What Happened To Branding?

Today was the rare type of day when I have a sort of vision, a clairvoyant look into the world. In return, I get to either create something awesome, go through an anxiety attack, or both. Today, I had both.

Posted on my new blog, Larry West Productions: The Blog, this is a snippet of my article on branding.

Sometimes I feel older than I should.

This isn't a figure of speech your about to read, nor am I over-simplifying what happened. I woke up this morning, eyes aching from the attempts to open them after basically rubbing away the protective layer on them last night and then having it grow back this morning. After I got both eyes open, watching TV, I realized something: There is no branding anymore.

I was watching "Morning Joe" on MSNBC when that hit me. I was watching the logo in the background as it was displayed on a screen and that made me think about what it meant, which, really, was nothing. It's a sloppy logo. Joe Scarbrough is a straight-laced Republican and the logo is a liberal-minded, coffee-shop logo. It doesn't work. It's not a brand. The show was slapped together after the Don Imus thing and they never made the logo work for the show. Joe just doesn't look good against the logo, against this "brand", and he always looks awkward.

Then I started to think about my logo and branding.

There's a lot more to this, including Spongebob Squarepants, Apple, and Virigns! Enjoy!

I've Relaunched My Website! AWESOME!

I've actually had my website finished for a bit now, at least November 1st. I've been insanely busy lately with the relaunch, the election, and a few other things.

So the website is now up and this may become my "official business blog". Thought I would add that.

Just click on the image to get there:

ARTISTIC PROGRESS!

Kinda happy about this:

I've been having a hard time just sitting down at my art desk and drawing for... well, years now. I've sketched like a mad man during that time, but I haven't had many, if any, finished pieces. Last night I tightened up 2 pieces and finished the pencils on another. I plan on starting at least 3 today and may finishing off 2 as well.

On top of that, I'm going to try and finish my web site relaunch.

:)

Megadeth and the Future of Web Design

A few days ago, I posted an article on why Web 2.0 sucks and pointed to a site that I consider to be the future of web design. Now, for all disclosure purposes, I've talked on and off with the Webmaster of Megadeth for nearly 4 years now, am a massive Megadeth fan, and even had Dave Mustaine help me out of a jam once. But I wanted to point out this site because it does something very few sites can do; combine an AWESOME design with GREAT functionality.

But I tend to talk too much. I was lucky enough to score an interview with the webmaster, Dave McRobb:

How long have you been working with Megadeth, and how did you meet Dave Mustaine?

Dave McRobb: 5 years. [I] Met Dave in 1995 backstage Youthansia tour. Earned a “Feed The Hungry” pass from local radio station by bringing in 2 cans of food. Megadeth were doing a food drive on that tour.

How did you create the FIRST Megadeth Site? What did it look like? What features did it have?

McRobb: I didn’t create the first Megadeth site. I believe it was Megadeth Airzona. Here is an archived page of it online http://web.archive.org/web/19980207015730/www.hollywoodandvine.com/megadeth/

What motivated you to get into web design?

McRobb: Always been technical minded. Loved computers. Worked here and there for friends’ bands. Set up a forum or two which got me into knowing how to works with code and databases, etc. Took on hosting and webmaster for Megadeth.com, then really snowballed from there.

Do you do your own coding? If so, how long have you been doing it? What programming languages are you good at?

McRobb: I do coding, yep. I also work together with others if need be. Approx 7 years. HTML, Cold Fusion, JavaScript, PHP, CSS (stylesheet language), mySql (databse management system), Flash (streaming animation) …you know, the regular old stuff. =)

What inspired and influenced the current Megadeth website and the content?

McRobb: Current Megadeth site inspired and influenced by the United Abominations album of course. The colors were loosely derived from the album. I wanted a state-of-the-art site compared to the last version. I wanted flash objects in an HTML/PHP coded page opposed to going all Flash. There were several little details I knew I wanted like the map, murals, logo and button placement, news section etc. I wanted a detailed Discography section and an epic photo gallery. New audio and video players. All those kind of things. And as always, as a site is being built, one gets inspired and comes up with ideas as it grows. All part of the creative process.

What do you think is the future of web design?

McRobb: Future… more and more sites designed in CSS. Flash design will surely grow and become more user friendly. More overall interactivity with the user. The web will continue to offer information and be a form of communication, selling products, etc which will always be considered when designing. Things change quickly with technology so it can be hard to say sometimes where things will go. But I look forward to it all!

Make sure you head over to the site at Megadeth.com. There's a new Megadeth album in the works and that can only mean McRobb is going to need to a new design, thus pushing even more the boundaries of web design.

Redesigning My Website: War Journal 9: One Evil Comes a Million Follow

Grrr....

Well, nothing beats having a website turn on you, especially when you don't know at all what the hell your doing anymore.

