Bluebottle's blog

weird web october update

I did end up doing weird web October, and technically I'm still doing it although I've been derailed by several other October activities:

  1. Moving house
  2. Finding out I needed a root canal and going to what feels like endless dentist appointments to get the root canal
  3. My other October challenge, where I aim to watch 31 horror films during the month (I'm currently at 26/31).

But anyway, for WWO you can find all my entries here. I've managed 12/31, which is a little disappointing. My favourite is probably Pointy, the conker page. I was really happy I managed to work in something I like which is also seasonal (although the conkers came a little early this year). I also really like Skeumorphism, which is a fun tribute to a recent obsession I'm not sure will mean anything to anyone else (the email jingle from the podcast 3 bean salad) that came out almost exactly like I wanted it to.

Things I've learned:

  1. I'd never tried to use css animations before, and it was very fun to play around with them. I first used them for Fake to get the swimming effect. I had several goes before getting the speed and wriggle I wanted, and I'm not sure why it's so funny to see things flying at speed across the web page - but it is! I also used a rotating animation for the conker page which I tested out with an image of a cow, which also was hilarious, and a fade in - fade out animation on other page that I just enjoyed the look of.

  2. SVGs! Another thing I hadn't really used and wow, they are so powerful. I used them for the image map on Plastic, once I realised a traditional image map was going to be too clunky. If I'd had time, I would have also used this svg technique for Spiral, where to can animate along an svg line. Magic!

  3. Turning on the creativity tap - when I was in a run for the first five days, it was heartening to feel how quickly ideas came. For later prompts I simply did not have time to finish with work and everything else, I often had an idea that I had at least started.

  4. Developing a style - it is easier if you figure out a style/aesthetic and stick to that, as you get faster at applying processes each time. I'm not sure how successful I was, as I magpied together other styles from the indie web I've been influenced by. But the style partly developed through necessity (trying to get the prompt out each day) and it's fun to see it emerging.

In short, I would recommend Weird Web October for getting yourself to try new things. It is also fun to see other people's entries, and spot their styles, and the things they like that the prompt has triggered a memory of.

Here I'm going to link some of my favourite entries from other people:

Ok I'm running out of time but there are so many good ones... finish browsing on the weird web october site. And wish me luck for finishing at least one more before the end of the month! 🤞

#blog #wwo