WEBSITES - the NEW OLD platform that’s making a comeback & Artist Spotlight: Art for All Concord

As the year comes nearer to the end, I’ve been taking some time to reflect on this first year of Creative Structures — and on the incredible variety of artists I’ve met, supported, and been inspired by along the way.

There’s still plenty to learn about running a business: how to get the word out, how to value my time, how to keep projects moving when clients get busy — but overall, I truly love this work. My experiences as a hustling artist, an attentive ghostwriter, and a jack-of-so-many-weird-and-random-trades have finally found a home here.

This front-row seat to the daily struggles and triumphs of creative people has left me with a few reflections:

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WEBSITES - the NEW OLD platform that’s making a comeback (or arguably never left)!

Recently I completed a website for the Philly-based theater artist and deranged genius, Alex Tatarsky.  

During the design process, Alex and I batted a few ideas around before landing on an idea to play with early-internet, nineties aesthetics.  I loved this idea because, not only does it perfectly fit Alex’s "Am-I-nuts-or-am-I-brilliantly-making-you-question-whether-I’m-nuts?” schtick that’s so integral to her performance work, but it used our collective history of internet design to do just that.

But Alex’s site isn’t the first modern website to play with digital nostalgia. A little sleuthing uncovered many more sites that play with that aesthetic, including, perhaps most notably, the new Captain Marvel site:

All these new-old-style sites got me thinking: Are we nostalgic for a simpler digital time? 

 I mean, it makes sense that we’d be missing a simpler time - a time when the promise of the internet was a more connected world, a place in which anyone could snag their little corner of the web, fill it with blinky, spinny GIFS, post on their LiveJournal,  and send their dreams out to the universe (“Hello my future girlfriend, this is what I sound like.”)  A time when our minds weren't so addicted to screens, our attention so hijacked, our dopamine receptors so chained to the infinite scroll.

People are sick of the onslaught of news, hot takes, witty screenshots, pleas for help and funding, ASMR goo and prat falls, all mixed together into a brain-frying soup, with no real ability to curate or control what flies at them. 

And just as we’re tired of consuming it, I think we’re also tired of constantly having to produce it — endlessly creating “content” just to rise above the din. Current marketing advice suggests posting on social media twice a day to maintain visibility. TWICE A DAY PEOPLE!  This might be reasonable for someone whose full-time job is managing corporate social media accounts, but for us one-person-band, many-hat-wearing, DIY artists and small-businesses, it’s laughably absurd.

I LOVE WEBSITES

This is why, the more I build websites for people, the more I’m convinced that websites are both the past and the future of digital attention. 

Why? Because a good website takes time to build. It takes time to envision, decide on the concept and structure, craft the palette and tone, and then to build it, step-by-step, with clarity, cohesion, and craftsmanship.  

But, the thing about a website is (and here’s the brilliant part), after all that work, IT’S DONE. Other than the occasional update (news, events, blogposts, etc.,) a website doesn’t demand your constant attention.  

A good website is a sumptuous oil painting, while social media is a never-ending doodle—one that cramps and chaffs the hand.  A website is an invitation: into your home, your art museum, your magical forest. It says, “Come at your leisure, have a look around, stay awhile.’  It can be a haunted house or a treasure hunt—an art project in and of itself, or it can be a clean, white gallery to focus all the attention on your work.  

Barring complete societal collapse (and the return to pre-digital, maybe even pre-industrial times), perhaps there’s hope for us yet— in just taking a quiet step back from social media, to make our digital experience a more inviting, thoughtful, considerate, and imaginative. 

I love helping people build digital representations of themselves and the work they do. (Sometimes with blinky, spinny GIFS) If you — or someone you know — need a first, or an updated website, please get in touch.

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ARTIST SPOTLIGHT:

Art for All - a place where everyone is an artist

Tucked in the heart of Concord, MA, Art for All is exactly what its name promises — a place where creativity is open to everyone.

This warm, welcoming nonprofit brings people together through painting, craft, and community projects that brighten the town (literally—check out their huge public murals).

They run inclusive art sessions for folks of all abilities and make sure cost never stands in the way of expression. No pretension, no pressure, just shared creativity and joy.

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CREATIVE STRUCTURES REFERRAL PROGRAM

Know someone who could use a little creative structure?

If you refer someone and they book a session, you’ll receive a FREE 30-minute consult or work session—my thanks for spreading the word.

Whether you’re an artist, a small business owner, or a creative dabbler, this is a great way to share the care and get a little support yourself.