as i have noticed lately on the internet, what has been defined as web design has turned into an utter farce. now don’t take your hands off your mouses or initiate the deletion of photoshop 6.0. just hold on for a moment and let me conversate with you attentive folk. i am not an expert designer; i have never ever tried to pass myself as that. and as some people can vouch, i can be quite the computer-illiterate one at times. but one thing that i have when it comes to design is taste. i know what i like and i know what the majority of the internet world likes. you ask, “well, she must try to revolve to her site around those standards,” which is a half-truth. i try to make my site appealing to the masses, but ultimately it should reflect what i am feeling inside and what different concepts are running through my head at the point of layout creation. so this here page is affectionately dubbed a personal website.

now, it seems as if people take that term “personal” and use it on the rare occasion as an excuse. (you heard me.) having a personal website on which you can scribble horridly on and still pass it off as webdesign in my book translates into a big ol’ excuse. and it is justifiably so. having a website where you can share you thoughts is one thing. that thing is called a “journal” or a “log.” but please, please… do not throw pictures of chris kirkpatrick and dream and lifehouse onto your page without any artistic modification from your own imaginitive mind and label it design. because not only will your label be incorrect, but it would be insulting to the few and select people who slave hours and hours on design ideas that would come so rare to the majority.

i believe there are only three or four websites on the internet today who actually succeed at what we call web design. they are innovative, thought-provoking, creative artists who start the trends on the internet, who sit in front of computers conjuring up all sorts of mystic materpieces which most of us cannot even begin to hope to achieve. the geometric shapes, the 3D cubes floating into a seemingly unlimited amount of space… their work and pride. most of us merely imitate, some humbly and the rest arrogantly.

but does that mean the rest of us shouldn’t at least try to achieve something great in the field proclaiming “i love web design” that we have time and time again scrawled on our hobby list? most certainly not. great artists cannot succeed at something they do not wholeheartedly attempt. the operative word here being “wholeheartedly.” when it comes to real, intimate, and inspiring design on our personal websites, who can say that truthfully about their own?

i wish i had a record of my very first website. a justin timberlake website, no less. i had the audacity to call it design. that was four years ago. today, it makes me cringe slightly when people say i’m talented with design. because i’m not. i’m a drone to the internet artforms. however, i know what i like and i know that i try my hardest to achieve something that i know was my very best. i know that there is always a purpose behind everything i create and that it says something about me. maybe not something nice or pretty, but something true. and that’s what taste is. taste is knowing yourself and knowing what you like. taste is knowing that it is almost impossible to be the best, but also knowing that it is so easy to at least do our best.