I Am Ashley (But You Know That By Now)

Today saw me fervently launch the second version of my personal site, I Am Ashley. I Am Ashley houses links to all my projects, of which I’ll be adding to as time goes on (I have a couple bubbling in my head, and others I’m currently making headway with). The original version went live in July, which was only 3 months ago, but I grew tired of it quickly and felt I could do a better job of both building an improved site and conveying my personality, which is something I really strive to do with I Am Ashley. Apparently an eternal sense of feeling unfulfilled in regards to your own work is completely normal, so I don’t feel as bad about it.

The way I work is likely different to a lot of other people. I design in the browser, and not because 37Signals say it’s cool, but because that’s simply how I feel comfortable doing it. I’m the first to admit my ’skills’ in Photoshop leave much to be desired, and I really only know the basics. I keep meaning to blast through a number of tutorials, but it feels I never really have the time.

The format for the site has essentially stayed the same; a one page site (unless you count the link to display the older version), with a strong emphasis on personal branding and links to my various other hangouts around the web. Seemples!

I Am Ashley Version 2

It all started innocently enough, with me simply wanting to mix things up with the typeface I use for my ‘logo’. The font is Blackout, and it’s available for free from the very talented Tyler Finck’s web site. Knowing this, I figured there was a good chance it would be popping up all over the web, and so I wanted to slightly customise it. My poor knowledge of Photoshop limited what I could do, so I simply added some texture, grunged it up with various Photoshop brushes, and took several chunks out of it. Sorted.

I Am Ashley Logo

I’m a sucker for sites with strong imagery. Especially of people. In fact, the first page I head to on any site is the ‘about’ page, simply because I like to get a feel for the person behind the design. So I knew I wanted to use a better shot of me, as the one taken on Version 1 was before I knew how to use my camera. Fortunately for me, my very kind – and talented – friend gave me permission to use one of his shots taken of me laying on broken glass (ahem), and so I began building what I thought would be the final version.

I Am Ashley - One of the edits

The feedback on Flickr wasn’t hugely positive – people seemed to dig Version 1. I was surprised, but by this point I had grown sick of looking at Version 1 anyway, and so had decided to go ahead with the build. I even integrated a fancy slider footer.

As you can see, that never made the cut. The final version includes elements of the original as well as elements from what I intended to be Version 2. I knew I wanted to ‘hide’ the bulk of the content to keep things simple and uncluttered (a decision which has been questioned on Twitter, hence why I’m explaining). With it being a one page site and plenty of room to expand as I add more projects, I knew I had to make better use of space, and this seemed to be a decent solution.

Moving on to stinky Internet Explorer, the browser definitely doesn’t do the site any justice (if anyone can forward me a screenshot of what my site looks like in IE8 – oh, and Chrome – that would be fab!), but I’m not responsible for IE’s sucky text rendering or inability to understand simple CSS. Also, my site makes use of some CSS3 techniques, which will naturally be absent from Internet Explorer.

I Am Ashley - Internet Explorer

I’m still not 100% satisfied with I Am Ashley, but then again I don’t really expect to be. I’ll add to it and tweak it as time passes and as my understanding of web design progresses. It made a welcome change from building insurance sites, that’s for sure, and I can’t wait to get stuck into the other sites bubbling in my head. On that note, I’d love some feedback, whether in the form of compliments or (constructive!) criticism. I’m constantly learning, and the best way to do so is from others.

Tags: I Am Ashley, Web Design

This entry was posted on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 6:13 pm and is filed under Personal.
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