on your own site. Among many of the problems, one of the hardest parts is deciding on a design that you are happy with; something that accurately showcases your ability, that reflects your personality, that you are confident to shout about.
Over the last few years, I’ve had a number of attempts at approaching this. I have waives of inspiration so, naturally, make some sketches to get the ideas down. More often than not, these ideas never manifest, become stagnant and (inevitably) dated.
Recently, I’ve been thinking more and more about content. Anyone who works in the Web industry has no doubt heard the phrase “content is king” thrown around – and it’s true. Without good content, a website serves little purpose other than a hot pot of shiny shiny, attempting to wow visitors. It won’t take long for your visitors to realise there is very little substance behind it.
The talented Relly Annett-Baker has been running an online Creating Web Content workshop. She has adopted the personality of school teacher with a friendly classroom attitude. I’ve found this approach much more engaging and suitable to her style. I digress.
The workshop has got me thinking about the importance of relevant content and tone of voice. Personal websites are meant to be just that. It’s about you as an individual – it should reflect your personality. It’s very easy to “fluff up” your portfolio with all the buzzwords in the world but does it accurately define who you are? Take away the jargon – what are you left with?
Write in your own tongue. Talk about the stuff you’ve done. Use the language and vocabulary you speak in.
Now, this is all well and good if time permits. Like most people, my time is limited, especially when it comes to working on personal projects.
With this in mind, I’ve decided to start with a clean slate. Over the coming months, I’ll be rewriting content on this website to sound more like me.
To make this approach easier, I wanted a fresh canvas to reflect the clean start so introduced a minimalist style. I had already been working on a unique identity (the “Si” ligature above) which I was keen to utilise. It was designed to be used in a multitude of environments but, in it’s simplest form, the monochrome symbol fits well in this instance.
The design will evolve over time. I’m hoping the content will define the direction of the design. Only time will tell where this goes.