How's it going Reader?

I recently made a new website for myself, and the building process was actually fairly doable!

It was all the preparation beforehand that was difficult af and took aaaaages...

Most advice for creatives says to not build your own website, because a designer can do a way better job of it + help you avoid the generic Squarespace Template look.

Many of us, however, will choose to do it ourselves anyway.

I'm not here to debate whether I recommend doing that or not, because there's just too much nuance. But I'd like to share some of my thoughts and experiences.

Web design is branding in disguise

My good friend Arlo (shoutout 🙏) is a designer and did a workshop for us about using Squarespace.

They advised to not start building the website until you've got a solid mockup of it, e.g. drawing it by hand or laying it out in some design software. Page layouts, text, images, links, buttons, etc.

I couldn't imagine being able to do that. I had no idea what I wanted to say or what I wanted it to look like.

I thought that getting the Squarespace two-week free trial and playing around with some of the templates would help me come up with a better mental image of what I wanted.

It didn't 😅

(Plus I was rushing due to the two-week trial, which doesn't help)

I realised I was faced with a lot of very big decisions about my own branding. What fonts and colours did I want? What sort of images and graphics would I use? Would I have a logo? What will my headings say?

I was gonna need to break it down and do one step at a time.

Design skillz really help

I decided I did need a logo.

I was already pretty clear that hand-drawn lineart was the vibe, so I drew some stuff in Clip Studio Paint and moved it around until it looked about right.

I was very pleased with my own design skills with this! And it felt really authentic as well.

There are AI-based logo generators out there, and I did try one just to see, but it did not feel like me at all.

I already knew deep down what I wanted, so I needed to bring it to life myself.

I believe it was my occasional digital art + painting in the past few years that made it possible, especially since I was already able to confidently navigate around in Clip Studio. I definitely couldn't have made something I was genuinely pleased with if I had no prior digital art experience.

I already loved this particular font in Canva. I spent ages looking around at similar (and free) handwriting-style fonts, but nothing could compare 💔 so I ended up getting a license for this one.

I also already loved this colour palette in Canva and I've been using it for years... so why not keep it?

The whole design process felt very personal.

It was also a great opportunity to explore making creative decisions based on what felt "right".

Trusting my own intuition was what made the biggest difference here.

I spent so long looking for a free alternative to this font (just to be more cost-effective), and it took a while to accept that this one felt the best.

I also spent ages deliberating on the colour palette... in case there might be a different one out there that would be life-changing. But this one already felt right. If it ain't broke, why fix it?

There'll be a part 2 to this email on Thursday all about the writing and page design process + what software I used ✌️

See you then!

Damon

P.S. if you need help with what your website should say, hit reply or email me at hello@damonsiseman.com and let's see if we could work together!

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August Week #1

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