it's not plaigarism, it's homage!!
#59| Watching | Adventures from Moominvalley (ok it's background noise) |
| Playing | Hotel Dusk: Room 215 and The Last Window: The Secret of Cape West |
Recently I had the opportunity to go to the saddest farmer's market I've ever seen. How can there only be one actual produce stand and just about everyone else selling low-effort Etsy fodder? And it's so blisteringly hot outside the least they could do is make those soy candles and soaps worth my while!
Well, I suppose it was fitting because just about everything that I usually find fun and enjoyable has been such a chore these days. Can't faceup, can't draw, can't sculpt, can't sew, can't write. I'm in such a creative slump! While trying to keep myself convinced no pain no gain! applies just as well to the ~arts~, I've turned my attention to other, less burdensome activities. I'm not as critical about my skills in the moment, and it doesn't feel like time wasted even if the results aren't good.
First I did some outdoor shooting with Pistachio and Astilbe! A couple weeks ago I finished redoing Pistachio's faceup, and now it's neater and brighter. A green mushroom is sprouting from her head. It's magical. Even though they're single jointed and tiny, dollfoto with them is so enjoyable. I wanted to get pair photos but a wasp kept hovering uncomfortably close so I panicked and fled. I'm not sure I'll do more outdoor shooting anytime soon because I keep getting a rash when I go outside. It's not heat rash but I have a few mysterious allergies, so better not to push it.
More dollfoto in the thread.
A while back I thought it would be funny to make the most stereotypical Neocities site I could manage, but I lost interest after setting up three columns. But I went back and finished it recently, and it was actually a lot of fun. I understand the appeal now. I think this type of layout was most common with dollz sites and sprawling franchise fansites, being the repositories of information that they were. I don't remember seeing it much with sozai sites and anime graphics sites, which were usually two- or one column. Anime graphic sites, and by some extension fanlistings, had a trend of being very wide and textured sometime in the mid 2010s. I think that might have just been a natural progression of blends, and the Neocities version of the three-column layout is similarly derivative. I don't think any design trends in personal sites are necessarily bad, but I think if someone is going to draw inspiration from defunct websites, it should be tailored to their content. For example, if all you're really going to use Neocities for is to host an about page and some social media links, three columns might be a little overkill! I think some users realize that, but in their stubborness, instead choose to fill empty space with decorative ads (which is insane), or stock images of products they don't own. Design for the sake of design has its merits, but I think the concept of a personal site gets a little lost leaning too much into frivolity and the novelty of such a thing.
Well, it was a worthwhile exercise, though I couldn't bring myself to keep it entirely to the tastes of impressionable Neocities users. For one, there is no pagedoll. But I've made it workable as a template and I've shared it here!
I want to explore other eras of web design floating in the back of my memories, and I've already started flitting through archives of the handful of sites whose names I can recall. Even nearly a decade later, their sites are still beautiful. I think it's because they took themselves quite seriously as craftsmen and designers rather than just person with website. I think in the current landscape of personal web, there is understandbly a desire to keep a site looking... homemade. We've all sought refuge from the bootstrapification of web design for some reason or another! But it's a little silly to shun intent and cohesion altogether! There are many recent sites that teeter this line quite well, just about everyone on my links page does so. But I don't think such a pressure existed 10 years ago, and if it did, I never saw it so explicitly expressed.