I've been making a living out of web design lately. Thus, I've been looking at a lot of exhisting sites for inspiration. That kind of thing, especially stumbling onto home pages of people I consider to be peers, really gets me thinking about the design of my own site. I thought it'd be interesting to note key features of my own homepage and how it is influenced by some of the sites I've come to love over the years. Now, I know what you're thinking, "What homepages last years?!" Well, America, listen up...
One homepage that I go to frequently is joemadfan.com. Now, this isn't "really" a homepage, in that Joe doesn't actually maintain it. Its run by a fan named Nathen. This guy has been updating this old-fashoined shrine-style site for so long and with such dedication, that the artist actually acknowledges the site as like "the first place people go to find out about Joe Madureira". The effect of that is Joe sends him stuff to post! Ok, maybe I'm geeking out a little, but I'm a huge fan of Joe Madureira's work. The main influence that this site has had on my own hp is updates. They're very personal. Like if Nathen is talking directly to you, the viewer.
Nextly, there's johnkstuff.blogspot.com. John Kricfalusi is this bat-shit crazy Tex Avery clone from the cold war era who's got A LOT to say about animation. His site is a blog where he talks about animation theory (often citing the Illusion of Life and his personal experiences in the industry). Its brilliant! So informed and well thought out. I hope that someday people will care about what I have to say on character design and illustration the way I care what guys like John K and Hideo Kojima have to say about their respective fields. This sort of site is tricky, though. Doesn't work for everyone. Warren Ellis' site, for instance is super-lame! He just pats himself on the back all the time and brags about how he's too cool for comics...it makes me sad. I hear Grant Morrison has a pretty nice homepage. We should check it out some time...
Finally, my absolute favorite homepage of all time is aimeemajor.com! Aimee was an animation student at Calarts when I was an animation student at AIPH. Mostly, she did furry-type characters I believe to have been inspired by the 1980 disney renaissance. I'm not actually a fan of that sort of artwork, but there was this sincerity behind it that I can barely even explain. Other artist seem to know what I'm talking about by the look in my eye or the way I flail my arms around, but for the purposes of textual communication, we came up with the phrase "Bottled Lightning". Its the pure artistic energy you feel when you look at something that came right from the artists gut, like Dragon Ball or the very first Ultimates3 sketches...Star Wars Episode 2 artbook? Well anyway, she's evolved far beyond the furries and forged a pretty impressive career resume (I think mostly she works for Film Roman, now). In the 10+ years I've been following the site, its been updated almost weekly with new artwork and commentary about Aimee aand her personal adventures. Much of which I would find INCREDIBLY uninteresting if it weren't for the way she talks about the stuff. Sometimes she has stuff about cosplay, doll collecting, Japanese Tea ceremony, and other non-art/animation content, and I think "I want that life. I want people to care about the things I care about vicariously through me." Like, I want my site to give off the kind of energy where, if I'm blogging about Curt Schillling's retirement, you find yourself slightly ammused and interested. I know...I'm an attention-whore, but so are you!
Brian...out!
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