The Thrill

December 23, 2003 | View Comments (11) | Category: Design

Summary: I am done with the frustration. Let's go into the thrill of it all.

Yesterday I spoke of the frustration associated with designing, so today I thought I would flip it and tell you about the real reason why I design: the thrill.

I began my latest design on the 9rules site with a blank screen. I am not even totally sure what I want the end result I want to be. Scratch that. I know that I want the end result to look good. However, this blank screen will not disappear. I have a couple of sketches and I even tried to do some comps in Fireworks, yet the screen remains blank. It would be great to have a design just popup there, but then it wouldn't be my site and the satisfaction would not be there.

Sure I could just toss something up and then tweak it to my liking. But this is going to be my new company site so I feel I have to take extra care in its creation. Obviously this gets me no where. Days and weeks have passed and no progress has been made...until yesterday.

Yesterday was the day where I created the XHTML file along with the basic stylesheet. I started to add borders and tweaked the margins. Something started to form and I was liking it. It could be better though so I kept on tweaking. Changing things here and there, wondering if this layout would be better than that one. Every change only making the site better. With every passing second I was finding new ideas in my head that I wanted to implement on screen. I couldn't get things out fast enough. I was designing and I liked it.

The thrill of the creation had caught up with me. There was no frustration involved because I had passed that barrier. Now I was designing. Now I was creating something new. I was pleased to look at the site, even though it was no where near finished and its current incarnation wouldn't see the light of day. The thrill of being creative and seeing your ideas no longer in your head, but on the screen had overwhelmed me and I had once again discovered why I love to do this stuff.

One of the important reasons to have a personal site or just to create sites just for fun is so that you don't forget why you do this stuff. Client work is great and can pay the bills, but time constraints and stress usually kill all desire to design. It takes the fun out of everything sometimes and many times you are left wondering why you even do this work. But when you get time on your own to create something for you without the headaches, again you will see that nothing is greater than being able to express yourself for your own satisfaction. The thrill lifts me up and keeps me going.

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Comments

#1

so when do we get to see the fruits of your labor?

ak

#2

Let's just say 2004 is going to be a big year. Many exciting projects from myself and partnerships that have been forming.

Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)

#3

I read something once... I don't remember what or where... it was about a famous artist who sat staring all day at a blank canvas...
stuck for an idea...
his wife came up after watching him for hours and unsuccessfully attempting to get him to eat... she grabbed one of the heavier brushes, dipped it in paint, and either slashed it across the canvas or at the canvas making paint drops, I don't remember which... he got mad... she said... now the page is not blank, and you can work. Now eat!

he ate, and went on to paint some famous painting on that canvas. I think it was at the Getty in LA.

So, like... just do something.
throw the cat on the keyboard. Click around blindfolded. scribble with the mouse. Build around it til you hate it or love it. Try something a little less stark and boxy, throw in some curves or something maybe. You might not keep it, but you'll have done it, and that will be fun, and get the juices flowing for more.

I have a tool I wrote to help poets get past writer's block... someone needs to make one for designers. heh.
I might have to give that some thought.

JC (http://www.thelionsweb.com/weblog)

#4

Man Scrivs...doesn't that thrill of designing something so effortlessly because you love what you're doing feel great? It is a good antidote to when you're working on a project for a client and are completely blocked.

Hey...that's what's happening to me right now!

Can't wait to see the new design and looking forward to 2004!

Todd (http://www.monkeyhouselounge.com/tcoleman2/)

#5

JC:

Do you mind me asking what is the tool you use to get past writers block? Just curious.

Justin (http://www.bluealpha.com)

#6

Random sentence generator? Haha. ^_^

Zelnox

#7

Hey, this is *totally* off topic but I just noticed this and couldn't figure it out by myself. In Firebird, some sites, Whitespace being one and Andy Budd's Blogography being another, stay centered even in a really small window, chopping off the left and right sides of the site (that are outside the browser window) because it's still centering. Screenshot of Whitespace example here: http://dailystandards.com/screenshot.gif Now, I know it has something to do with the use of "margin: auto;" because it doesn't happen in IE 6, but mezzoblue and simplebits use "margin: auto;" and the same thing doesn't happen it their sites. Their's just hug the leftside of the window when it gets too small. Anyone have any ideas? Here is whitespace's CSS: http://9rules.com/whitespace/styles.css Here is Blogography's: http://andybudd.com/blog/styles-site.css Here is mezzoblue's: http://mezzoblue.com/css/v33.css And here is Simplebits: http://www.simplebits.com/css/simple.css I can't see any major differences in the styling of the wrapper divs. I don't get it. Ani ideas? Sorry again for being off topic, but I just noticed it and it vexed me.

Adam (http://www.dailystandards.com)

#8

adam, i haven't tested it yet, but it appears to be realative positioning that makes it hug the window.

ak

#9

Adam, I had this problem on one of my sites. To fix it, I added a min-width declaration to the body. Then, Mozilla browsers will show a scroll bar instead of cutting off the content at the edges when the window is too narrow.

JonathanB

#10

Zelnox: Kinda. Not sentences, though... two versions; one uses images, the other uses brief subjects
More here: http://thelionsweb.com/weblog/index.php?p=87&c=1

JC (http://www.thelionsweb.com/weblog)

#11

With regards to the centering thing, if you notice sites like mezzoblue do not behave like that and always stay visible. I believe the way Dave and others do it is by having a background image on the "container" div. For some reason browsers don't want to hide images so content will not be centered in small windows.

In short, if you have a white background make a small white gif and tile it as a background - your content will stay visible I am pretty sure.

Jeff

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