IN the depths of adversity lies the potential for remarkable transformation. Imagine having everything you’ve built, cherished, and relied upon suddenly crumble before your eyes. It’s a devastating experience that shakes your core and tests your resilience. Yet, amid the wreckage, there exists a glimmer of hope—a chance to rise anew, like a phoenix emerging from its ashes. The journey of rebuilding after loss is not just about reclaiming what was lost; it’s a profound evolution of the self, a testament to human strength, and a story of resilience that inspires others to persevere in their own challenges.
When I finally decided to scrap what remained of the old website, it still sat dilapidated for quite some time—mainly I just wanted to remove the redirect, so once I did that, I wasn’t sure what to do with it. Now that I scraped away the old layer of paint and sanded it down to the bare bones, how could I possibly not only restore but also renovate something I had built without the pain and guilt of starting from scratch and forgetting what existed before.
Maybe I could build it better? I mean, with my experience building websites with my other business, FORGE, I had found better tricks and tools over the years, including the very powerful website builder and WordPress plugin, Elementor, which offers a very robust selection of WYSIWYG widgets and templates. When I had the website running before, it was a huge amount of coding on my end behind the scenes, so the new tools I’ve learned have definitely made the restoration much easier, cleaner, and faster.
SINCE the last time the website and blog was up and running, I have been in Sales & Marketing, Branding, and the Promotional Products Industry professionally, giving me a better idea of brand standards and aesthetics, which aids me in creating a clean, user-friendly site that fits within the brand design-wise. I pulled inspiration from the logo, which I considered also renovating now that I had also learned Adobe Photoshop and honed my graphic design skills; ultimately, I felt the crest was still a great icon and moniker for the brand, even if I do eventually tweak the font used for the name (for which I am still currently pondering options).
I have always preferred darker websites, which I’ve found make the colors and images pop more and the text easier to read. Perhaps it’s just me, but I opted for a darker website yet again as a hat-tip and continuance of the previous site (which was dark grays and browns with pops of orange), this time pulling the colors from the logo itself. In the branding world, chartreuse is trending right now, and really pops against the black of the website, so it seemed like the perfect choice.
ALTHOUGH selecting the palette was the easy part, now came the painstaking task of sorting through archive.org to get screen captures of the old site to reference as I rebuilt. I took note of the structure—where it worked and where it didn’t, where it flowed well and where it got a bit cumbersome. I jotted down the features I wanted to keep and the features that could be scrapped. By the time I finished perusing the archive, I had a better idea of how to rebuild better, more dynamic, and more user-friendly—I am hoping the new site reflects that, even as it’s being rebuilt. Of course, there was the desire of wanting to recreate some of the content—who knows, I still might add some of the great book reviews back in over time.
ONE of the things that I felt was the most cumbersome—something I originally thought to be one of the most dynamic features of the old website—was the menu, so I dissected and simplified the menu so that it is more user friendly on mobile viewing (something I honestly never worried about with the old site). Now, the main site has its own menu, with options that bring you to the main landing pages of the website: the about section, the blog section, the podcast section, the publishing section, and the services section— each of these sections has its own menu once you visit the landing page, making the menu (especially on the mobile side of things) simpler and more streamlined.
I hope y’all enjoy the new design and functionality of the website. If you have any suggestions to improve its design or content, I am open to all feedback.
Until next time—Happy Scribing!
