we need more *personal* websites
a cozy digital home in a friendly little digital neighborhood.
In an internet where social media is at the driver's seat, having a personal website is a form of liberation.
We need more personal websites. And I'm not talking about portfolios or freelancer websites, or any website that's made for marketing, work or even a specific project (we love that too!). I mean websites to express ourselves. Websites that emulate an artist's messy sketchbook, notebook, or that folder in your phone's gallery. Websites with a smaller degree of curation and a higher degree of creative chaos. A place to freely share the things we create, the things that we love to do, the products, processes, and failures of our creative projects, hobbies, and passions.
I don't mean to say this should be a place to dump absolutely everything we do, what we share can go through a filter, but sometimes the process reveals more things than the finished product. Let's share that process, the messiness, the learnings, the ugly, the failures, even the things that don't make sense. It's not a place to share just work or finished projects, but a place to share what makes you as an artist (or creative).
Please make a personal website
Share that project that you feel doesn't fit with the rest of your portfolio or career. Share the messy sketches for your new illustration project. Share the printer fails. Share who inspires you. Share your new hobby's projects that you're still getting the hang of. Share the design you made and love but has a typo. Share your collection of sunset photos. Share the meal you had that sparked a project idea. Share the rough drafts once the essay is published. Share photos of your post-it notes.
Share what makes you enjoy being creative. Share whatever you want!
It can be messy, it can be very organized, it can be pure chaos, it could have any structure you’d like. It can also be designed however you want, it can be shifting and changing with the seasons. What I want it to be, is truly yours. No algorithms, no pre-made designs, just your own digital home.
Art is a depiction of humanity, we relate through it, it connects us. People relate to art because people relate to humans. We should share those parts of us that make us human artists. People will relate and get inspired. We love to see the process behind art. There's simply no art without persons, so let's make our websites more personal (more human!!!).
Reasons to make your own personal website
You'll have a place you can go to get inspired, and it's your own.
To see your progress over time
If you have many interests, you'll finally have a place to host all of them
Make the internet fun again
It's a website AI can't make
Your website won't get likes, all pages are equal, there's no algorithm
When people ask you what you do, and the answer is too complicated, you bring them to your site
I want to be your digital neighbour (internet) and visit your digital home (website)!
How?
Start simple, remember, process before product. Your website is also a process.
Post a project before it's done, or before it's perfect (if it makes sense)
Always ask yourself, “could this go to my site?”
Open your sketchbook/notebook/that folder in your phone's gallery, use any of it
You don't need a lot of tech abilities to start, just use any website builder, the easier ones are least customizable, but they are still great (remember, we're not looking for perfect)
You can share the website updates on your newsletter
Some fun ideas your website could have 😁
Hidden links to “secret” pages
Image puzzles for people to do
An about page that tests the visitors
No about page, just info scattered through the site
A different color palette for each page
Random things your visitors can create a collage with
Different “characters” for sections of the website based on your interests: “the painter”, “the cook”, “the writer”, “the yogi”.
Other advice
Copyright the things you don't want stolen
Always credit/link other ppl's work!
Websites that inspired me recently
Afterimage by Maura Ford and Bekah Malover: A project blending poetry and design.
Barbiana Liu’s personal website, especially her about page.
Reads on similar topics (very recommended)
This zine called “Humans>Algorithms” by Juliana Sekai
Also loved her video of the process
“My website is a shifting house next to a river of knowledge. What could yours be?“ by Laurel Schwulst. It’s a poetic view on websites and the shapes and meanings they take.
“How I built myself a Digital Garden” by Tim Rodenbroeker A digital garden is a similar, but slightly different thing, and it’s more focused on text content, kinda like a personal wiki, but made public.
Questions!👇🏼
What could this type of site be called?
Personal website doesn’t reflect it quite enough. Maybe digital nook? Internet corner? Digital home? World Wee Web? World Whimsy Web? Hahaha. Give ideas! 💫
What are your thoughts on this? Do you also feel like the internet needs more silly, fun little personal sites?
Have you come across a website that was like this? Pls drop the link in the comments!! 👀
Thank you for reading ! :D
This is a topic I’ve been feeling passionate about and I wanted to share my thoughts in the newsletter. I feel like it’s a bit messy, I wasn’t able to collect and organize my thoughts that well, I just wanted to do it and see how it feels after publishing. I’m on a mission to defeat perfectionism when it comes to creativity, but that’s a whole topic for another day.