I don’t really share my thought process when it comes to designing. It’s not like I have some hidden jutsu behind it. Honestly, I don’t. I thought my process was simple and ordinary. I hope inspiration comes easily, but alas, it doesn’t. I think I have a very normal approach to it: when inspiration strikes, it strikes! It comes from everything I see. Sometimes it came when I was window shopping and saw a piece of clothing. The entire idea always came from a single piece.

Let’s broaden that topic: I was motivated to create this theme by the owl on my blog’s header, from which I also drew inspiration for the color scheme. Coincidentally, it already has a peach color, which, as long as I’m creating theme designs for my blog, will always have that color. I just want consistency. When I design, I don’t concentrate on the header or footer. I see the structure as a whole. In most cases, I repeated what I liked from my previous work. As they say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. So I don’t; I just refurbished it so it’ll look kind of new (well, kind <- keyword here). It’s pretty obvious that a lot of my previous theme’s elements are still present—because I do like them. I just didn’t like how flat and boring it was before—I want colors, dammit!

I sketched first on paper—the structure/layout then the design. I designed a mockup in Photoshop. I spent so much time rearranging the features that I only ended up returning to how I first arranged them. Dang, I’m such a time-waster. *coughs* When I liked it (sometimes I liked it only for a night, then scratched it entirely the next day & created a new one—another cycle of self-inflicted design sadism that night again—oh, it’s not always fun, I tell you! Lots of hair pulling happens, haha. *laughter crumbles*

But there were times that I liked it. I liked it so much that I was eager to code it asap. Yes, another round of frustrations because of my limited development skills. I also considered this when I designed; I need to know how to code it. But there were days when miracles happened—times when everything worked on the first try! Hooray!!! My music and sweets are always with me. I want music blasting in my ears; ironically, it makes me relax. Yeah, I know I’m weird that way.

And that’s it! There is no hidden jutsu behind it. Just lots of messing up! *laughs* Few moments of despair and lots and lots of sweets and awesome Japanese music!!! They always help! But occasional mishaps withstanding, I do love what I’m doing—I really do love web design!

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