Is it just me or do all the sites created by designers and ad agencies start to look the same after a while? A giant blur of super slick flash based professionalism that has all the personality of white noise. Not all sites are this way, there are exceptions of course.

This past month or so, as I was assembling my new version of this web site; trying to make my life simpler by combining bits and parts of other sites that I own, I kept reviewing what I liked and didn’t like about what I saw on the web and came up with a personal site plan for my own:

I am a blogger. There I said it. It is out and I am proud of it. Is it SOOOOO bad to have a real unvarnished face on your site that has not been combed and spit polished to the point where it is interchangeable with a dozen other sites? Most of my clients, who honestly don’t spend a lot of time here, say they see the sites point blank, laid back, casual frankness as a true reflection of me.

I do a lot of varied things. All of it is commercial art in one form or another. Somebody told me when I was in art school that I needed to specialize. I suspect that he was right. However, I make a darn good living (Well, from OK to darn good depending on the month) doing my version of commercial art. My version includes Illustration, some logo work, advertising design, some web work, teaching and sculpting. I know it doesn’t make sense. I know that it is an eclectic mish-mash of specialties. The people who do work for me often raise their eyebrows in disbelief when I explain what we are going to do next. But it is what it is, and I’m good at it. I’m not going to reinvent design as we know it, but I am having fun so get off my case about it already.

My portfolio is (and should) reflect all of the above. It should also be easy to update and annotate as well as to navigate. My portfolio before was laid out across the top of this page in various sections and was a bit of a pain to add things to and the scrolling was obnoxious. It was also centered around illustration, which was cool, it is a major portion of my business but it also limited me (see above). So I have unashamedly combined all my portfolios together. They are in clear sections under one tab and you can jump around at will. If you don’t want to see illustration or sculpting, don’t look at them. If you are looking for advertising but find yourself sneaking peaks at my illustration; I won’t tell, your secret is safe with me.

So what does this give us? Well, this site doesn’t have flash (not that I couldn’t have incorporated flash into it.) and I am OK with that. It doesn’t have all the spit and polish of a designer heavy site. I am OK with that too. The portfolio is eclectic which is a reflection of my studio, and I am OK with that.

It is almost exactly what I need. Which means I will be making little changes for months. But it is not your typical corporate motion media design site, with the inevitable “click here to enter” button at the bottom.

For all intents and purposes it is the anti-site. And I am OK with that most of all.

There is a new buzz term in the industry and its called Design 2.0. I see and understand the implications and even some of the reasoning behind calling this trend something new. But I find so much of what is being talked about as hype and hyperbole that it is hard to not laugh when the phrase is spoken out loud. A friend of mine (Chris Inman from visual riot.com) pointed out an article of one such writer, an editor for HOW magazine (Aug 2008) and what she had to say about it.

“we’re facing a radical shift in the roles designers play… a shift from CREATOR to facilitators of participation, conversation and collaboration … That in the future, designers would become the engineers of possibilities.”

Once in a marketing meeting I was asked to explain why a particular design was arranged in a particular way, in order to justifiy the change in direction on a new product line that I was in charge of developing. As I explained the design process, the copy writer raised an eyebrow and rolled his eyes. I smiled and continued spreading the manure of life which basically distilled down to “It works, I like it, and in the same manner as the emperor’s new clothes; you should like it too.” It of course was more complex than that. Years of marketing experience and research and trends came into play but the bottom line was; they bought the whole idea and I even heard my descriptions of harmony and balance used in upper level executive meetings where the ties huddle together, and grunt in silver back alpha male bonding rituals.

As I read this quote from HOW, my eyebrow raised and I smiled thinking to myself, “Sounds like the written version of the manure of life. Good for her (the author) … but I’m not buying any today, thank you. I am full-up.

Thousands of years ago an aspiring designer carved a petroglyph on a rock. He created the first branded logo separating his rock from all other rocks and creating a small if significant creative burst of energy that has lasted till today. Todays rocks are a bit more complex in creation and instead of glyphs we call them user interfaces. The tools have changed but I doubt if we are any more facilitators or engineers than that first schmuck who picked up his rock, looked at his carving and said “coooool.”

Of course afterwards he had to justify to his clan why he had done it, so he went about in a eloquent way to explain the process. Which is when the manure of life was born.

As soon as it slipped from my teeth, it got busy again. One of the things (OK, the FUN one) that I have been working on is a new project in for a client who wants a new fresh direction for a direct marketing campaign. The concept I am pitching is “YES YOU CAN.” It is a benefit driven message that moves the existing message from “Here’s what we offer you.” (Which may or may not mean anything to the customer) to “Here’s what you can do!”

The client is a broadband service provider that uses microwave relays instead of cable/DSL/satellite connections. In rural areas, or city areas on the back side of a DSL trunk, or with areas with a ton of shared connections over the cable, broadband speed is a real issue. Most of these people feel there is no options and suffer with dial-up or very slow satellite connections.

The illustrative element switches out to reflect the multiple popular uses of the internet. There will be six to eight of these. Some of these will be used singularly on postcards and some will be grouped together on mini-posters all with the tag line “Yes You Can.”

I sketched them in Sketchbook pro, and inked and colored them in Illustrator using a pressure sensitive brush.

I pitched it last night. we will see where it goes.

Things are slowing down. I am using the time to put finishing touches on a handful of projects and taking a breath. I am currently working on:

1. Final changes on Cock-a-doodle kids e-com site
2. Changes on Braided Accents product catalog
3. Starting Braided Accents Price list
4. Final Return to Excellence forum look and feel changes.

Feeling caught up is good. Feeling caught up on a Friday is priceless! It will give me time to work on my Gullible project.

I have used a digital sketchbook for going on two years. It took me a while to find the right software; one where I was more comfortable using on the fly than wading through the interface. Then I took quite a period of time weening myself from my black book and the warm spot that it occupies in my heart. To be quite honest I still use my black book from time to time, but by and far most of my serious sketching is now done via my pad and laptop.

My sketches started to take a turn a while ago. I was influenced by by another illustrator (Tommy Kane) who uses a combination of words and pictures to round out a visual journal. It appealed to the “inner” writer in me and opened up a new direction in both my writing and my drawing; which I see as right and left hands of a unified vision that takes place in my head. Writing helps me picture the drawings in a more clear way. Drawing adds the detail that I sometimes miss while writing. It is strange how the two work together.

Anyway, I have taken a few of my sketchbook drawings and combined them with the writing inspirations they are paired with (which comes first; I can’t remember?) and formed a sort of web comic / e-book. I have dubbed it “Artiste Gullible’s travels in the here and now.” I spent a long time tweaking the web interface (I used a blog format and scripted template called Comic Press.) and it is now ready for inspection. I hope to publish once a week, but I already know how that will turn out — still it is a goal worth pursuing.

When I get more than 10 posted I will start to promote the site and see what I can do to build readership.