After 2.5 years of abuse, the time is ripe for a fresh redesign at Repeat Penguin. I’ve made little attempt to keep this undertaking private, nor to keep the reasons behind it off the internets. Let’s face it, the wallpaper was pealing, the flooring was curling up and the rooms were drafty (or at least that’s how it started feeling to me).
It was a bit of a sprint squeezing in this redesign, amongst client projects, side projects and general craziness, but alas, we are here and I couldn’t be more excited to share.
Design Notes
There were two primary objectives leading this redesign effort. 1: Create a more content oriented design framework that would allow for both easier reading of articles and greater flexibility for content. 2: Reinvigorate the overall brand and create a space that would make me want to write more. The second of these two was certainly wrapped up in the first, for me.
With these objectives laid out in front of me, I had a clear path to order. Or did I? The fact is, this clear path actually tripped me up on this particular site. As a designer, my mind goes immediately from functional problem solving to design problem solving and the test in redesigning Repeat Penguin for me, fell almost entirely in the design arena.
Repeat Penguin Old Design
Repeat Penguin Old Design Notes
The previous iteration of this site was a little different from most projects I’ve worked on. When I initially set out to design the first rendition of Repeat Penguin, I followed a path no designer should. I pushed forward full-steam, headed towards anti-design.
Anti-design is a funny term and it is arguably subjective. However, there are a few qualities found in anti-design that seem to cross-over the subjective boundaries. These are: 1. Form before function. 2. A conscious effort from the designer, to do what shouldn’t be done. Whatever your interpretation of anti-design, I think we can all agree that this is just not something a Web designer should strive for. And well, that’s precisely why I did.
The result of this endeavor, I learned as I sat down to draft my first sketches for the redesign. I found myself visually boxed in, in a way I hadn’t anticipated. While the overall design of the current site was intentionally uglified and awkward, it had a quality in it that was so well branded. I was finding this hard to leave behind and doubly hard to evolve. My design blockage led me back to the drawing board, or should I say planning room.
Back to the basics
Being your own client has advantages and disadvantages. I can be my best client and I can be my worst. With a clear idea in mind, I’m a delight (except for that not knowing when to stop working part). But when that clear idea eludes me, I become an impossible perfectionist, nitpicking every detail and spinning myself into the mud. This is when my years of working with clients has really started to pay off.
We all exercise a measure of structure and discipline when working on client projects, right? We also, as creatives, sometimes fail to practice the same principles when working on our own stuff. Maybe not total neglect, but certainly shaving a step here or there. At least, I’ve been known to do this. This redesign project brought that to a halt.
After several failed attempts to embark on the redesign, I had put the effort aside for a while. A 6 month while. Granted, this is not a luxury afforded to paid work, but the time definitely cleared my head and I realized where I had been going wrong.
In my previous attempts I was consumed with the idea that the next iteration of the site had to promote a linear evolution in the brand I had created (though it feels silly to call it that). This evolution was very literal in my head. I liked the logo, the colors and the overall affect it had. What I wanted in a way, was to re-appropriate it in the new design. It wasn’t working.
This prompted a long period of avoidance and then ultimately a return to basics. Basic for me usually starts with lists. Identify what problems I need to address, what message I want to convey. Then contrast this with the problems and message present in the current brand.
The problem with the current brand was that it was visually stifling. It needed to evolve the brand on a conceptual basis, not a linear one. This led to two seemly obvious decisions. 1. Completely redesign the logo. 2. Revisit typeface selection and color palette. It’s funny, but holding onto one, was necessarily retaining the other. They both needed to go. So the challenge now, was in how to retain the overall affect, while completely changing the visuals.
Strategy Notes
In addition to redefining the visual and functional design of Repeat Penguin, there were some important questions I had to ask myself. At the top of the list was “just how does the personal blog fit into my life?”
There’s no denying it. My personal blog had taken a backseat to many other things and this wasn’t entirely due to the constraining affect it had on me. This was mostly due to the multitude of other outlets that occupied my time and those that satisfied a similar need, such as Twitter.
So I had to ask myself, what purpose does my blog serve for me? While I was giving this some serious thought, I came across an entry Ben Ward had posted, about this very topic.
This was an interesting reflection on the state of the personal blog and useful in my own assessment. I’m a strong believer in reduction. I would prefer not to be scattered across multiple web services and multiple applications. But until there is a viable alternative, this is the way it is. So my strategy for the new site was to aggregate more of this external content into my blog, without overshadowing or doing away with the actual function of the blog. At some point, I think Ben’s idea for a lifestream is optimal, but for now I’m happy with a more organized aggregation on the site.
So what you’ll find in this iteration of Repeat Penguin is more aggregated content, mostly present in a beefed up footer. I’m pulling in my streams from del.icio.us, last.fm, Upcoming, flickr and of course Twitter.
You will also find a cleaner separation in entry topics within the blog and a friendlier presentation for article content. I divided the site into two primary blog sections. Under articles, you will find more in depth posts about Web design and development. While under distractions you will find post of random amusement, interesting finds and reflections and a more comprehensive list of my recent bookmarks.
Together, these provided a more rounded view of my streaming life. I have consciously left out some facets of this stream, but I think this is a good overview. My goal was to create a personal hub for all of my activity around the Web, without doing away with the personal blog and I think the new design is a good starting point. Though the exact application and utility of the site may evolve over time, the framework is now flexible and adaptable.
