Last week in the studio (CW41-26)

It was heads-down in the studio last week, working on Moonwalk Audio’s new website and finishing my book. But the week started with a bang, then another bang, then a crash.

We got a call the previous Friday letting us know that our new bay window would be installed on Monday morning. It was the last window the fitters needed to replace. Unlike most of the other new windows now fitted in our house, the old bay was tricky to remove. The fitters called in reinforcements and at one point—I’m told—we had three vans and six men working on it.

I say “I’m told” because the noise from the power tools was so terrible that I started feeling murderous. So I drove myself down to the local deli and spent most of the rest of the day there. But now, we have new double-glazing throughout the cottage, which should make the coming winter a little less unbearable.

Getting down to it with Moonwalk Audio

I spoke with Moonwalk Audio early in the week to review the colour and typography work I’d done and find out whether it resonated with them. It did. We also spoke about the content structure and user journey, which are relatively uncomplicated as this will be predominantly a portfolio website.

The biggest challenge will be how we present that work. As well as conventional portfolio pages, I want to create something immersive where someone can explore a scene and discover their music. I’d had some initial ideas, but after our conversation, I knew I’d need to take them much further.

While I thought about that, I cracked on with turning my wireframes, colour palette, and typography into code. As Moonwalk Audio’s new website will be built on Eleventy and hosted on Netlify, I used Eleventy in a Box to give me a solid start. It’s not unusual for me to start coding before a design’s been finalised. In fact, working with code often helps spark new ideas for how an element should look or behave.

Finishing the Standout Designs for the Web PDF

I spent part of last week working on the final page layouts for the PDF (and possibly printed version) of Standout Designs for the Web. With all my illustrations included, the finished book now runs to 180 pages. That’s considerably longer than the 100 pages I’d planned and almost too long to be called a “Shot.” It looks good, though. Really good. If I say so myself.

I know that plenty of people will read the EPUB version of Standout Designs for the Web, so I want to make that version as beautiful as possible. With the PDF finished, I turned my attention to the EPUB, using Codex to help transform my HTML into an ebook. EPUB has some peculiar quirks, and it seems almost impossible to know which CSS properties are supported by which reading apps. So I’ve kept the stylesheet pretty uncomplicated and spent time instead making EPUB-exclusive illustrations to better suit the format.

I spoke with two potential partners about the digital versions of Standout Designs for the Web, and I’m looking forward to working with one, if not both. They’ll hopefully help the book reach a wider audience. I also spoke with an old friend who’s happily agreed to write the foreword for me. I’ll keep their name to myself until we announce the book formally in a couple of weeks.

A date for the diary

Speaking of the announcement, I’ve decided that Standout Designs for the Web will go on sale on November 20th (my birthday.)

• Pre-orders will start the week before on Thursday 12th.
• The RRP will be £14.99 (or € equivalent) for the ebook package (PDFs and EPUB)
• Pre-order customers will also get a bonus chapter, “The Hardboiled Client Interview”

I’ll work on completing that bonus chapter over the next couple of weeks, but this coming week I need to nail that interactive music player for Moonwalk Audio.