Wow, this has taken way too long. But I’m getting closer to re-launching my personal website. These things often take longer than I expect, and I almost always run into a few elements that I didn’t anticipate. Such is the creative process. In this case, I did a gut-check yesterday on some of the design elements I had been working on, and they just didn’t make the grade.
Sometimes, you just have to put your creation out there, even if it isn’t all the way to the point that you originally intended or hoped for. The “80% solution,” as one of my clients says. In the case of this website, which is mainly just a personal platform for my creative mayhem (it’s the content that matters most!), I just have to get it up so I can get back to my real creative works, like FETIDUS and Arothea and Threads of Heaven, and the actual content I want to put here on this site.
However, yesterday, when I felt I was within inches of being semi-satisfied, I did a final gut-check. I dispensed with the filter of looking at the site from the point of view of someone who had already invested many hours into it, and I looked at it with fresh, dispassionate eyes. And… I hated it.
Yes, it’s funny, and I can laugh about it now, but I wasn’t too thrilled yesterday. Realizing that I had very little time left to put into the site design and layout at this point, and realizing that my prior path of ideas resulted in a soggy, goofy, confusing and essentially lame result, I did what I have trained myself to do. I used my carefully honed creative ninja skills, and I threw out the parts I hated.
Sometimes, that’s the hardest part. When I create something, especially when I’ve put many hours into it… then realize it truly needs to be thrown into the waste bin because it stinks so badly, it can be very difficult to do what’s right… sometimes I wrestle with salvaging it and re-working it, and I resist the inevitable, painful truth.
Yes, there are times when a failing idea does merit saving and reworking, and perhaps just putting it on a shelf for a while to let it breathe. And yes, there are ugly, misshapen, bastard ideas that do deserve much more “love.” But knowing which ones do not merit that attention is one of the most difficult skills I’ve been trying to master over the years.
In the case of the prior test version of this website, I knew I had crossed into the realm of putrescence. Yes, into a form of simple-minded and surprisingly inane mediocrity, and the only way to salvage the situation was to jettison the offending parts.
And with what little time remained for this site redressing, I knew I wouldn’t be able to pull together the “perfect” layout or design… but I knew it would be better than the last iteration. Maybe this version is a bit “safe.” Maybe I’m not “rising to the challenge” of great creative heights with this site design. Yes, it is very, very simple. But then again, all I minimally needed was one that would pass a level-1 gut-check. The content is what matters the most, and the frosting for the site itself can come later. So, for now, this will have to do.
Next time, I’ll hire a designer.
But that’s a different lesson for another day.
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Alrighty. This is merely a test comment to test the layout and stylesheet.