i've been trying to work on the new 2009 whysper layout all week, but there are problems. for one, i do have other responsibilities i need to take care of that are a little more important, so finding time to spend on the layout has been sporadic at best. the other major problem is that i'm having trouble coming up with a design that works. i agree with others who have seen it that the background is gorgeous, but it is also difficult to keep it gorgeous and still be able to read text on it. and some of the elements i need to work on will take days to get ready to use. and then there's the whole problem with actually coming up with the actual layout itself. the brain just isn't coming up with anything.
so i've decided to recycle an old layout/set.
the set was used some years back for a character journal that is no longer online, but it's actually much older than that. it really comes from my tsf days. when i was a team leader, one of the things my team did was give away spirit sets that we made. this set was one of the sets i made, but as far as i know, the winner never used it. it's been so long, even if the winner did use it, s/he has probably since changed and/or lost it. then, like i said, i used it a few years back, but that journal has been off-line for awhile now too. i actually didn't use it for very long -- i had so many journals then (even more than now) that i had a hard time updating everything. since then i've cut the number of journals in half (at least), and the character journal was one of the first ones to go.
i was then going to redesign the set a little and add it to the linkware i've already posted online. i've already done with a couple of web set. it just doesn't make sense to me to put so much work into something and let it gather virtual dust on your hard drive not everyone seems to believe that though. i recently went hunting for the sites that i've used in the past for inspiration in the past to try to break through the problems with the original background i was going to use, but only a few remain online and even less continue to offer linkware. this is very sad to me -- some of these people are the most creative people i've ever met (used to be in graphics groups with a number of them) or seen. as i said, a few are still online, and some even still offer linkware, but the bulk are gone entirely, not even in the web graphics business anymore, or only do professional work that the users must pay for. a couple of places still offer linkware, but charge a licensing fee.
honestly, i don't blame them. too many people think on the net means free and that a web designer's time isn't worth a link back. and web sets do take a lot of time, so some kind of payment for all that work shouldn't be unexpected. i know it takes me a few days to get a complete set done -- full days. when i'm not working on the set consistently, it can take even longer. some compensation for all that time makes sense. for me, though, i'm just not in a place where the money is as big a deal. the stuff would just sit on my hard drive anyway -- and actually did for a few years. i figure if i put it up, someone may use it and that's good enough for me. i am very sad, though, that some incredibly talented people have given it up completely, though.
anyway, so i was going to recycle the new set into my linkware collection, i just hadn't gotten to it yet. which is a good thing. while i have a few others i've used that i could also recycle, this one is actually one of my favorites. i think i'd rather see it used here for whysper, since i've used it once before, than left in the linkware that no one uses anyway. and this will also give whysper a layout with a bit of a history. granted, only i'll know much about it, but it'll be kinda cool. i even have some ideas on how to freshen it up a bit, and those ideas won't take me a lot of time. i will have to make some other adjustments to it, but again, they won't take a lot of time. the biggest issue will be for the archives, but i'm sure i'll manage something. ;)
so my plan today is to get that set up and maybe work on my editing project later. we'll see about that though. for one, the kids will probably be back before i'm done. secondly, i have another dumb storm headache. still, because i'm recycling rather than creating from scratch, i should be able to get the new layout completed today. that's the hope anyway.
