Xina Design

Sunday afternoon I took a few hours to design a default template for Xina, a CMS+ system that I have periodically done interface work on over the last several years. Don't bother looking under the hood at the source, it's a mongrel of a transitional layout, complete with brute force old dhtml navigation whose only saving grace is that it even has a noscript version.

The whole premise was actually kind of challenging. Build an un-branded site using only HTML text for logos, taglines, etc. It had to be an understated simple design, with no colors or shapes giving it away as specifically either corporate, personal, or not-for-profit. As you can see from my last couple designs (and this site), subtle and understated isn't something that I've done a lot of recently.

Usually I approach a design with a layout or theme in mind, sketched in a notebook or at least in my head. For this design I went at it more organically. I pulled all the text into photoshop, then just started pushing stuff around, filling backgrounds with colors and gradients I picked using Pixy's Color Scheme. I chose two different harmonious schemes that worked well together, took them into photoshop and muted them. At one point while filling in backgrounds I went a little too far with the gradients. Realizing that I'd hit the point of having over worked the design I just backed up a couple steps in history and saw that it was done. Simple as that.

I pulled the content for the mockup from the XinaSoft.org site and the Xina demo. Michelle, the inventor and primary developer of Xina, has decided that she like the design enough to make it the new template for both of those sites. And one of her co-workers saw the design and is going to contact me next time they need design work done.

I never got around to planning my future, but things seem to be falling into place. I'm playing with requirements at work, drawing in my spare time, and doing design work both freelance and at my day job.