Mekana

Stories, skinning rats, insomnia, awesome designs, and osmosis

Internet | July 20, 2010

My inspiration well is drier than the Sahara. I could write about the gash in my foot that’s making me hobble around like I’m 186 years old because I stepped on a sharp rock while swimming in a natural pool under a waterfall, or about the supremely meditative hour or so I spent driving around the entire beltway surrounding my city because I needed to blow off steam, or about seeing skinned rats and splashes of rat blood at the lab, or about unsuccessful shopping trips and the evils of suburban malls, but you know what? I don’t feel capable of spinning stories into better tales than they are right now.

Aww, that makes it sound as if the stories aren’t good enough the way they are. I hope that doesn’t hurt their feelings. Don’t worry, stories, I love you, and please please please don’t ever coat yourself in forty layers of makeup or get bad plastic surgery. Stories at the bottom of the bad story basket are just as good and deserve just as much love as the ones at the top or the overachiever ones that never made it in there.

That last paragraph was a shining example of what insomnia does to poor, undeserving people.

ANYWAY. We all know that “featuring the latest awesome designs/blog posts/funny pictures I’ve come across!!!” posts on personal blogs are the product of boredom or lack of inspiration 103.2% of the time, so I’m not even going to do any pretending here. I’m just going to do a “designs I like” type of thing because I’m not as awesome as some people and my uninspired-ness doesn’t disguise itself as a series of awesome tutorials.

So, yeah, layouts I like as of late (like the unintentional alliteration? I know I do):

I used to read Cy’s blog. I don’t know why I stopped. Stumbling upon Cyniquentially again via someone’s link list after I don’t know how many months really gave me a fresh perspective on the layout. The title font, the Louboutin heel illustration, the cute feed bubble, the style of the link lists, the style and placement of the search bar — why didn’t I come up with any of that?

Even if you don’t love pink like I do, you’ve gotta love this simple, typography-based layout. It’s proof positive that layouts don’t need flashy illustrations and intricate doodads to be awesome. My favorite parts: the hover effects and the blog posts (not part of the layout, but too awesome not to mention). I’m kinda obsessed. With this site and with the word “awesome.”

Owls have only recently (within the last year…that’s recent, right?) started to enthrall me. I know, I was missing out on life before. This particular owl illustration is TOTES ADORBS, as is the way its eyes move when you hover over it. Hovering over the site title is fun, too. AND the person who designed this site just happens to have the best name ever (but spelled incorrectly).

I believe the owner of this site used to own Angel Kizz the doll site, and I admired her layouts back then, but this one is way better, no question. LOVE the sketched watercolor style and how it matches the site name. The site title, paintbrush, bird, heart, iMac, search box, and social media icons are particularly cute. Actually, no, you know what, everything is cute. Yay pastel colors!

I like the airplane, contrail, dolphin tail area, birds, clouds, treasure chest, fish, colors, headers (h1, h2), sidebar boxes, header background (love the gradient and texture and stuff going on in the sky area!), main content area outline, placement of the fine print, shape of the footer, and look of the secondary navigation on the side. Is that an extensive enough list?

This is kind of a bonus. My tumblr sports a lovely bare and simple layout that places the focus on the content, which consists of funny or inspiring tidbits that I didn’t create but wish I had. Am I seizing the opportunity to shamelessly promote at an inopportune moment? You decide. I didn’t make the layout, though, and I legitimately love its simplicity, so I’m not totally tooting my own horn!

Maybe if I stare at these designs long enough, I’ll absorb some of the talent through osmosis? No? Does it not work that way? Way to burst my bubble. Okay, good night.