Web Design: Inspiration and Distraction

Putting a website together has sucked a lot of energy from my writing over the last month.  But I’ve enjoyed it, almost to the point of addiction, and am sad about being finished.  I knew it was bad when right after I finished, I began fantasizing about a complete redesign.  And then I started bugging my partner Jerry to see if he wanted me to make him a website. He didn’t.  I stopped pouting when I learned I could create a free subdomain and then design a separate site for my blog (which will be ready soon).  That kept me busy on design for another week or so.

Stepping back from my obsession, I can see how  - although distracting –  it has helped my writing. Part of what I’m exploring in this blog is the creative process: how working in non-verbal realms exercises other parts of the brain and feeds back into writing. Designing the website has allowed me to think about visual layouts, colors, how the eye flows over the page.  All this pulled me away from too much attachment to one piece of writing, challenged my brain to break out of habits, and allowed me to return to old work with a more critical eye.  I even eliminated one character in a short story — something I couldn’t have imagined several weeks earlier.  I figure its akin to weeding out clutter in visual design.

The process also reminds me of a love for nature photography and graphic design I started developing in high school, when we used offset presses and darkrooms.   I never took it further but am now enjoying the sense of reinvigorating a lost passion.

In the long run, I might be better served by drawing, clay work, weaving, or anything that pulls me away from spending hours in front of an electronic screen; I do enough of that already.   But I also have a new appreciation for all those people out there who apply their creativity to web design and to the computer coding that makes it possible.  I am especially grateful for those in the open source world who do it for free.

For thoughtful writing on web design, check out A List Apart.