Each new year brings its share of resolutions (some very ambitious), but most of the time their silly amount makes it daunting to keep them all. Nowadays, I am very happy when I manage to keep a single one.
There was an important resolution I kept postponing, to finally ignoring it until the next new year’s eve at midnight, which was the complete redesign of my website (including my blog and shop)… And 2021 was it! At long last. It took me more than a month to make a website by the book, but I did it! And today, I would like to share with you the research and work behind my new website header.
Why? Because those simple lines did not come out of thin air, without the slightest effort. They did not appear on a piece of expensive paper from a skilled artistic hand right after a good night’s sleep. Far from it. It took me a lot of time and work to get there. And above all, to be satisfied with the result. I thought that maybe some of you would be interested in seeing how the whole process unfolded, and notice that sometimes the most simple drawings are far from being simple to make (at least for me haha).
When I set myself to redoing the whole website from scratch, one of the things I had to consider in the first place was the ‘visual identity’ of St.Ainolopa. I intended to create one picture that would encompass as a whole the kind of work I had been doing since 2008. I did not want to just write down my name at the top of the website (I am a picture maker above all else), but to also have an illustration that would represent me as best as possible, and which would be used as a kind of signature. I would have to make it simple though.
Simple I say? My biggest problem is to keep things simple, and not overdoing it.
The challenge I was to face was mainly the boundaries set by the final image size. I was very limited as to what I could draw or paint, because the illustration would have to fit in the top left-corner of the website, right beside the main navigation bar. There was not much room for the creative mind to let loose, but in the end that turned out to be a very good exercise for me. Thus, I had to forget about putting too many details and using too many colours. I would have to tend toward clean lines, as close as possible. Keep it simple and clear like a logo, without actually making a logo. And the banner should not outshine the visual content on a website! I needed to make it appealing to the eye, but not too conspicuous.
To begin with, I went through all of my work since 2008, in order to get an overview, and enable the inspiration to kick in. I also checked all the visuals I had made for my previous website, blogs, and shops. That approach was a way to clearly see my ‘pattern’, what I had liked drawing the most those past years, the different styles, and actually make out what represented me the best.
And learn something from my past mistakes.
Here is a glimpse of the different visuals I made for my blogs, shops, website, and paper goods, between 2009 and 2019.
My former visuals looked most often overloaded, and quite illegible when their size got smaller. I also used to draw too many lines, and put too many colours. What I have learnt is that I always have to bear in mind the subsequent adjustment of height and width of the picture I am making. I usually work on A5 or A4 sized paper (sometimes A3); the illustrations are always bigger than the final visuals displayed on the website. When a picture has its size reduced, all the details get crammed together. That is why, in the end, everything looks ‘heavy’ and illegible.
Furthermore, I had a look at my old blog as well as my old website, and I realized there was a lack of balance between the form and the substance. The form was a bit too distracting as there were too many decorative visuals to be seen at the same time. And the latter increased the page loading time considerably... I had to keep in mind that nowadays a website and its blog are expected to be responsive.
Let us not forget about the information given in the website header: my name, and what I do. This time I wanted to put there my whole name and surname, together with the nickname I have been using on the Internet. All the more reason to simplify the drawing as much as possible, so the eye of the viewer does not get completely lost, and manages to pinpoint the relevant details (there is quite a lot!).
The overview of all my work made it crystal clear for me that I draw my creative fuel mostly from birds and houses. They have always been an inspiration to me no matter how many times I draw or paint them. They constantly provide the degree of freedom of gesture I need, in order not to feel hindered by the ‘not-good-enough’ thoughts plaguing my mind when I start working. Their lines and shapes have a positive effect on me; they have never been disheartening nor scary, but rather comforting to draw. They have indeed fostered my creativity and inclination to make pictures, to this day.
Birds and houses are characteristic of my work. Therefore, they should be embodied in my website header one way or the other.
This blog post is also a good opportunity to show the many ideas I had, and not let them be completely forgotten in the darkness of my cardboard sleeve, and sketchbook, sitting on a dusty shelf.
One can see that I have made a lot of sketches. It has not been an easy task for me to get to the final illustration. It was a long process, many failures were encountered along the way. A lot of thought was given, and I tried many things. I did not get from A to Z right away, I had to go through all the letters of the alphabet, so to say :)
Not to mention that at the end I had to make a choice, and had trouble deciding.
In retrospect, I could have stopped right there, right after that first page completed in my sketchbook (see above). I could have chosen one drawing, and start reworking it. But no. I was not satisfied at that point, and continued searching…
Last year, I was commissioned by a private client to paint a phoenix. I filled my sketchbook with manifold of them (see below a peek), and some birdheads stuck in my mind to keep me company while I started working on my new website header. Those sketches helped me a lot figuring out what I wanted exactly.
Especially that one:
There were lines I liked a lot in each shape of the birds I made, but I could never be content with the whole. So I used tracing paper to keep some of the lines, add new ones to them, and see where it would take me. I spent much time quibbling over details, and I enjoyed it tremendously (so long, the plan to make it simple for me).
My ‘Eureka’ moment occurred in the drawings you see on the photo below. That is when I figured it all out. My new website banner was emerging, at last!
But even after the drawing was made, I was not completely done.
I had to rework a few elements several times, to make the drawing as clear and readable as possible. That is the flag, and the letters of St.Ainolopa. And every time I had to check if it was all good by scanning the reworked drawing, and by having its size reduced to fit the main navigation bar. And every time I would notice that the lines tended to overlap, and looked uneven in terms of thickness, and I would have to make some adjustments again.
I used tracing paper for the final adjustments, and chose to use coloured pencils. I decided on two colours: ‘Juniper’s Green’ by Faber Castell Polychromos, and ‘Salmon Pink’ by Holbein Artists’ Colored Pencil.
Once I was really done, I scanned everything, rectified (again!) some of the lines and letters on Photoshop, and cleaned the white background.
Et voilà !
