Thinking Through the Redesign of eGrace Creative

In case you hadn’t noticed or it’s your first time here, I just re-designed this site for about the fifth time in two years. I’m very happy with the outcome, though I’ll be making tweaks continually (a designer is never fully satisfied with his work, especially his own portfolio). It’s a different style than I’ve had before and I wanted to simply share a few brief thoughts about it.

First of all, I wanted a left-justified site. Why? I’m not really sure, but after looking at hundreds of portfolios, there was something about those that moved their site to the left of the browser that struck me as unique. Most sites on the web are centered, so in some small way it stands out from the crowd just a bit.

I also wanted to go slightly grungy, but not over the top. the torn paper and leather edging give this effect without alienating business clients. Leather in particular is comfortable to me. I carry a leather Bible, write in a leather journal, carry a leather wallet, have a leather couch in my office, and even my iphone has a leather cover. In other words, much of my life is wrapped in leather.

The dark right side exists because, though I like dark designs, I’m not quite comfortable with my own portfolio site being dark altogether. Using the sidebar in this way lets me play with the idea without a full commitment to it.

Two other significant changes relate to my own online habits. I’m learning increasingly more about design from my use of social media, so I used some very nice icons offered by Cheth Studios to highlight the networks most significant to me as a designer. I also wanted to change my homepage layout to allow me to do more blogging on the subject of design while retaining just two portfolio entries on the front page, one web project and one logo project.

I’m open to feedback and criticism. I may or may not agree, but you may represent a perspective I’d like to know about, and I’d like to learn and grow through your input. Thanks for reading. Oh, and I also redesigned my Twitter background to match.