It's been about a week now since I've decided to start this site redesign project and I guess the best thing to say, and to reassure anyone who wants to hire me, is the successes I've had thus far:

• I've learned a LOT about CSS coding, including making a background image a link.
• How to create and code a web design that not only looks great, but works great!
• The importance of CSS and XHTML Validation and compliance.
• Really, really good SEO tips.

And now, the problems:

• Realizing that not know anything about MySQL is now a problem in "Web 2.0".
• Wordpress only takes "5 minutes to install" only if you know what your doing and your database is already set-up.
• My CSS Coding needs some very small tweaking work.

I can make a version of the site to launch that will work tomorrow if I wanted to, but I decided that the best thing I can do is just hold off until it's done and all my errors are done. This may end my updates for a while in the War Journal. I'll do a CD roundup for the last week tomorrow, time permitting, and I just won't have links to Amazon on them since, well, it's like 50 CD's.

But I will show you my new photo:

Yes, for some reason, I decided my ugly mug was worth posting a new photo of. I'm in my Minor Threat photo. If you get the reference, good for you!

Redesigning My Website: War Journal 8: Home Stretch?

So, this is the longest it's taken me to do a site ever. That's only because I tend to stay awake and work non-stop on a site until it's done. This time I wasn't able to, so it's been hanging over my head since I started designing since Friday. I was able to write that article earlier today because, frankly, I could.

Right now, here's what's left:

• Cleaning up some XHTML errors.
• Getting a Form to work.
• Taking care of Internet Explorer Bugs.
• Stopping 99.99% of all browser errors.
• Creating images for one page in my site.
• Deciding what to do for a portfolio page.
• Getting a blog for the site.
• Finally getting a certain freebies page to work.

The overall time shouldn't be too bad. I lost a few hours of work because I headed out and relaxed with a friend for a bit, and I got some food. Also got the new Motorhead album, Motorizer. It kicks ass.

Also, a few design Bloggers have been checking out my "Your Website SUCKS!" post. No comments or anything yet, but I am doing an interview with someone, so look for it soon!

YOUR WEBSITE SUCKS!!! - Quickie Comment on the Post

I forgot to mention this: I am, by no means, saying I'm perfect or even close. I'm not. Right now, the site you see at Larry West Productions breaks a few rules of good web design. For starters, I have a splash page.... well, really that's the only problem. That, and I have all my images opening in a new window since I don't have Lightbox installed on it.

I'm going to have another post soon where I clean up a lot of what I just said and basically have a much more coherent article where I talk more about cleaning it all up and making web sites cool again. Trust me, I've got a ton to write about and no time since, well, I'm rebuilding my current site.

So please, take what I wrote for what it is; a really pissed off artist who has a really small vocabulary.

YOUR WEB SITE SUCKS!!!: My Thoughts on "Modern" Web Design, 2.0

I am not a coder.

I want to state that now because a lot of so-called "web designers" are coders. There's a big difference between the two; Design denotes a sense artistic ability while coding is a skill. OR:

RIGHT-BRAINED = Arts
LEFT-BRAINED = Smarts

So, I'm right-minded. I love art, weird stuff, and and generally creating hell. When it comes to making them happen... well, I won't lie, I'm not great at it. My best friend is a coder and he's given me a ton of help and I couldn't repay him enough. A lot of my friends are more left-brained than right because, just like your brain, you need both left and right in order to get something done. In turn, you can't have a great website without both a great design and a working, functional, and correct code.

I mention all of that just so I can say this: YOUR WEBSITE SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fuck, I can't get close to enough exclamation points for this one! Seriously, it does. Why does it suck? Because you decided to go that horribly lame, over-used, suburban, cookie-cutter, god-awful terrible, idiotic, horrible, gag-inducing design known as WEB 2.0. Well, I'm here to tell you YOU SUCK! YOU FUCKING SUCK!

God, that felt good. REAL good. You have no idea how long I wanted to scream that at the top of my e-lungs.

OK, being constructive now, yes, your website is a horrible abomination to web design. Why? Because your making the web ugly again. Very, very ugly. Now, if your like me, you regularly head over to web design blogs and marvel at how cool they look, the awesome tutorials, and want to aspire to create something great. In turn, your not sure what to do for your own design. If your like me, you design a site in Photoshop, use image ready, plop it into Dreamweaver and BAM! You got yourself a website. But show the code to a coder... and, well, say hello to a new orifice in your body.

Too often web design has become about "trends". It's a fairly recent thing, really, when you consider that anyone and everyone had their own idea of what a website should be up until 2004. By then, everyone had basically been online and came to expect things, like a navigation bar at the top of the page, content, not to be bombarded with flashing text, etc... basically, whatever you see on MySpace now.

In turn, the internet has accepted some insanely boring web design practices, and I won't call it the "Web 2.0" look. No. It's "Earthy". I wish I was kidding.

