Colophon

Sometimes it can be fun to learn how something is made. That's neat enough. However, I think it might be equally exciting (or not) to learn why something is made the way it is and the thought process behind it.

I've struggled over the years presenting my site as a personal blog or a more professional portfolio. Hell, when I first bought this domain I built the site as a productized sales page offering software development and product design services.

That is not me though. I'm a one man band and frankly, it feels goofy to try to sell myself as a company, use the royal "we", "us", and "our" words, and do all that posturing. I'm not fooling anyone.

I attribute finding clarity for what I want to Venkatesh Rao's Art of Gig(opens in new tab). It has some good bits about presenting as human v company, writing for yourself and/or others, and navigating the messy world of freelancing.

Therefore, there are some things I value that guide this site's design and content.

Principles

Sometimes loosely held. But also sometimes not. Often copied, tweaked, repurposed. Once in a blue moon, novel.

Sincerity

I'm not sure if this is a principle or not. It's more of a guideline. Regardless, it is important to me. I try to be honest and open while writing about through my thoughts, various projects, and freelance work.

Sincerity is scary.

Simplicity

As you can see, this site is pretty miminal. That is an intentional choice. Could I litter the page with animations, throw in subtle SVG backgrounds, and hijack your scroll behavior and cursor? Yeah, I guess.

Someone I respect on tech Twitter X snidely mentioned once that minimalistic design is for developers with poor design skills. That is an opinion.

I tend to prefer Taku Satoh's thoughtful approach to design articulated in his work Just Enough Design(opens in new tab). I'm hopeful for a day my industry reflects on the jam-packed-full design trends of today with a chuckle and a "y tho?"

Flexibility

Whatever I'm building, I always keep the Bus Factor(opens in new tab) in mind - meaning that I want to be using ubiquitous technologies that can easily be adapted, ported, or maintained by someone else if need-be.

When using a front-end framework, I do not use bell and whistle features that drive vendor lock-in or limit my optionality.

If the VC money dries up tomorrow and my free-tier hosting ends, I'll be sitting pretty knowing that my site can be statically exported to a folder of HTML, CSS, JS, and MD files that can be hosted anywhere.

Stack

Apart from my $12/year domain name, I pay nothing to deploy, run, or maintain this site.

The stack:

  • Github - Hosting and version control

  • Vercel - Deployment and CDN provider

  • Cloudflare - Domains and DDoS protection

I use Next.js with React to build this site. Is it needed? Not at all. But I like writing markdown in MDX and the file-based routing system, among other things. At the end of the day, all that you see gets bundled and deployed as a static site anyway.

I'm a little more liberal with my use of JS than the code of practice listed below. It won't bite (too hard).

Inspiration

Taken from Joodaloop(opens in new tab) referencing Carl Barenburg's Brutalist Web Design(opens in new tab), I consciously choose (because I like it) to adopt most parts of the brutalism code of practice:

  1. Don't be influenced by tools
  2. Use a system font and only one
  3. Write clean code
  4. Write your own CSS
  5. Don't use Javascript (if you can avoid it)
  6. Don't hack the scrollbar
  7. Don't create custom cursors
  8. Don't use an effect just because you can (especially fade effects)
  9. Have as little design as possible
  10. Make navigation obvious or not at all
  11. Be practical rather than pretty
  12. Don't use gradients or shadows
  13. Use high contrast colours

If I'm being honest, as a developer-by-trade, the more intricate the codebase, the more likely I am to tinker with code than write.

Keeping things neat and minimal keeps this site lean and fast and also keeps me honest and focused on writing.

But muh dark mode!

Don't have it. Not going to implement it. Your eyes must be aching.

Type

I am a big fan of Neue Montreal(opens in new tab) and once upon a time, used the free version on this site. My lowercase B logo used for the favicon and in shareable link images still uses it.

What I'm currently using:

  • System (defaults) - If it ain't broke...

TBD on a Serif font. I haven't found the perfect one yet.

Analytics

I don't track you.

Frankly, I don't care how many times you visit the site, what pages you frequent, what posts you read, or what OS, browser, or device you use.

I'm just glad you're here. Thanks for taking the time.