Diary of a Network Geek

No, not this blog or website.

Do you remember the days when we were building websites so fast that we couldn’t keep up?  Back when it was actually sort of pricey to buy a domain name?  Do you remember the days when as soon as anyone bought a domain they threw up a quick “Under Construction” page?  Ah, those were the days….
Honestly, I don’t know what we were thinking. No one had a plan to actually make money from the web, but we were all so excited about what this new medium, this new technology, might do for us, that didn’t seem to matter.  And, we were in such a rush to do something, anything, that the idea of running a test site that wasn’t live hadn’t really occurred to us yet.  So, we’d make these pages that were filled with breathless text about how the next great thing was coming soon and how excited we were and “please excuse our mess while we build the future”.  And we littered the page with these awful “Under Construction” graphics.

Well, prepare yourself.  Give yourself a little time to adjust.  Have a cup of coffee and get ready to have internet startup PTSD flashbacks, then go look at all of the Under Construction graphics known to the web.  They’re all there.  Even the ones in Japanese with the little anime characters.  They’re all there.
Look on these works and despair!

No, seriously, go have a blast of nostalgia and take a look at them.  Just don’t use them ever again.
And, happy Friday, y’all!

It may be obvious by now, but I’m not a graphic designer.

Still, I appreciate the work. I mean, I understand the effort and appreciate the people who put in the work to make good design. And, I have to admit that design, good and bad, fascinates me.
So, to make amends for my various bad design, I offer the few good designers who might stumble across my site some nice bits.

I don’t know about full-time, professional designers, but I need a good bit of inspiration now and again. I often get photography and graphic design magazines just to stare at and get ideas. But, they get very proud of those magazines and charge dearly for them, so, in this new, tighter economy, what are we to do? Well, why not look at free, on-line design magazines! How about 42 Free Online Magazines for Designers?
Need more inspiration? Well, personally, I’m obsessed with logos, so I found the Logo Designer Blog endlessly entertaining.

Of course, when we’re creating for the web, content, as they say, is king. In this case, that means words. Lots and lots of words. In marketing school they called those words “copy” and the process of churning them out was “copywriting”. It’s an art, too, in its way. An art that all too many graphically creative people don’t seem to get, especially on the web. At least, I’ve seen a lot of sites that sure could use work on their words. Well, GrokDotCom has help for them at the GrokDotCom Ultimate Copywriting Cheat Sheet. Even if you think you’re very good at this, this page is worth a look. Trust me.

So, there you go.
Enjoy.
Now go make something.