A New Design and Game Plan

Posted April 28, 2009 • 37 Comments

This spring brought a few surprises which inspired the site redesign. The biggest was that my wife got into grad school in NYC so we’re currently scrambling to find an apartment and start new lives. It also means I’ll be taking the plunge and beginning a freelance design career.

Officially I’ll be making the switch in about a month. There are some cool WordPress opportunities in the pipeline so far, as well as some iPhone app stuff and potential startup work up in Manhattan. With a freelance schedule, I’ll also finally have time to dedicate to designing new products for the ProTheme store. After doing strictly service-based client work for 10 years, I’m plenty excited to be making my own decisions and working at my own pace.

In terms of other collaborations, I’m keeping an ear out. I would love to hook up with developers working on web-based apps and services that need some interface design love. I’ve always liked how Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain markets himself for this role: “Creative Services for the Design-Challenged Developer”. Get in touch if you think we’d be a good match.

Meanwhile if you live in New York, I look forward to seeing you at some WordPress meetups soon enough.

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http://c.hadcoleman.com Chad

Good luck on the freelance plunge. Not sure I envy you. But maybe it’ll work out being in New York. Can’t say I envy that either. haha. The design looks great!

Darren

Yeah, it’s going to be louder, colder and more crowded than any place I’ve lived, but I’m pretty excited. Lots of good entertainment and music, lots of designers.

http://www.thisismyurl.com Christopher Ross

The new site design looks great, I love the feedback to the right and best of luck freelancing, there’s a lot of work out there if you know where to look. Chris
http://www.geekandtech.net/ Rainbow

This new design is awesome ! Good work !

Rainbow
http://human3rror.com John (Human3rror)

hawt!
NiKo

The new design is beautiful work. Much luck in your future endeavors!
http://www.divitodesign.com Stefan Vervoort

Hey Darren, looks absolutely awesome. Good luck with your freelancing career, it’s a great challenge!
http://www.vivianfoate.com Mike Foate

The new design looks great however, it scrolls weird on my pc.
I have a RFQ to submit to you if and when you start considering new EE projects.
Kind regards, Mike

Darren

I made the transparent PNG a bit larger and it tests much better in IE7 – thanks for the heads up.

http://wdwerks.com Russell Heistuman

Excellent design. Very clean and love your typography. Inspiring me to “think” about revisiting my site design. Unfortunately it will have to stay in the thinking mode for awhile.

Hope your NYC relocation goes smooth and good luck working at your own pace–it will be interesting to hear how that works out for you. ;)

Darren

Thanks Russell, you’ve got a great looking site yourself. I believe I’ve checked it out before – do you work with Chad or is the town not quite that small? ;)

http://wdwerks.com Russell Heistuman

Chad and I are cut-throat competitors in a town that IS quite that small. But we’re both working on putting Coeur d’Alene on the design map at least on a small scale. ;) And thanks for the props.

mercime

Very very cool redesign – literally and figuratively. Loving it. Best wishes on your new ad/venture and your wife’s studies. Cheers.
Darren

@all: thanks much for the positive feedback. It feels good to be moving forward with a new venture with the support of folks who read the blog. I look forward to having more time to post more tutorials and other interesting stuff that I learn along the way.
http://www.napnam.nl Patrick

Great design for the site. Love the colors and typography.
All the best and good fortune to you and your wife!

Cheers,

Patrick
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http://www.stookstudio.com Erwin Heiser

Congrats on a beautiful redesign and good luck in the Big Apple!
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http://misual.com Kim

Nice design.
Can we expect your previous theme as free wordpress themes? :)

Darren

Sure, if people were interested. I’d need to clean up the bg images and a few other things.

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http://www.mindwarpentertainment.com Octavio Corral

Great update on the design Darren. A good lesson in simplicity and typography. I almost missed the subtle grid texture on the bg. nice touch.

Just wanted to chime in and say good lunch in NYC, I visited last month for the first time and it left an impression on me. I’m sure you won’t have to look too far for inspiration though. ;-)

http://www.mindwarpentertainment.com Octavio Corral

good luck too. :-P

Darren

I’m gonna try to have both good luck and good lunches in NY ;) Thanks for the kind words and thoughts, Octavio.

http://www.pricebonus.com/ PB

[...] to this blog post, it looks like Darren is in line for a bit of a career change by becoming a full time freelance [...]
http://www.capstonebpo.com Tom

Wow excellent… nice design

gr8 post ….and… ..good job
http://designadaptations.com Charity

Wow Darren! Very nice! It’s a great look for spring and all the little nuances make it a really impressive design. :)

Last summer a good friend of mine moved to NYC and I was able to stay with her for a few days in the fall. It’s definitely an amazing city. Can’t say I’d ever want to live there, but the energy and culture is awe inspiring and the list of things to do never ends. My trouble is crowds. If you can tolerate that you’ll do fine.

Oh and best of luck with your new endeavor!

Darren

Crowds and city noise are definitely challenging for me too. Since I’ll be working from home, at least I won’t have to jump through all the hoops to commute from one place to another. Thanks for the nice words about the new site!

http://www.tvzaa.com tvzaa

The new site design is awesome. Good work!
http://www.mikemeisner.com Mike Meisner

Great new design Darren. I’m sure it’ll get picked up by more than a few showcases. I love the colors, simplicity, and typography especially. Great job!
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http://boxcarstudio.com Lyndsay Babl

Going freelance is exhilarating! Best of luck. New York has a better economy than Michigan does. Here in the “murder mitten” the web design industry is doing well enough, so there is definitely hope for you!

Darren

The Murder Mitten! That’s the best euphemism for a US state I’ve ever heard. Thanks again for the well-wishing, freelancing has been educational and fun so far.

http://www.alquilerdeyates.net yates

The new site design looks great, I love the feedback to the right and best of luck freelancing, there’s a lot of work out there if you know where to look. Very Thnaks a lot.
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http://www.arcologodesign.fi/nettisivut.html Arco Nettisivut

Nice design. Great job!
http://tvonline.khowjee.com/ tvonline

The new site design is awesome