When I was 12, I launched my first website. It was a Detroit Red Wings fan site, and it looked beautiful in my eyes. I’m pretty sure if I ever saw a screenshot of that website now, I may get to retaste some of my dinner.
(Edit: I just found some parts of that site on Archive.org and it makes me shudder. The best example is if you click the Retired Numbers link in the top left of the top frame. Yes, I said frame, and yes, my name was Rwing. I was sophisticated!)
When I launched my website just over three years ago, I launched it on my sethalling.com domain to display a quick portfolio for one of my classes in college at BYU. At that time, I had every intention of designing my logo, and redesigning the entire website once I graduated, which was only a couple months away.
As we all know, life happens, and things get in the way, but this site has always been in the back of my mind. I have actually designed and redesigned my own logo three separate times, before I finally settled on what I have now, and have been using for the past year.
As for the website redesign, that’s been an adventure. Over the past few years my knowledge has expanded to so much more than just the basic HTML and CSS I once knew. Between that and me not being able to make up my mind on a design (I’ve actually designed and halfway developed two other sites for myself), I have finally come up with something that I generally feel looks alright.
I actually would like to change quite a bit of the new design, but I’ve determined that I will actually launch my own site properly before I decide to change it again! So, with all of that said, welcome to my new website.
The blog and portfolio have been merged together and that awful splash page has been removed. For years I’ve been trying to tell people a splash page is pointless, when I’ve had just a logo with two links on my own homepage! Finally, I’m able to move on.
In other news, I’ve had a couple of big changes this year. At the beginning of the year, I received an opportunity to become the lead graphic designer for Sign-A-Rama Madison Heights, which is now Sign-A-Rama Troy. I also take the lead in another division known as Varsity Signs, where we design athletic record boards for high schools. This has been good for me as I am once again working with athletics.
In even bigger news, I am going to be a father. My wife and I will be having a boy this coming Christmas. Yes, that is really the due date. I feel so lucky, scared and excited to move onto this next chapter of my life! Will I write another post before then? I hope so, but as I’ve mentioned before, I’m not going to make any promises until I am self-employed full-time.
Anyway, now that I’ve launched the site, I’m willing to take on more projects. If you are interested in having any graphic design work done, or if you are looking for a new website, please get in touch with me.
