v4.0

This little corner of the Internet was originally intended as a place to keep Dad up to date with the comings and goings on at home whilst he worked out in Iran. With the Internet now becoming ever more 'social' content found here was gradually being duplicated elsewhere, leading me to question whether or not I needed a website at all.

Facebook, the Daddy of all things social on the web wasn't around back in the early naughties when adambird.co.uk went live, and has since grown into a daily institution in people's digital lives. More or less everyone I know is a friend on Facebook and I can share with them photographs of Oliver and the family without worrying about whether or not a complete stranger has accidentally roamed onto my website. I can update news in tiny nuggets of information through the form of a status update, or a tweet and not have to worry about updating the html and RSS on my homepage - v4.0 therefore, is all about the management of content. Using the right web site/service for the right purpose. 

With all of the most interesting content suitably relocated, I was left with not much else. I had a lot of clutter, and some egocentric rubbish that didn't mean very much at all, which ultimately meant a one way trip to the recycle bin.

What then would I have left, would it be enough to build a website with? Of course! Who said that a website had to be a multitude of pages? Why have a homepage and an about us page, when the same page could say the same thing? It was this way of thinking that led me towards a design choice. A single page, relevant links to relevant areas, the "social toolbar" to allow anyone to visit me wherever I am on the web. Snippets of information about me, my work and some of my projects.

The photograph page was an enormous hit throughout v3.0's lifespan, so I wanted to include some photo's somewhere. Also we now have a fairly decent digital camera, the ultimate aim of being half proficient at taking photos meant that I didn't want to lose the whole area entirely, so for now, a small lightbox has been put in place alongside Oliver's "Year in the life" project which I couldn't find room in my heart to remove.

I had spent so much time working out a way of creating a "virtual bookshelf" that I didn't want to lose it, and it's functionality, sat along what I had envisaged for my website showcase I thought would be a perfect match. The only thing was, I didn't know how the "look" of my redesigned website should be.
Being a developer for the past six years, I have left the design aspect to those who do it properly, but working alongside such fantastic creative minds has given me a sense of what I like, whether or not my skillset goes as far as getting my thoughts to match the execution is a different story.

However, I decided upon the black and white, monochromatic look fairly late on in the day, whilst reading through one of the endless gallery listings that I get via my RSS feed. The more I played around in Photoshop, the more I came to settle into the final design which went through the usual evolutionary cycle until it was something I felt I could work with.

I hope that you like the final product, and I promise to find a better photo someday soon!