Author: Syllie

Fast Forward 2017

Syllie

I’ve worked hard. For many years. Done great things and worked with awesome people. Worked for a long time for the same company, and I’ve coded many, many websites of which some won awards. I am proud of those achievements and my greatest rewards were happy clients. Then it appeared nothing was as it should be and from one day to the other the company closed its doors. Some former clients found me by word of mouth, some via my professional profiles. Salvage was the word, and I happily help out where I can. Web Developer for hire 🙂

So what now with this site, should I turn it into a professional one? Currently I am taking a well deserved break – brushing up some skills, finding some creative flow. And I read through all these old blog posts on here, they mention some wishes and plans that never crystallized. But I have done plenty of other things instead and have had fun along the way. Not sure what I will do with them, but the site will be changed to include the more professional side of me.

As we are about to leave 2011…

Syllie

Phew… that was one busy year! Lots of things happening, but mostly working my but off! I’ve built and launched quite a few websites and fortunately they were well received. So it’s time for a little break during the Christmas period to catch my breath and play with a lot of things that I have not been able to play with … (hehe)

One of those is to finish a website for a friend of mine – she’s running a small yoga business and tho we’ve set her up with the default WP theme – we sure can do better! And please don’t mention my own website.. haha.. I know .. it is way overdue. But I hope that I will be able to upload some more of my illustrations and artwork and then I may switch to a portfolio type template.

Other things I am involved in…

Reviewing of a book on Inkscape. I think I am way too critical tho – so not so sure if they’re happy with me. The book is targeting the beginning Inkscape artist, the same group for whom I write Inkscape tutorials on verysimpledesigns.com. And those that know me in person know I set pretty high standards.

I am also trying to complete some more tutorials for that same verysimpledesigns.com. It has been way too long and I know it.

And finally I am working on vector illustrations and creating a stronger identity there. There are so many talented artists out there  and the internet provides such a nice opportunity to see what others are doing and how their styles developed over the years. I love the galleries that show earlier as well as recent work.  It also proves that it is very hard to put your own mark down and do something that is very unique. I know I am overthinking that tho 😀 – it is clear from my work that I like weird and unrealistic worlds in happy colours.

Design Inspiration

Syllie

You know what? I think the hardest thing to do is to design something for yourself. As much as a doctor fails to follow his own advise or a builder keeps his own place in shape!

I REALLY want to change the design of verysimpledesigns.com. I created a new and fresh logo. And yes it still will be purple.. I like purple. But then…

Joomla is currently at version 1.7. There seems to be an update for every component I use but one.. *sigh* .. update or not to update… what replacement to use??

Do I change my menu from vertical to horizontal? I want to use sliders to save some real estate and present recent Inkscape tutorials in a bit more convenient way. I like the web 2.0 glossy horizontal web styles. I build many of those for our clients. And they all look good! But if you have heaps of content.. the centre part is a bit of an empty block. And I have a LOT of content, just consider the length of my tutorials. Horizontal? Vertical? Horizontal?

I do need to update the stylesheet. I used one that came with a free template and there are many minor beauty flaws in it. One of the things that I should have corrected straight away is to put a numbered style in place. That makes the tutorials so much more readable. But that also means that I have to go through all the tutorials and update the styling to make it look GOOD.

So back to square one.. redesign or refresh? Omg.. deadlock… I need some inspiration, motivation and someone needs to kick my but.

Waiting in Anticipation

Syllie

I am currently in one of those moods… lots of plans and unable to start with any of them. I got some new domains to work on, with the idea to use them to distribute some of my graphics for creative purposes (cutting, crafting and whatever one sees fit). Somehow I cannot seem to finish my website designs and bring the sites live.

Inkscape 0.48.2 has been build, but not yet “formally released”. Waiting on that too… there is not much going on at VerySimpleDesigns.com and that has to change too. The site still has a decent amount of visitors, even with no content changes since last February. I feel a bit guilty about that too… I created some cool prim colour filters and never shared them, I even created a cute design for a tutorial with these filters and never published it. I just got to kick myself into creative mode I guess…

Then Joomla! version 1.7 was released. VSD runs at 1.5 and I have been planning to update the site and give it a fresh look for a long time. Some of the components I use are not available for version 1.7 and one of the most important ones had to do with SEO. There is an update now and I am currently testing the components to see if I can update the site soon. I am looking into the styling too, as the site mainly features tutorials and I would like to have a bit more control on numbering of steps in a tutorial. It needs a bit of rethinking but it is cool to work on.

I have picked up 3d modeling and rendering again – slowly – but also that brings a lot of fun. It is just that I have too many things I want to do .. how to fit that in into just a 24 hr day? 🙂 Ultimately I want to bring out models as content creator for the 3d community – but I am still a long way off from sharing anything worthwile.

Update

Syllie

Hi All!

It’s been awefully quiet on all blog fronts for a while. I don’t know how it happens but I am sure you’ll know what I am talking about. It shouldn’t be that hard to drop a post every now and again and a bit more regularly but somehow I do not seem to have enough time to do things. That does not mean I am sitting back and taking the Ozzie laid back life-style a bit too literally 🙂

So what have I been up to? Quite a bit actually… First of all I am enjoying my now full time web developer role in one of the better Aussie SEO companies. It offers tremendous opportunities as we are working from home. That means in general that I am actually doing more hours than my contract says – and also that I ‘bring my work home’ all the time. But if you do what you love to do that is not really a burden .. is it? It also means that on a less effective day I am able to shift my work hours and a break for a coffee and some contemplating is not frowned upon. As long as the work gets done that is 😀

It also means that I spent a serious amount of time behind the PC. That has been the case for many years.. but at some point in time I simply did not enjoy doing stuff  ‘after hours’. And that impacts my other interests, such as the Inkscape tutorials that I write for verysimpledesigns.com. Also graphics work in general was getting less attention. If you read this blog before then you’ll know that I was doing some 3D modeling work in Blender. Well the user interface got a make over and I am sorta learning to work with this program again. 3D is awesome, but has a steep learning curve. I am glad I do not need to start at the absolute bottom.

Also a friend of mine decided to get married. In Kauai of all places – it must be one of the most beautiful places of this planet. He asked me if I would design and build the website for their wedding and how could I say no? It would be the perfect wedding pressie too! I started with some simple ideas and we mailed a bit back and forth and before I knew I was also asked to design their wedding invitation. The theme? Aqua and Ivory with a hint of Red – tropical colours in a tropical setting. I was not sure about how ‘formal’ this was all supposed to be but when we talked about it and viewed some examples we decided to go with white orchids with red ribbons against a blue aqua background for the website, and with blue outlines for the invitation. It was a lot of work after hours and it took the larger part of 2 weekends but it was worth it. The bride and groom love the designs and the feedback of the guests is positive sofar. Mission accomplished I’d say.