But also feel free to come back when you have time to read it all, comment away and share any growing pains of your own. I love reading other people’s stories!
Above is a picture of the old site - I'll begin at the beginning.
Well, I knew I was in for some serious work and a major personal challenge when I decided to not only completely re-design my portfolio site but also open my big mouth and tell everyone else I was doing it but I don’t think I truly realized how difficult and beneficial and all around totally necessary this would be on many different levels. I learned and grew more than expected, on my own skills and design perspective but also how I view the road blocks and self doubt and how my own thinking and the way I work had to change.
The way this whole idea came about was partly from me just not liking my old site anymore but also wanting to do some serious overhaul for branding and to create a new design I could also use for more than just the site – business cards, postcards, this blog, Twitter, all of it.
So, from my November post: Redesign Challenge Part II -
I’d stated “The look needs dressing up and doesn't really convey any kind of message about me as a designer yet but I also felt there were some good parts I wanted to keep.
As soon as you pull up the home page, you can easily identify
-business name
-samples of my work
-how to contact me”
“After brainstorming, some of my key ideas were beauty, fun, feminine, strong creativity and a little vintage or retro feel mixed in if possible. “
This was the groundwork I worked off of. Sounds simple enough, right? Start sketching. So I had an idea in mind and tried it out but it didn’t take long for it to feel wrong somehow. Things weren’t looking right and I wasn’t sure what it was – sizes, placement, I just knew it wasn’t right. So I had to trust my instincts (even though inside I was fighting it) and start over. Just for laughs, here’s a sample of that idea. Not horrible but just not quite right.
The first 2 lessons were learned here:
#1 Trust your instincts. Always. Why was I fighting what I felt? I’d posted on my blog I was re-doing the site and I felt like I needed to have it done in a week. Even though I had clients, even though I have a life and family. I was staying up until 1in the morning to try and force out a design I knew inside wasn’t right because I’d put this pressure on myself to not only achieve my goal but do it in a week. Not too smart, thankfully I gave in and trusted myself. Amen.
#2 Don’t get married to all your ideas, especially early on. This one has been SO hard for me and I know it’s again because of the pressure on myself to hurry hurry HURRY! The truth is (I think this might be my favorite lesson of all) things change, learn to flow with it. Sometimes change can be a beautiful thing!
But, I did really like the background and I never throw anything away, however I did forget about it for a while.
I felt really stuck and a little miserable so I spent some time looking at other sites for inspiration, trying to force out sketches and feeling a little sorry for myself. Looking for stock images that might give me an idea, I started off in a different direction. I don’t know exactly why but I really liked the idea of working with picture frames and building pages on to the background of an old house. (I still like this idea, just didn’t work for this project – but I may use it for something someday!) And I really wanted to try something I’d never done which was all images for navigation (buttons aside). So that was my next idea but inside my picture frame, how to arrange all the elements I wanted to show was where things got muddy. And I was really, really hanging on to this idea instead of being open to changing things around, trying different images, etc. More 1 – 2am nights working myself into a crabby mood the next day because I was still trying to force something to happen that just wasn’t working and I didn’t want to see it. I was convinced this is the design I HAD to do and I better just figure out how to make it work.
Self Realization: I am the worst client I’ve ever had. (Coolest boss mind you but worst client) What’s with all these stanch demands? Work faster and no changing your mind or trying any new directions! Who designs like that?
And here's my second try -
You can see I was closer but finally had to let go here as well. By this time, it’s December and I feel like a failure and am devastated and feel like a fraud (Why did I post this on my blog?!?!?) I just couldn’t imagine starting over from scratch again. I had exhausted and beat myself up so much, I couldn’t see straight. I finally gave in and started venting to my husband, showing him both designs and sadly gazing at the monitor. “I like parts of them both, why don’t you just put them together?” he said.
I was stunned. What? That means I’d have to be open to changing my original ideas and not just stomp my feet and scream and feel frustrated. I didn’t want to admit it but I knew he was pointing me in the right direction. After staring back and forth and both of my self proclaimed flops, I did start to see something and slowly, was able to start going through them for parts like scrap at the dump. “I like this part but not this, I really like that background but those buttons won’t work.” But the worst and best part about the end process, as soon as I started working on what I still refer to as “Round 3”, everything just sort of fell in to place. It wasn’t hard anymore, I didn’t feel like I was struggling and forcing so much. Now part of that was the going back to a more familiar structure I was much happier and comfortable with but I know part of It was also because I was finally able to open my mind and relax!
With round 3, I can’t say I didn’t give myself any time limit but I opened the window way up to what I was doing before. I hoped to finish in 31 days and actually finished in about 12. I kept the idea in my mind, you’ve already started over 3 times now and it might take 10 more tries. The important thing is that it’s the right design for you, terrible client lady. And if it just feels wrong and isn’t working, try something else. ( Lesson #3 – Ding!)
It was still work, don’t get me wrong and especially as I neared the finish line, I really did some serious obsessing and nitpicking over a few things.
My original plan was not to even post the new site until I’d written this post, posted the new design here and on all my other pages, kind of an all at once unveiling if you will. But, I couldn’t wait. After all the time spent and struggle and wanting to throw my computer out in to the street and wonder what other careers I may have to take up because I couldn’t decide what to design ( I’m a terrible waitress but I can cocktail! ), I sort of couldn’t believe I had pulled off a new design I really like and that I feel definitely represents me far better than the old one. I’m sure it’s not the most breath-taking site you’ve ever laid eyes on, I didn’t try to throw in a lot of bells and whistles – the Flash on the home page was really enough for me, but the process over all brought out the proud parent in me I think.
Meet my baby, I call her Round 3, isn’t she delish?
Sorry but just one more lesson – Don’t stay up all night working and obsessing and beating yourself up - about anything. It’s never EVER worth it. You’ll feel and function and think so much better on a good nights sleep, I promise!
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