Self-design
Self-design
Self-design
Designing for yourself feels nearly impossible.
I think it stems from the fact that no matter how great your skills, or how grand your vision is, there simply aren’t as many limitations as necessary. In a client-to-designer relationship, the constraints help shape expectations and outcomes in a way that compromises in the right ways… but when it’s a “you (client) <> you (designer)” situation, the vast sea of possibility is simply too much to bear.
The way I see it — and the way I experienced this week while updating my Studio Mesa website in preparation for Black Friday (shameless plug, 35% off everything) — there are really two options:
Set hard boundaries and stick to them to avoid distractions.
Be willing to swim, swim, swim until you discover land.
I unfortunately picked the second route and tried to completely reinvent the brand from the ground up. But, after multiple “not quite right” iterations, I decided to double-down on the original visual direction and try to make it just a bit cooler and more refined. At the end of the day, I’m still conflicted by the same things as before… but maybe it’s like 25% better?
I suppose it doesn’t really matter what I think, so long as the business works and people buy website templates. C'est la vie.
Designing for yourself feels nearly impossible.
I think it stems from the fact that no matter how great your skills, or how grand your vision is, there simply aren’t as many limitations as necessary. In a client-to-designer relationship, the constraints help shape expectations and outcomes in a way that compromises in the right ways… but when it’s a “you (client) <> you (designer)” situation, the vast sea of possibility is simply too much to bear.
The way I see it — and the way I experienced this week while updating my Studio Mesa website in preparation for Black Friday (shameless plug, 35% off everything) — there are really two options:
Set hard boundaries and stick to them to avoid distractions.
Be willing to swim, swim, swim until you discover land.
I unfortunately picked the second route and tried to completely reinvent the brand from the ground up. But, after multiple “not quite right” iterations, I decided to double-down on the original visual direction and try to make it just a bit cooler and more refined. At the end of the day, I’m still conflicted by the same things as before… but maybe it’s like 25% better?
I suppose it doesn’t really matter what I think, so long as the business works and people buy website templates. C'est la vie.
Designing for yourself feels nearly impossible.
I think it stems from the fact that no matter how great your skills, or how grand your vision is, there simply aren’t as many limitations as necessary. In a client-to-designer relationship, the constraints help shape expectations and outcomes in a way that compromises in the right ways… but when it’s a “you (client) <> you (designer)” situation, the vast sea of possibility is simply too much to bear.
The way I see it — and the way I experienced this week while updating my Studio Mesa website in preparation for Black Friday (shameless plug, 35% off everything) — there are really two options:
Set hard boundaries and stick to them to avoid distractions.
Be willing to swim, swim, swim until you discover land.
I unfortunately picked the second route and tried to completely reinvent the brand from the ground up. But, after multiple “not quite right” iterations, I decided to double-down on the original visual direction and try to make it just a bit cooler and more refined. At the end of the day, I’m still conflicted by the same things as before… but maybe it’s like 25% better?
I suppose it doesn’t really matter what I think, so long as the business works and people buy website templates. C'est la vie.