Welcome to the third version of my site, the cleverly named, alifelski.com. Finally, after years of having disposable sites I am tapping into my eco-friendly side and making a site that down the road I will be able to, as Cameron Moll said, realign instead of redesign. I think the hardest thing about making a site for yourself is that there are even fewer restrictions. With a client you have to balance their wants and needs but when it is just you and your thoughts in front of a clean blank page in photoshop it can be intimidating. I believe it took me working through four other versions before feeling that I had a site that I was truly happy with. This is also the first version of alifelski.com that is built using CSS and HTML. Although most of my current job deals with working in Actionscript I felt that using web standards was more important for usability reasons and that I would simply use flash as icing instead of the dough that makes up the site.
This site has come a very long way from where it started back in 2004. My first attempt at making my personal site was for my last class in college, portfolio design. The class was in place to get graduating students ready for the outside world. Lets just say only offering three web design classes that focused on Dreamweaver, and Flash wasn’t exactly a rocketship to web design stardom. I actually believe after building the site in flash, I didn’t figure out how to get it onto the internet for another year. FTP’s, domain names, and hosting space? I would always be a print designer and I didn’t need to know any of those things, right?
With a client you have to balance their wants and needs but when it is just you and your thoughts in front of a clean blank page in photoshop it can be intimidating.
My second attempt was something that I quickly threw together after my favorite boss got fired from WPNI and my Senior Designer and I decided to leave the company as well. My experience with the web at this point was mainly based around Flash. If I did make anything that needed to have CSS markup my design was given to front-end developers who simply had more experience in that realm at that point in time. So in the end, the second version of my site ended up being very simple and basically just did what I needed it to do right at that moment.
Making this new site has been a fun and exiting process and I hope it will be able to grow along side me over the years. Let me know what you think. I am always interested in new opinions, ideas, and new forms of inspiration.
28 Comments
M. Jackson Wilkinson 09/01 11:57am
It was great getting to watch and help you learn over the last few months to get this done. I remember you working on your last version, and you should take a lot of pride in how everything has turned out—the extra effort has definitely paid off. Congrats!
Derek J. Damko 09/26 11:05am
Ali, I thoroughly enjoy your site. It has a great playfulness about it but holds with in the boundaries of being over designed. It has a woman’s touch but still with a touch of rawness. As a designer coming from the print arena, I can sympathize with you on how design has changed today with the popularity of thee web and all of the technical back-end stuff—where does that leave the creative design stuff. But I think that is one of the great things about the web—it gives us boarders and restrictions to control our thoughts and ideas. It is also great that there is a Flash designer who understands the importance of web standards. I am not a programmer but I have been diving into AS3 and I love it and hate it at the same time but same goes for XHTML and CSS. Anyways, I love the site and keep up the good work.
Vinh Le 09/26 1:33pm
Sweet design, I really like how you used the brushes. And I agree about how had it is to make a site for yourself, personally for me, I just accepted that my own designs will never be done because there are always mor ways to improve it.
Carlisle 09/26 1:51pm
Agree on web standards. Now if I can only convince others
Fubiz 09/26 2:35pm
Beautiful template!
alex 09/26 3:19pm
I just wanted to say that this is a beautiful design; Absolutely fantastic.
Corinne 09/26 10:29pm
This is a great website. I love the illustrations and the simple animation you’ve added. The weather report is a nice touch!
I’ve had trouble making a site for myself in the past. I went through 5 different designs before settling on one. Even though I settle on one, I always find ways to improve the design.
Anyway, good job! I found your site at The Best Designs.
Magnus Hansson 09/29 9:47am
I must say. When coming in here I couldn’t do much more but staying here and look at your work with much joy and fascination. It almost feels like Tim Burton has been here and helped you out. Are you a fan of his ?
//M
Scarlett Jessup 10/01 5:29pm
Ali...LOVE your site. It’s beautiful. My background is print design, so trying to design my own website has been very different from what I am use to. I love the background texture and color. Did you create this yourself, or did you use a stock image? I am often finding myself with a blank photoshop page in front of me - I have an idea of what I would like the look and feel to be - but not sure how to go about creating it for web.
Ali Felski 10/01 7:07pm
I just wanted to thank you all for your fantastic comments. It has really meant a lot that you have taken the time to let me know your thoughts.
@Magnus Hansson - I do like Tim Burton and it has been great getting to grow up watching some of his fantastic movies like Edward Scissorhands. It is very humbling to be compared though.
@ Scarlett Jessup - I made the texture by taking a couple of stock photos and some gradients and blending them together. In the past I have made textures myself but I feel (and other designers that I have talked to seem to agree) as if it is so time consuming for the same result you would get with a stock photo. I can usually play with the photo to make it my own and then take those extra hours and refine my designs.
Thanks everyone!
Kasper 10/04 9:29am
I love your site - i could watch it all the day long. I love your backgrounds and simple illustrations. You are very talented thats for sure. I will follow your further expantion of your beautiful site. But don´t change it to much - it´s great the way it is I think
Kind regards all the way from Denmark neighbor to Sweden
KING 10/06 7:57am
Beautiful design ! only can i say
Kory Hoopes 10/10 11:04am
Absolutely gorgeous site design, I love everything about it. Exceptional color balance.
jthomas 10/10 12:19pm
Hello
I just discovered your site. I can’t believe you’re not that familiar with CSS and HTML because it just looks great. Both the graphic part and the integration are beautiful. It feels personal and tender. The header is wonderful. I love the colors and the “grungy” side.
I don’t usually post comments on sites I just discover, but here I just had to.
Great job.
laba 10/11 6:17am
Just beautiful!
Paul Johns 10/12 11:16am
This site is really well designed in my humble opinion! I totally agree with one’s self being the hardest person to design for. I myself am never fully satisfied with my site, and I never really consider it finished. I redesign and realign all the time.
#FN$# 10/13 5:17pm
Hi! The whole thing you have here is great! Congratulations!…
But… I was wondering… Why don’t you use some kind of feed (rss or something)??…
Anyway, have a nice day!
with love, from Greece!
P.S.: The contact form seems to faces some kind of problems, so sorry for commenting here…
Ali Felski 10/13 7:26pm
Thanks for letting me know. I thought I had the RSS working but I guess not--it is all fixed now
Thanks again.
#FN$# 10/14 7:36am
Yes!… I thank you!!
Cindy Li 10/15 9:06pm
Beautiful, just as you are!
Kushal Bhatt 10/19 8:42pm
This is a very unique and nice design. Great job on designing for yourself. : )
Ronald Peixoto 10/24 6:06pm
Hi Ali,
Great job, congratulations.
Just love your site!
Jason 10/30 7:18pm
Personality goes far when you can capture it in a website. This is the first time I’ve seen your site, but it looks like you put a lot of heart into it.
Great work.
Rachel 11/03 5:26am
I LOVE your design, it is really beautiful :o)
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