Comments On A Nine Hour Site
One-day projects have been a bit of a fad for the past several years. On a recent Saturday morning, laying awake in bed, I had an idea for a redesign for Vertical Factory.co.uk, and decided to push myself and see how far I could take it in one day. I ended up surprising myself with the results:
Far from perfect, yes, but you know what? I’ll let this layout live for a while. It’s nice to have something to point to and say: “I did that in one day. I could do better with more time, but I feel this is okay for one day.”
That said, I wanted to make fun of my layout.
A Healthy Dose of Self-Criticism
Diagonal stripes are the calling card of a mediocre designer. Alright. I said it.
Now, of course, “mediocre” can still be good, but just not great. Diagonal stripes are an easy optical pattern that requires very little skill to create.
I know that it is a site called Vertical Factory.co.uk, so “warning lines” are somewhat appropriate for the theme, but lately, this pattern feels like a bit of a web design cliche.
A great designer would have come up with something a little more unique, or a little more illustrative. Maybe create something textured, or make use of a photographic asset.
Willing To Forgive Myself
However, great design takes time. Building a website based on any design, great or mediocre, also takes time. Maybe if I spent a whole day designing the site and spent the following Saturday building the site, I’d feel more challenged to do something great.
But as it stands, I spent about half the day designing, and half the day building (which is why not all features are implemented as of this writing).
Good Times
Like I said above: diagonal lines don’t require a lot of skill, but they don’t require a lot of time, either. And that’s why I won’t beat myself up too much, because that pattern is conducive to the constraints of having such a short amount of time.
That was the point of the project: To take the stress out of a tight deadline, and just do something fast for the sake of having a little fun. And I did have fun, so in that regard, it’s a success.