I'd like to share a few of my bigger inspirations in design and part of the motivator to work on my new digital-presence project.
Motherfucking Websites
Now, I'm not normally one to speak in french, but some things are too important to skimp on emphasis. Enter, motherfuckingwebsite.com, a site which takes minimalism to the extreme. When I first came across this, I was a little shocked and dismissive; it seemed ugly, crude, and like something one would make as their first exploration into html. However, as I read it, I realized that the creator might really be on to something. Then I encountered bettermotherfuckingwebsite.com, a rehashing of the previous site, but with a few small changes which dramatically improve the experience. After reading these two sites and really thinking about it, this sort of website-brutalism really had me hooked.
You'll notice that my site could probably appear inspired by these, and in fact, it is. But while I love this design ethos, I do have to admit there are some drawbacks. Obviously the design is 'boring', which I argue is the point, but nonetheless, many people might prefer more colors, more interactive buttons and links, and a greater sense that they are interacting with a web-app rather than a newspaper. Limiting yourself to designing with only a few elements (basically just text) also means that you have to limit your functionality. I don't want to think about designing elements like modals, for instance.
Txti
Txti.es is a site (about to be shut down) where users could create their own webpage by filling out a text-box and hitting submit. They would then have their page proudly displayed at some url txti.es/my-page. There were some basic rules about formatting which was basically Markdown, but the whole experience was designed to be as simple and seamless as possible. The webpages themselves were equally simple, presenting in the most plain and brutalist fashion.
There was no functionality for the pages besides sharing some text. It could be anything about anything. No animations, no videos, no bright shiny lights. Your page could be as deeply profound or as meaningless as anything you could possibly express with written words.
But to me, that is its beauty.
-Peter V.