Five years. FIVE YEARS! That is unfortunately how long I went without having an up-to-date personal website.
I know, in today’s world, that is five years too long. As a design professional today, it is essential that you have an online presence. However, I blame two things for my lack of abiding by this fact. 1) There are so many social websites out there that I am a part of already, I’d say its pretty easy to figure out who I am, what I do, and to see what I’ve done and am doing at any given time. 2) When I was in school, large portfolios containing your best design works, printed on high-end paper, was what you hauled around to interviews when job hunting. Today, people just say, “Go visit my website!”, and for the longest time, I viewed a personal website as a tool related to job hunting. So I only ever updated my site when I was in fact job hunting.
Not so anymore. As a graphic designer working for iStockphoto.com who has developed a passion for photography, it was simply about I got off of my ass and designed something for myself again.
So here it is and here I am. Ian Harding, branded and ready… and with a blog. First, I realize that my logo is quite cliche, and I know what you’re thinking. “Hey, he simply merged the first letters of his first and last names together. Thats lame. Everyone does that.” Yeah, well, not every “logo” (if thats what people call them) that are created that way look good and function properly. Even though it has been done a million times over, I did not simply type the letters I and H into Photoshop and then overlap them. In fact, mine is actually quite well designed, strong, and very functional, which is why I really like it. I have posted an image of my development and staging process to show you how I went about constructing the final version.
Anyways, the blog. Five years ago when I first moved from Kingston to Calgary, I swore that I would never start a blog. I disliked the thought of sharing my displeasures (and sometimes pleasures, I guess) to all of internetland. Well, yes, I do now have a blog, but I will not be posting personal rants, poems, or stories about why the really cute brunette never called me back. No, I plan to use this blog as a means of sharing new design and photography related work, sharing great accomplishments like summitting mountains, world travel stories, and possibly posting the occasional “retweet” of really cool articles that I may come across in my daily travels around the web. Essentially, as recommended by photographer Scott Bourne in one of his helpful Photofocus blog posts, I plan to show my work and show it often.
And thats it. A new era in my life has begun. I have some work showcased in both my design and photography sections, so check those out. Will I be able to manage keeping a blog up to date? Lets just say, if you continue seeing new information being posted a month or two from now, there is a good chance I’ll continue to keep at it.
This is… Ian Harding.
Love the logo. Great name too. If you’re the new Ian Harding, that makes me the Old Ian Harding. I am old you know.
Hey, that logo looks like a tipped over truck. Or a snowplow. Either way I like it!
IH
Nice work mister!
