Now that the new site has been up and running for a bit, the professional experience designer in me feels like some description and detailing the choices made when building and launching the new site. So, dear reader, all me to speak to you like I would a client. We’ll start with the underlaying foundations of the site, then get to detailed design choices that I made and why. This may be inside baseball for most of you, but I know of a few people that will be interested. These sort of go in order with how I approached thinking about the site.
Content & Experience Strategy
From the beginning, I knew I wanted the site to be more than just another blog. Not too many people do just that anymore, and the world only has so much room for the Arseblogs, Daring Fireballs, Kevin Drums, and Kottkes of the world, primarily since they do such a great job at what they do and the topics they cover.
Instead, I wanted the site to represent more of me than ephemeral thoughts and “hot takes”—I use various social platforms for that. Of course, the blog remains for more extended thoughts and comments, but given the other parts of the site that I’ll get to in a minute, I’ll also hopefully be using it in a slightly different fashion.
First and foremost, I wanted the site to truly reflect me and my interests, as well as what I’m actually doing, professionally and otherwise. That necessitated the addition of the projects and work sections of the site. I also wanted to be able to introduce myself for those that don’t know me, whether that would add any credibility or not; hence, the inclusion of the About section. Two of the areas of the site probably bear further inspection, as they are the heart of the experience in mind mind
Projects (or What Occupies my Mind and Time)
This covers a pretty broad swath, but mostly focuses some key areas.
First, on the professional, albeit pro bono, side, I write about the work I do in a professional capacity. These proejcts also have room on my business site, but here I can get into the whys and wherefores I chose to get involved because these are projects, whether paid or not, that I truly care about in some form, such as NotUnmindful, Global Football Culture, and the Content Strategy Alliance.
I also spend a lot of time listening music of all stripes, thinking about it, making lists, talking about it with my friends, buying records, etc.—just about everything but making it, which is sadly beyond my capabilities (more on that below, the capabilities I mean). So it had to have a place here. Also, expect a now playing or spinning close to every blog post.
Finally, and certainly not least (maybe primarily), I wanted a place to post and iterate on the writing that I do. I write mostly poetry or non-fiction (the kind that doesn’t required deep research: think memoir). My writing will probably dominate the space in the section. For example, a couple of weeks in, and it already makes up more than half of the projects section.
What not to expect. Don’t expect fishing reports (though I love that too) or detailed descriptions of home improvement or landscaping projects, despite the time I spend doing these. I’m not qualified to write “how too” articles on any of these topics, and there are so many good resources out there for that already. I’ll just sit here and read them too.
First, on the professional, albeit pro bono, side, I write about the work I do in a professional capacity. These proejcts also have room on my business site, but here I can get into the whys and wherefores I chose to get involved because these are projects, whether paid or not, that I truly care about in some form, such as NotUnmindful, Global Football Culture, and the Content Strategy Alliance.
I also spend a lot of time listening music of all stripes, thinking about it, making lists, talking about it with my friends, buying records, etc.—just about everything but making it, which is sadly beyond my capabilities (more on that below, the capabilities I mean). So it had to have a place here. Also, expect a now playing or spinning close to every blog post.
Finally, and certainly not least (maybe primarily), I wanted a place to post and iterate on the writing that I do. I write mostly poetry or non-fiction (the kind that doesn’t required deep research: think memoir). My writing will probably dominate the space in the section. For example, a couple of weeks in, and it already makes up more than half of the projects section.
What not to expect. Don’t expect fishing reports (though I love that too) or detailed descriptions of home improvement or landscaping projects, despite the time I spend doing these. I’m not qualified to write “how too” articles on any of these topics, and there are so many good resources out there for that already. I’ll just sit here and read them too.
The Blog
This is where I begun oh so long ago in my forays into self publishing, well, anything. With that in mind, it had to remain. It allows me to talk about things that interest me that I may not participate actively in and commentary on other things that I don. It will continue to be a wide-ranging affair when it comes to posting links and ruminations about them.
But I also wanted to try something different with the format that will hopefully tie directly back to the Projects section of the site. With that in mind, expect concert reviews, when we can safely attend those again, album and book reviews, and the big departure from the traditional blog: a sandbox for works in progress, such as draft poems and such posted centrally to post and direct folks to for feedback and reaction (see the last post for example). There isn’t a platform for this sort of thing that I know of so I’m going to use a blog and make it up as I go along.
But I also wanted to try something different with the format that will hopefully tie directly back to the Projects section of the site. With that in mind, expect concert reviews, when we can safely attend those again, album and book reviews, and the big departure from the traditional blog: a sandbox for works in progress, such as draft poems and such posted centrally to post and direct folks to for feedback and reaction (see the last post for example). There isn’t a platform for this sort of thing that I know of so I’m going to use a blog and make it up as I go along.
Design
I am not a visual designer.
Although that is probably apparent, I did most of the work here on my own. I hope enough insight has rubbed off on me from the amazing designers I work with everyday to make this somewhat easy on the eye while meeting my needs.
With that in mind, I chose a WordPress theme with which I had become very familiar on my work for Not Unmindful. I chose the Business Corporate Gravity Pro theme from Keon Themes. I found it clean and functional and it offered the functionality and flexibility on the homepage that I was looking for (just about any theme would work for detail pages). It comes in various flavors, each with their own nuance. We used the Lawyer Gravity Pro variant for Not Unmindful and I chose the variant for this site. With the addition of a few key plug-ins, it offered exactly what I was looking for, and I’m not even taking advantage of all it has to offer.
