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.
1:24 pm
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!
11:42 pm
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.
1:29 pm
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
1:59 pm
This new design is awesome ! Good work !
Rainbow
3:19 pm
hawt!
3:20 pm
The new design is beautiful work. Much luck in your future endeavors!
5:34 pm
Hey Darren, looks absolutely awesome. Good luck with your freelancing career, it’s a great challenge!
8:02 pm
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
11:49 pm
I made the transparent PNG a bit larger and it tests much better in IE7 – thanks for the heads up.
8:54 pm
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. ;)
11:57 pm
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? ;)
2:50 pm
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.
11:28 am
Very very cool redesign – literally and figuratively. Loving it. Best wishes on your new ad/venture and your wife’s studies. Cheers.
11:56 pm
@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.
4:25 am
Great design for the site. Love the colors and typography.
All the best and good fortune to you and your wife!
Cheers,
Patrick
9:53 am
Congrats on a beautiful redesign and good luck in the Big Apple!
2:25 am
Nice design.
Can we expect your previous theme as free wordpress themes? :)
12:12 am
Sure, if people were interested. I’d need to clean up the bg images and a few other things.
7:01 pm
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. ;-)
7:02 pm
good luck too. :-P
9:01 pm
I’m gonna try to have both good luck and good lunches in NY ;) Thanks for the kind words and thoughts, Octavio.
3:46 am
[...] to this blog post, it looks like Darren is in line for a bit of a career change by becoming a full time freelance [...]
7:04 am
Wow excellent… nice design
gr8 post ….and… ..good job
1:41 pm
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!
10:21 pm
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!
1:04 pm
The new site design is awesome. Good work!
4:06 pm
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!
12:27 pm
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!
1:36 pm
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.
11:45 am
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.
4:58 am
Nice design. Great job!
12:34 pm
The new site design is awesome