15 February, 2010

Homepage Redesign

My headfirst dive into web design began in high school, with a custom Myspace layout and a primitive "blog" at Xanga. After transferring to Temple University and taking our required Computer and Information Science (CIS) course, I created my first homepage. But as I am looking forward to graduation, I realize that Temple won't continue to host my webpage on their servers, and honestly I'm not even sure if they will let me use my @temple.edu e-mail address anymore, but that's another topic...

With this in mind, I purchased the domain name amypospiech.com and a hosting package, but then the question in my mind was, "what the heck do I put up there?" It was actually quite intimidating at first - with no limits on what I could do creatively or technically, I spent a few months just sketching ideas and keeping notes of things I liked on other portfolio sites and personal pages, as well as business sites and blogs. I then scrapped it all, came up with a totally original theme, added in some signature Amy style and at long last came up with this:

My new website!

I designed the theme around my favorite (abandoned) building in Philadelphia, the Divine Lorraine Hotel. It was built as an apartment complex in the late 19th century in a French Renaissance style, transformed into a hotel in 1948 under Father Divine and the Peace Mission Movement, and closed in 1999 when it was sold to developers (and subsequently re-sold for a hefty profit, but nothing to show for it yet). You can read about it here.

Knowing me, I will probably change this a few times a year (ha, ha) because after looking at something for too long, I get the crazy urge to go back and redo it all again. However, if anyone has suggestions for improvements, I'm all ears!

3 Comment(s):

Susan Blake said...

I'm soooo impressed with anyone that can design stuff like this that I am in AWE of you! I think it looks great!

Amy Pospiech said...

Thanks suZen, you are always so kind in your comments, I want to offer you a custom graphic design for your own blog, if you'd like! Whether it be a header graphic, logo, whatever you need. I'll get in touch via e-mail.

Colleen said...

I love the divine lorraine too! i thought everyone just passed by it! btw the site is amazing, your mad talented.

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