... Best way to predict the future is to create it

I love simple things. No matter too complicated will scare me or make me run away, at least not when it’s a real challenge I believe in. Challenges are awesome and the best way to win win a challenge is to simplify it as much as possible. It’s what I loved about mathematics. Back in the day when I had 9 hours of math every week at school.

Less is More. Simple is Beautiful. What is Simple?

Everyone who likes to design knows the challenge: designing for yourself is the hardest task there is and we all love to ignore that task. Because no matter what we do, no matter how awesome the design is, there will always be something which could do with a little more tweaking. No design is perfect, especially not when it’s made for yourself.

iFranky, and it’s predecessor Am I Famous Now, has gone through many design iteration over the last 5 years and never have I been really happy, until recently. Really recently.

Version 1047

The last design iteration of Am I Famous Now was probably the design I have enjoyed most of all. Just like the quotes I have used ever since I had a blog⁽¹⁾, the whole concept of the design was to mock modern standards, more precisely to mock the whole Web 2.0 design.
As Angelo described here the whole design was a stab at semantics, gradients, pink and lime-green, greek letters and dropshadows. The blog also was offensive at times.

‘Am I Famous Now’ nevertheless validated and made use from Microformats in Cutline as well as several conditional cases to use different backgrounds for different categories. Post types before post types. Simplicity was nowhere to be found.

iFranky, the Tale of Cluttered Simplicity

After I had mainly worked with k2 before I designed the above mentioned Cutline modification for iFranky, working with Chris Pearson’ theme was a breeze. I really enjoyed Cutline and would again modify the theme for the newly used iFranky domain. The new modification became more a Cutline 2.0 than a child theme⁽²⁾. This boy of course had to push custom further and soon almost every file was modified. Cutline became gridified and it looked OK but something was missing. Part of me couldn’t stick to simplicity either and I had a smooth gallery header, as well as every possible thumbnail sidebar option: flickr, last.fm. Simplicity cluttered.

My focus was more on having the perfect grid than what really mattered: a perfect use of whitespace and today it is hard to understand why I liked this theme at some point, but I did and Cutline 2.0 has been in used on iFranky and for a personal blog for almost a year.

Sue Me Because My Parents Called Me Franky: The Quotes

When I started this domain, there was a classic entry along the lines of Veni, vidi, bibendum. I, Franky, I came, I saw and I had a drink. And of course the stab at Steve Jobs.

My Cutline modification and some more typical online stuff had taken away the desire to blog and I started a quest for a new platform. Sadly since then some entries have been lost, mainly due to deleting older backups and not bothering about backups at all. Even not although I’m automated backup boy. Chances these entries can be found in an archive folder are high but such was my interest in blogging at the time. Movable Type, Chyrp and then back to WordPress. Internet fatigue was the best way to resume the state I was in.

The interest in blogging had disappeared but I still wanted to somehow stay in touch with my domain and the quotes, which had been dropped from the latest Cutline design, made a return. Pretty much without blog updates though, but at least when opening the homepage, there was something I could relate to. The continuous stab at the world around me: the blog scene and design world⁽³⁾.

…A Wise Man Knows Himself To Be A Fool
…Diatribe Of A Cyber Suicide
…Give Me A Job And I Will blog About
…Freshly Baked, Self-Proclaimed A-Lister
…What About The Chicken You Just Saw
…Creator And Destroyer
…I Am So Coordinated
…Many Authors Go Crazy
…I Am Perfect Except When I Lie
…Fashion Assassin
…Sue Me Because My Parents Called Me Franky
…The Most Insignificant Blogger
…I Have Ataraxia
…The Hemingway of the 21st Century

I Still Design and Blog. Just Not for Myself Anymore

No matter what I did, somehow I always would continue to be active online and maintain websites, just not mine. I recently had discovered Mimbo and my style had gone to something along these lines: better whitespace, still grid-anal and complete customisation of WordPress. Add custom fields to the mix.

Simplicity still was a far shot off but slickness was on it’s way and I needed a ‘new’ online presence. A new visual concept. Mimbo had led me to the world of magazine themes for WordPress and I loved to showcase lots of content on one page. Enter ‘The Morning After’. Add some customisations to the mix and born was what I think a cool showcase of lots of content on one page but a totally cluttered mess.
With only 6 excerpts of main entries on the home page this was way too long and I doubt that anyone ever clicked any of these entry excerpts or links. But the quotes had made their return and I had a new way to display content related tumblings.

Blogging for money soon took over again and although I would not venture in good old-skool punditry yet, I noticed that more and more I started to develop my own voice, brand again. Less punditry but cleaner prose. And I needed a cleaner design to reactivate my own blogging because no matter how nice and solid ‘The Morning After’ is, there’s more wrong with the design than anyone can imagine.

Simplicity, It’s on Its Way, But Please First Slap Me in the Face With It!

Over at frankylicious I had been sporting a barely modified Notesblog Core since several moths already because the theme did not get in the way and focused on what’s most important: the content. Of course when I decided to use Notesblog Core here on iFranky, I had to ruin that. Immediately. Royally.

As I was planning a remake, a remake within the first weeks I considered stepping away from WordPress. Once more. Even though I had the biggest plans to use different sidebars and footers for different sections of the page, I did not understand why I would need bloatware engine WordPress. Funnily enough I even considered static pages for a while, focus on content not on design.

On the Way Home I Got Hit in the Face

Then it hit me straight in the face. Who cares about all that clutter? If I had already deleted the search form because when was the last time you used a search form on a blog⁽⁴⁾?

Some sections such as the tumblings and writings elsewhere have entirely lost their display on the home page. The fixed bottom navigation needs to be improved but the result is… simplicity.

1. You can still find all the quotes in the header (↩)
2. I don’t think anyone had already discovered the child theme term in the codex in those days and custom.css was totally fashion (↩)
3. Some quotes have been added later (↩)
4. Other than your own one, looking for entry to link (↩)