Starting a new project for a client is nothing like starting a new project for yourself. With a client, I usually have a set of goals to hit, a list of objectives that need to be completed, and a firm budget with milestones and due dates. Sometimes these things will change during the development cycle, but for the most part, there is a clear route to the finish line. When starting a project for myself, it seems all of that goes out the f***ing window.
The idea was simple: build a portfolio to display my work and market my skills. It seemed so simple. I mean, at that point I had been working as a developer for multiple years and had a bunch of projects under my belt. I could have just made a simple design, built out a static site, and launched it in under a week. But that would have been too easy, or at least that is what I told myself. Instead, I went a different route, and thus began the 8+ months that will forever be known as THE STUDIO DAYS.
Step 1: The Plan
I decided that a simple static site was not going to cut it. It may have been the easier (and faster) route, but the thought of constantly updating a static site (again) was daunting. My old portfolio was developed using Jekyll. I picked Jekyll so that I could build a static site that would leverage templates to easily create new project pages. However, over time, the templates became cumbersome and bloated, and adding content was tedious. With the new site, I didn’t want to get into the same situation, so I decided that I would use some kind of content management system. The real question was what to use. The state of web development is always changing, and there are a million different options to pick from. I thought about diving back into WordPress. It was something I was very familiar with, and the new Gutenberg system sounded very interesting (it still sounds interesting and hopefully it gets better with time, as the rollout has not been great), but I didn’t want to be saddled with the restrictions of the WordPress platform. More to the point, I didn’t want to be saddled with the restrictions of any platform. So why not build one? How hard could it be?
Step 2: The Design
The design process might be one of my favorite parts of any new project. However, when working without a budget or real concern for billable hours, it can also be a very long process. Designing Studio Birdcage was no speedy task. I had an idea for what I wanted the site to achieve but, for some reason, could not pin down how I wanted it to look. In the end, this site went through three complete redesigns, one coming halfway through development. I was also developing the CMS in tandem with the site, so in reality, I was designing two separate projects at once: the CMS and the front end.
Step 3: The Development
The development process is where the magic happens. Or the long nights trying to track down tiny bugs that end up being caused by accidentialy adding an additioanl character somewhere that is shifting everything around in strange ways but does not show up well in any type of developer tools, and you sware that there is a gremilin in the machine that is taunting you and trying to make you life a living hell. (Maybe this is just a me thing…) Anyways, once all the bugs have been squashed and things start to come together, there are really very few things that compare to it. When you can finally login to you custom backend, add a blog post, hit publish and see it show up live. It is very cool. (In the least cool kind of way possible).