I should not something about WordPress. This is the first iteration on this site on the platform (see About for more history). With the number of themes and plug-ins available, the tech design/stack was a no brainer because the paltry costs of buying a theme and a few premium plug-ins is in a different universe than the big iron I usually have to deal with at work. Even if I had access to something like it, using Adobe Experience Manager (and I really like this system) for a site like this would be like using a sledgehammer to kill a mosquito.
Although that is probably apparent, I did most of the work here on my own. I hope enough insight has rubbed off on me from the amazing designers I work with everyday to make this somewhat easy on the eye while meeting my needs.
With that in mind, I chose a WordPress theme with which I had become very familiar on my work for Not Unmindful. I chose the Business Corporate Gravity Pro theme from Keon Themes. I found it clean and functional and it offered the functionality and flexibility on the homepage that I was looking for (just about any theme would work for detail pages). It comes in various flavors, each with their own nuance. We used the Lawyer Gravity Pro variant for Not Unmindful and I chose the variant for this site. With the addition of a few key plug-ins, it offered exactly what I was looking for, and I’m not even taking advantage of all it has to offer.
I should not something about WordPress. This is the first iteration on this site on the platform (see About for more history). With the number of themes and plug-ins available, the tech design/stack was a no brainer because the paltry costs of buying a theme and a few premium plug-ins is in a different universe than the big iron I usually have to deal with at work. Even if I had access to something like it, using Adobe Experience Manager (and I really like this system) for a site like this would be like using a sledgehammer to kill a mosquito.
Color Palette
This was a bit simpler for me. One: avoid any reds at all costs. The last 15 years of my life I’ve had to deal with some flavor red as the primary color, usually along with black of sort. I couldn’t totally get rid of the blacks, because they have their place, but red was easy to avoid.
I started with the color palette for my business, and basically inverted it, making the secondary colors the primary colors, and vice versa, and tweaking a bit of the colors that resulted. Both sets of these colors have their inspiration in the natural world, especially the river gorges I grew up around. I actually sampled pictures of actual rocks to arrive at three of the colors: Basalt (the darker gray) and Cacoctin Olive (the brown / green), both of which are prevalent in the area of he Blue Ridge Mountains where I grew up. I can provide hex values and swatches for anyone that’s interested.
I started with the color palette for my business, and basically inverted it, making the secondary colors the primary colors, and vice versa, and tweaking a bit of the colors that resulted. Both sets of these colors have their inspiration in the natural world, especially the river gorges I grew up around. I actually sampled pictures of actual rocks to arrive at three of the colors: Basalt (the darker gray) and Cacoctin Olive (the brown / green), both of which are prevalent in the area of he Blue Ridge Mountains where I grew up. I can provide hex values and swatches for anyone that’s interested.
Typography
I knew I wanted a mix of serif and sans serif typefaces. I initially started with a combination of the typefaces used for Not Unmindful and RubiconCX.com. That would be Garamond for a serif font and Source Sans Pro for my san serif font. While that would have worked, I wanted something a bit different.
For the serif options, such as used on the homepage and certain titles, I found the Garamond a bit hard to read on mobile device—don’t get me wrong, I really like that typeface, just see my resume. After flirting with my corporate font, Baskerville, I found Merriweather (using Google fonts). I really like the balance between readability and the traditional serif look, without be Times New Roman.
For the san serif typeface, the real work horse of the site, I choose Montserrat over the Source Sans Pro. It feels more open and friendly to me while retaining its seriousness. [/talking out my ass]
For the serif options, such as used on the homepage and certain titles, I found the Garamond a bit hard to read on mobile device—don’t get me wrong, I really like that typeface, just see my resume. After flirting with my corporate font, Baskerville, I found Merriweather (using Google fonts). I really like the balance between readability and the traditional serif look, without be Times New Roman.
For the san serif typeface, the real work horse of the site, I choose Montserrat over the Source Sans Pro. It feels more open and friendly to me while retaining its seriousness. [/talking out my ass]
Logo
Believe it or not, I did this last. I started with a word mark using the sans serf typeface, but I didn’t like the way that it played with the overall site design, specifically the transition form the main header to the fixed header as you scroll on your device. My only goal was that the text have impact (so I chose the Impact typeface naturally enough).
But I wanted something a bit more than just a word mark that I could use on its own or as a favicon for the site. My only guidance here is that I wanted to somehow present the “F’ and the “E” as the elements somehow joined—I have to admit the SF is the San Francisco Giants logo was pretty much where I started. No offense to Sand Diego or either NY baseball team, I just like that one a bit more logo-wise, and this has nothing to do with fandom, as an erstwhile Red Sox, Braves, and Tigers fan (when I can call myself a fan of baseball at all), and not a single one works. Use the Old English would make it look like a metal band or something, though it works perfectly on a Detroit hat.
So there you have it: everything you wanted to know about the strategy and design of the site, and a lot you don’t.
But I wanted something a bit more than just a word mark that I could use on its own or as a favicon for the site. My only guidance here is that I wanted to somehow present the “F’ and the “E” as the elements somehow joined—I have to admit the SF is the San Francisco Giants logo was pretty much where I started. No offense to Sand Diego or either NY baseball team, I just like that one a bit more logo-wise, and this has nothing to do with fandom, as an erstwhile Red Sox, Braves, and Tigers fan (when I can call myself a fan of baseball at all), and not a single one works. Use the Old English would make it look like a metal band or something, though it works perfectly on a Detroit hat.
So there you have it: everything you wanted to know about the strategy and design of the site, and a lot you don’t.
Now Spinning: Drive-By Truckers – The Unraveling