This whole redesign business began with a simple idea: to share stuff. Photographs, stories, events, art, designerie things, links, and anything else of remote interest that might possibly cross my path each day needed a place to live. Plus between you and me it's easier keeping in touch with my family when they automtically know what's going on and I'm saving boatloads of time not IM'ing or emailing links to all my friends about all the coolness going down on the internet anymore. Check it, it's the interent. There's lots of interesting things going on. And it's totally free!
Plus important lesson learned here: I am totally not that cool stuff that's happening on the internet.
But Iiiiiiiii enjoy things (for lack of a better term), especially pretty things, and was beginning to find that friends were using me as their internet filter (and I wasn't even being paid for it)! So here you go: Sopheava v47.0, now with more coolness for god and everyone to enjoy. Online all the time and FREE!!
First requirement for the new site: back to black.
So much for lightening up the place, eh? While that last design was all nice and zen and shit, I immediately regretted it after launch. Why? Personal opinion here but I felt like the 'pop' my photos had just up'ed and gone. Opening up the browser kept my eyes so busy taking in all the white I felt like I was missing out on the color, shape, and lined, angley goodness in my photos. And let's face it, my photos have lots of angles. So a black background is what you get ... no extra charge for the light detailing and texture. Plus the texture is free and everybody likes free stuff, que non?
Second requirement: okay but not quite black.
So here's the deal: a photo with lots of black laid on top of a black page left my eye wandering all over the place. To make *my* blacks pop and the star of the Sopheava v47.0 show I turned the background color a shade lighter than black. Here's a nice example. Now the blacks are right where I want them to be and everyone is happy. Er, well, okay actually I'm happy and that's really the point here :).
Third requirement: link, baby, link!
Towards the end of my last blogging stint the biggest hinderance of being a "blogger" was that I didn't always have time to post lengthy, rambling posts that nobody was going to read anyway. I wanted a way to blog quickly without having to be so freagin' verbose all the time.
Plus I'm not sure how many different feeds I subscribe to, but thankfully my RSS reader doesn't really give me a fast option for finding out which is probably a good thing. A lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot of links pass through my reader every day that are too good to be lost on the waysides of the Information Superhighway (how was that for a '94 cliche?!). I wanted a place to post links on the fly and packaged with a pretty pink bow. Link-o-licious is the result (and don't forget to subscribe to it, too.)
Fourth requirement: pink.
There's always a way. You're just lucky I held myself back and limited it to logo, links, and footer. There was so much more in an early concept!! Oh so much more...
Fifth requirement: photos.
The percentage of people hitting this site for the words is about 2%. The rest are here for the photos, and hell, that's cool! So I decided to make the daily photo the star of the page rather than a complicated design that featured static background artwork in a few limited colors that might conflict with the coolness of the photo anyway. The photo is at the top, right where it should be, which basically means the design kind of changes every day. Basically I'm giving you a two-fer on this one.
Okay but one last thing...
Fifth requirement: sometimes verbose is okay.
Sometimes things like, well, this post have their place around here too. Eliminating the "blog" was a deal-breaker so I found a way to include it too.
There you have it. It turned out slightly more ezine-ish than the original concept but I'm rather pleased with the results. Black, pink, photos, words, links, easy to use, easy to update, and everything a girl could ever want in a version 47 all just a link away all wrapped in a pretty pink bow. Enjoy!
Comments
Well, let me be the first to say how excited 'we' are to have you back...
My RSS feeds were lonely.
Keep it sassy!
Sweet redesign!
Oh, and just so's ya know -- The Pirates of the Caribbean MMO may be on its way, but why be a pirate when you will soon have the chance "to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women" in the new Conan MMORPG?
Are you kidding?! omg omg omg I'm more excited about Conan than any other MMO coming out next year. INCLUDING Warhammer (which is totally gonna go the way of LOTRO imho).
I've heard there's quite the learning curve on the new combat controls (using your mouse movements to slice-n-dice rather than the traditional "scroll overhead with your mouse cursers.... annnnnnnd, right click!") but apparently it's pretty sweet once you get the hang of it.
Ugh, why can't it come out now?????
(Totally another reason I launched this now rather than later, or I'd just get caught up in another video game and have more reason to procrastinate.)
I love it of course and I like the photos at the top I mean you take great photos why not showcase them (um, hello?!). Next I noticed you getting away from the Trebuchet MS font, are we utilizing Times New Roman?? I'm a Georgia girl at heart (needless to say Veer is my uber favorite website). Either way I love it and I've been teetering from moving away from my zen to black myself but my courage is lacking =(
Oh, I hear ya. My WoW habit petered out about six months ago and I'm dreading the arrival of Conan this spring. Ride a bike? Take the kayak out of the garage and paddle around Lake Calhoun on a fine vernal afternoon? I say thee nay! Not while I can disembowel minions of Set while engaging in overcomplicated development of skill trees! Damn, it would work out so much better if it came out while the snow was flying.
I have heard you're right about the new combo combat system. I'm pretty sure the learning curve is going to suck after following the time tested City of Heroes/WoW approach -- target the bad guy, then click click click till they're all dead. The magic set up sounds even more bad ass though.
But I'm relatively certain I can keep myself entertained via the XBox 360, movies, assorted winter type sports and the cocktails at La Belle Vie in the meantime.
Char, it's only TNR if you're on a mac. For PC users you're going to see Garamond. Basically I'm in love with Garamond italics and for that reason designed the whole page around it :).
Rich, I never succumbed to the WoW online sensation but my current (albeit waning) addiction is Lord of the Rings Online. My first toon hit the 50 cap, and that was all well and sweet. So I made a couple more that petered off around 35 because that's when you start needing a group TO DO ANYTHING and everyone else is getting bored too. Ugh. Feels like a lot of other players have left because it's just what ever other MMO is at the level cap: dull. Not much left to do unless you want to raid, raid, raid, raid, raid - and I can only take so much of being bossed around on teamspeak yo.
But enough of that - Pirates should hold me over until Conan!
I love it. It's good to see you back in black.