New Design: Finding My Artistic Direction

Hello

It's been a while, almost a year since my last post, a bit stressful. In the rush of closing S42, I set up this blog with a pre-made theme (the same as Error2000 by the way, for the fun fact).

Except it wasn't "my place," it didn't represent me. So I set it aside, like a personal shame for using a theme instead of creating my own.

Apart from the "vivid-purple" color, I didn't really know what truly represented me.

The Trigger

I eventually saw my partner redoing her artistic direction for her online content (shoutout to @Kasiope), and I thought: "I could do the same," and that gave me the trigger:

Without something personal, that's unique to me and resembles me, it's not "my content," it's just lost in the crowd, and you don't feel at home with your "own space."

So I started listing the works that marked me, in films, video games, books (no, I don’t read, I don’t like reading, it annoys me).

Creating a "moodboard," a board with everything I like, and that’s what guided me. I discovered the importance of a moodboard, for sharing your vision with others, yes, but also with yourself. To help me see clearly and iterate on something tangible rather than volatile thoughts.

After 1 week, I had a version of the moodboard that remained stable. I left it aside without looking at it for another week before revisiting it with fresh eyes to see if it still held up, and yes! Success!

I had finally found myself.

Turning the Attempt into Reality

Now we get to the "side project at 1 AM": "What if I redo the Ghost theme for my blog with this style."

I used Claude Design (the research preview) to try it out and see its potential. I gave it my moodboard, hand-drawn sketches, anti-patterns, and some bits of handcrafted HTML/CSS code to guide it in the right direction. I was amazed that with a clear direction, it managed to create the UIKit I had in mind almost on the first try. Mind-blowing.

Okay, let’s be clear, the generated HTML code was very poorly structured (everything at the root), the CSS wasn’t modern at all, not responsive, not adaptive, just basic or even CSS2.0. So at that point, it was my own hands that upgraded the code to a clean HTML structure and modern, mobile-first, responsive CSS.

A good week of work later, because I wanted to make it clean myself, I had a static version of the blog ready.

Ghost Template

And off I went to understand how Ghost themes work. I saw handlebars.js and thought back to "MustacheJS" and lost a few hit points.

But after some doc reading assisted by Claude Chat, it wasn’t that complicated and came naturally.

A little tunnel of about ten days, where I only did that, other projects were "paused," my blog became the priority over everything else (Hyperfocus ADHD).

Release

And the day before this post, the version was online, the one you’re seeing now! And for the first time, I managed something very hard for me:

Accepting to deliver this incomplete version, with some bugs, not perfect. To have something. Rather than iterating for months and abandoning the project because there’s no end.

And that’s the second important thing in this story. I’ve talked a lot with some of you, and we all have the same problem: we don’t want to deliver something imperfect, and as a result, many of our projects end up in a closet, forgotten, and we carry around a lot of mini failures. And in this era where things move very fast with the rise of AI, I think it’s important to share our projects, even imperfect ones, because that’s what makes them unique and human.

Conclusion

I learned a lot in a short time, assisted by AI, not replaced. And I enjoyed coding something as simple as a website theme. Now I can focus on doing the same for my YouTube videos with this same artistic direction inspired by the nostalgia of the 90s and cyberwave.

Atomys

Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

YouTube

I’m also going to embrace my neurodivergence now and share the little temporary passions I find, the famous "rabbit holes."

See you soon and thanks to the 180+ members who started following me before the beginning! 💜

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