I'm going to use an example. I'm going to sound mean because, frankly, I'm sick of seeing this stuff happen. Now, this is a great site and I, personally, hate the re-design. That's me. But this is what I mean:


Now, the design isn't bad. As much as I may say something "sucks", it's because I have a limited vocabulary and I just love saying that word. A lot. But I hate the fact that the trend now is to take all the interesting and cool-looking concepts and instead create this ultra-sleek and "modern" style of site with soft gradients. It looks nice in and of itself, but god, that's 99% of the web it seems.

The "earthy" web design is the trend because, let's face it, America as a nation is coming into an age where we no longer see ourselves as immortal; we really understand that the earth matters and we need to conserve energy and reduce waste. We translate that into our once-crowded and jumbled websites and, in turn, have created a design that is insanely boring.

We've created sites where content is king, but the content tends to be boring and nothing more than a place holder for the blog we're really pushing instead. The design of this blog, for example, is boring. I hate it. I haven't done much to change it since, frankly, I don't really care. I just come here to rant. But that's my point. The blog is king in terms of websites now, and the design isn't.

Example? OK.

Here's a link to an AWESOME tutorial on making a website with Photohshop. The problem? Would you ever want to go to a site like that? Seriously, would you? Me? Only if it had some sweet content.



Now, I've spent all this time complaining about web site design and not offering solutions. So what do I think should be the new trend? Simple: Be yourselves again.

To me, a good website is defined by the personality of the site. Navigation and content needs to be simple to understand and you should be able to tell what's going on in the first 4 seconds. I'll go more in all of this later, but a few of my favorite sites will explain it better:


MEGADETH.COM - Welcome to the next evolution of web design! Dave McRobb has been designing the Megadeth.com site since it first came out in 1995, the FIRST band web site ever, mind you. The current version uses a flash navigation that loads quickly and looks great. The content is updated daily, and there's more than enough reason for anyone to keep coming back. The design is top-notch, fun, interesting, and makes you want to come back for more.


GOMEDIAZINE.COM - The site has a really interesting design, great articles and advice, and is just overall very nice. It's how to use the Web 2.0 philopshy and still have an interesting site.

These articles ha more than I can post:

• Irresistible Websites Part One
  
• 40 Beautiful And Inspirational Website Designs
  

Thanks to School Is In Session - 100 Design Articles To Keep You Motivated : Part 1

Now, all of this wasn't simply to insult or tear down people who do or want that look; on the contrary, I actually like the design to a degree. I think it sucks that everyone is doing it and, in turn, is ruining an otherwise decent aesthetic value. It's like going from your house to some urban apartment loft; your house is a little messy and it's use. That person with the apartment has next to nothing in it, it looks really clean and minimalistic. Then again, that person most likely doesn't have the money to get "Stuff" for it, anyway.

In the end, I just want people to just start using their right brain instead of their left when it comes to design. I'm a damn good designer, but I suck at coding. I'll post more later, but for now... consider this part 1.

Redesigning My Website: War Journal 7: Half-Way There

Short entry since I need to go to bed and wake up in... damn, 5 1/2 hours and counting.

So, what isn't happening first:

• I'm not using a CMS system since I only have one page where the content will really change.
• The first published version will not have a floating footer.

What WILL Happen:

• The CSS Coding will be 100% W3C Complaint
• I'll fix nearly all the errors I have to make it XHTML Compliant

Now, ever better, what IS happening! I just installed Lightbox so all the images will open in Javascript instead of a new window. It looks really nice!

Right now, the problem is how I plan on laying out the content. Yes, it's sad: I waited to do this last. Four out of 13 pages are set, 8 out of 13 are close to a final layout, and the other one just need me to roll up my sleeves.

Redesigning My Website: War Journal 6: The Battle of CSS Positioning

I hate CSS positioning. A lot. Then again, you only hate something like this when you can't get it to work for you.

Also, I want to take some time to complain about W3 standards, at least to some degree.

A neutral validation service, W3 has been basically defining what it means to have a site that works in all browsers. Admittedly, the validation seems so incredibly anal retentive it's sick. Want an example? Twitter gives a code that allows you to put their code on your page. The problem? The code they have leaves one tiny little list object.

The result:

Line 385, Column 57: end tag for "ul" which is not finished.

It leaves a small open list thing since, without it, the content doesn't work properly. My friend, who's site is 100% XHML complaint, told me not to worry about it. It's only getting under my skin because that one tiny thing is holding my back from actually having a perfect page. ...OK, at least in terms of XHML coding. CSS wise, it's fine, but the positioning thing is really less about valid CSS than making it right in the eyes of coders. But that's something else.

