BTS Series: The Website Redesign
Breaking Away from the Template
In this first post, I want to begin documenting my website redesign. For years, I’ve struggled with the minimalist, rigid structure of websites, which has left me longing for a better way to incorporate my designs in a more immersive way.
I first had the spark of this idea many years ago, and while I did start to design it back then, I think I was a little ahead of the drag-and-drop builders being developed better! I found it difficult to figure out a way I could make this work on both desktop and mobile, so I put the plan aside and stayed with the generic templates. But I was never quite satisfied with the results.
I’ve now reopened the idea, and I know it’s time to finally bring it to life. If you’ve ever read Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, you may already be familiar with the concept of ideas being fleeting, and if they are meant to be for you, then you bring them to life. It certainly feels this way for this idea, as it’s been sitting inside my head for so long, I’m so excited to finally make it real.
Another reason for the resistance of the design idea was the advice of websites needing to be minimalist in order for my designs to take centre stage. While this may work with more corporate companies, my design style is anything but minimalist, so I felt like it was doing my work a disservice, and there was a disconnect from my messy studio, charcoal smudged drawings and a clean ‘perfect’ website.
I’m so glad that the design trends tend to be embracing maximalism more in recent years, so I now feel like it’s time to step into it even more and make my website unapologetically me.
And if you are sitting here wondering what exactly I’m doing, here’s a little concept sketch of my idea. It’s essentially looking at the whole homepage as a whole, and creating a design that flows as you scroll down the page. It reads similar to my pattern designs, but with the structure of the website in mind.
The sole purpose of the website is to be my portfolio, so I want the homepage to be instantly attention-grabbing, unique and immersive into my own design world.
I’d love for you to follow along in the upcoming weeks as I share more posts on the process behind this design and bring it to life.