Thursday, January 18, 2007

The Way of the Website


I already have an acting website that I created last year with my dad (and which is currently being fixed up by my friend Joanna). But now I need an author's website.

And this is tricky because I always get so ambitious. I was always that kid who when playing make believe was like, "Hey we could totally film this and edit to be a movie, and even cut in special effects! And then we could take it to film festivals and stuff! It would be awesome!" And of course the end result would be a disjointed montage of scenes, with some shaky camera work and poor lighting, screened for a few obliging family members.

I am the same with my website ambition. I look at the websites out there, and I want to do what they have done. I want objects to move, and to be able to chase sheep (check out somebrownstuff.com and you'll understand what that means). I am debating learning flash myself and figuring the whole mess out. But part of my ambition is the aesthetic of the whole thing. And with that, well with that, I am extremely blessed.

I don't know if you guys know my history at all, but I have been a drama major from the age of 11. I went to an arts school called Claude Watson, affectionately dubbed Mini-Claude when you went to the high school version of the same thing. So I happen to know a heck of a lot of talented people. Certainly I had to study all the different art forms, but I can tell you visual art was never my strong suit (nor was dance for that matter, but oddly both have somehow improved exponentially without much effort since).

But.

I did have friends, and continue to have these friends, for whom creating visual art just came so naturally to them. And so I have roped them into helping me with my site.

Okay, they are actually rather enthusiastic about the whole thing. And we are going to go to the reference library this weekend to look at images. The hope is to create something like a backdrop to the site that's a bit like a painting. Neither of these two are particularly gifted at website design, nor am I, but I have other friends who can help with that when the time comes.

Yay! It is all rather fun really, and especially to work with your friends who are just so darn gifted.

I do think I am rather spoiled when it comes to the arts. If I need help in a particular area, I have a wealth of options at my fingertips. In fact not only in the arts, but it many many different areas of life.

I really like my friends.

Anyway, the site won't be up for ages yet, but I just wanted to write a bit about that process as well, and I'll keep you posted, as I do, with everything.

And just for fun I wanted to re-post my poem I wrote in honour of my friends several months back, because it's worth doing again:

I would love to share with you all
How much my friends totally rock.
But it just isn't possible as
I'm afraid you'd die from the shock.

4 comments:

ORION said...

Between my son and my friend's husband my web site is slowly coming together. I had to delegate it to my husband other wise i would never get any writing done!!!!

Marjorie said...

Adrienne, I checked out your current Web site and was impressed! I liked the clean but striking design and the monochromatic palette with touches of color here and there. It works well and is very easy to navigate. I'm not a graphic designer by any stretch of the imagination, but it looks to my untrained eye to be a site with all the right design elements.

Looking forward to seeing how it looks after you've redesigned it!

Cheers,
M.

Adrienne said...

Thank M.A.L! That site will stay pretty much the same, it's my acting site. I am creating another entirely new site for my writing that is also a bit fun for kids (I hope). In time they will both be at adriennekress.com, there will be a title page and you can choose to go to the existing actor site or the new writer site.

That is my ambition at any rate!

Unknown said...

Hehehe, cute poem :) I saw you on Absolute Write and thought I'd pop over and say hello. Website ambitions are good to have! :D