If you do a W3 Validator search on what may be some of your favorite sites, you'll see that about 99% of them aren't valid. My favorite band's site, Megadeth... well, it's a lot. 291 Errors, and 194 Warnings. Anthrax? 64 errors, 16 warnings. Nettuts, an awesome website dedicated to helping designers create awesome and valid websites. Their results? 102 Errors, 53 warning.

To me, it isn't a total holy grail for a web designer since, well, a lot of great sites that work fine and look great aren't valid. This doesn't mean I'm trying to forgive the sites, mind you. A lot of them should be valid in all browsers... and they are. The errors are mainly dealing with some rather odd occurances that don't realy effect the site at all. But I guess all I'm saying is that the validation is really cool.

At the same time, save my friends site, I really haven't seen a Fully W3 Complaint website that looks cool. Not one. They all seem to suck. It's like they all have one thing in common; being so damn over-simplified that, in reallity, it isn't exactly that much different than the websites that populated the internet when it first started. Here's one site that is 100% complaint. It's a fairly nice design, but really, it's so slick and clean it doesn't seem like something that I would ever go to.

Eh, I'm just rambling.

Redesigning My Website: War Journal 5

Long day winding down way too soon.

I've got to go to work tomorrow, I've lost about 8 hours of sleep the last two days combined, and my site isn't done yet. The CSS coding is 90% done. The main thing left is basically cleaning up my code. I'm considering not doing a drop-down menu, but I may change my mind. I'm still stuck cutting up the images, but other than that, my site is a good 75% done.

Redesigning My Website: War Journal 4

One hell of a day, huh?

Well, it's 2:34 AM and I am exhausted. I want to finish this site... but I want to sleep first. Coding most likely is going to kill my Sunday, and I guess doing a few things I had in mind is out the question. Right now, the site is giving me a few problems that will need to wait until tomorrow, so consider this a peek for now and a checklist for myself:

• Finish getting images ready for the site.
• Start learning that CMS so I know how to start update and managing contnet.
• Get the image I want to go to the bottom of the page to go there and stay.
• Make sure the footer stays where I want it to.
• Make images for CSS.
• Build the 13 other pages of the site.
• Get the lightbox thing for the portfolio.
  

That's about it. Long, long day ahead.

Redesigning My Website: War Journal 3

OK, the design for the main page is wrapped up and I'm pretty psyched about it!

The next steps are going to be more complicated. I now need to design the layout for a few more pages, as well as content. A few things are in the work and it's going to be a pain to get done.

Also, I'm going to do more SEO (Search Engine Optimization) work on the site as well. A few of my old tricks (Meta tags) aren't exactly working anymore, so I'm going to use a few tricks I've learned over the past year and, well, yeah.

Once all is said and done, I will gladly post that the site is 100% W3 CSS Complaint.

Right now, I'm trying to decide if I'm going to have a drop-down menu for the site. It's leaning towards a yes.

Here's a quick list of sites I'm using for inspiration so maybe you'll get an idea of what I'm doing:

• http://www.k3n.com
• http://blambot.com
• http://lopezstudios.com/

We'll see where this site goes. Normally, I don't even sleep until one of these things are done. So far, I'm sleeping and still having something of a life. But I'm still spending a ton of time thinking about this site and getting it done. I'm pretty happy so far.

Redesigning My Website: War Journal 2

I'm currently talking to my friend through AIM on how to refine the site since the design is 99% close to done. Right now, there's a few changes involving content and language, and just how to do a few things.

As for what it's going to look like when it's done... no hints. This site is just going to kick ass now!

I'm going to start studying more about CMS and, hopefully, will understand it.

Redesigning My Website: War Journal 1

So, as you may have noticed, this blog has been really quiet lately.

Right now, I'm in the middle of a massive project: Re-branding and re-launching Larry West Productions. Everything from the website to the logo is getting redone. In doing so, I decided to start tossing aside a few things and add new things as well.

So, my list of things that are leaving (I hope):

• Abandoning Dreamweaver-only and code-heavy updates by using a Content Management System (CMS)
• No more splash page
• New images opening in new windows

What I want to do:

• Create a more "modern" website that's still me
• Have new images open in some really cool way
• Incorporating more Web 2.0 and even 3.0 ideas
• Launch the Skateboard company
• Optimize the site for 1024 x 768 screens
• Have the design work for larger browser windows

That's it for now. I want to start posting comps and the design, but I really want it to be more of a surprise when it's all done. I've never used a CMS system, but more and more it's not only becoming standard, but no one is exactly thrilled with having to pay someone to update their website for them. Content Management Systems act as the middle-man that allows people to do an otherwise complicated thing. In essence, it really is the next logical step.

Now, I don't want people to think I did it out of pressure; I was pumped when I did the original website, and now I'm still really proud of it. I'm doing the design because I want to start learning a lot more about current practices in web design, coding, and management. I've been doing this stuff since 2002... and I haven't exactly been happy about growing up.

So look for periodic posts this weekend.