Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Website Woes

Although this blog is usually for posting my sketchbook work, I thought it was worth sharing my recent troubles with building a personal website...

Despite being a regular internet user, I still feel held back by a lack of knowledge of web design. For years I've contented myself with using Coroflot and Carbonmade, but I have found the lack of personalisation quite restricting, and the professional image is somewhat lacking when your homepage is a template site that looks the same as thousands of others.

So I've tried and fix this in a number of ways:
  • Try to teach myself basic html and css via www.dontfeartheinternet.com. Very well explained and enjoyable tutorials for building a website from scratch. I'm just waiting for more of them!
  • The other day I found a quite satisfactory although not 100% desirable method of manipulating a standard Wordpress blog to create a portfolio site. The tutorial is available in pdf form here.
  • I am currently trying Wordpress software. I have heard that Wordpress is the most popular CMS (Content Management System - see, I have learnt something!), but currently I am struggling to go beyond the generic templates and design something that reflects my own style.
  • I am also trying Squarespace, and would like to give Cargo a go too. Although Squarespace is a paid portfolio site, and Cargo is strictly invite only!

Ideally I'm looking for a simple, customisable, fast, easily updatable CMS to create a portfolio site with an integrated blog & social networking tools. If you're reading this blog and have similar troubles, or can offer me some further direction, please get in touch! 




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