Finally moving along with the Fateless Flows website enough to feel like it will get done soon. This new designer is very responsive compared to the other two, and, for the most part, is actually doing his job.
Newer, smaller obstacles: because of my exhausted resources from the last two designer shams, I've only been able to offer this designer a micro fee, resulting in his inability to offer enough time to go faster than I'm going and/or do as much work as I'm doing. Considering what we've both gone through so far, and how demanding I am - based on how high my standards are - I don't blame him one bit for that.
So most of the work on this new site has been mine, and will continue to be. I'm doing aesthetic layout, information architecture, logo design and most of the graphic design--the most demanding part. Because of this, over the last month and a half I've had hardly any time to make music or stay in touch with people in my life. No life--right now. No Summer either. I've just been a lab-rat scientist sweating in the heat for a science that isn't even my own profession.
There are benefits to the isolation, such as avoiding over-exposure to the sun, but what compounds the paradox is the hassle of constantly self generating more workload here in the "lab." For instance, I consider it extremely important to compare the quality of one's website (not style, just the quality) with top-notch rival sites in order to be able to compete in the same market. I am constantly cross-checking my own layout and graphics with these other sites, and this naturally creates more work for me as I go along. Lots more. If something about my layout looks too inefficient, or something about my graphics looks too cheesy compared to any of these other sites, it won't matter how much work I've already put into it, I'll have to start over and do it again.
However, I think that's fine. What else am I supposed to do? Link everyone to my Facebook page and call that my label? Nope. And you may ask: why is it so important to do all of this? Why is it so important to eliminate most of the cheese-factors and to optimize the efficiency of the site and to have an overabundance of content on there? Why? Quite simply because this is not going to be some website for just myself, to promote and market my own music (the way I did before). No, this time the site is going to represent a company, with plenty of other people involved. That is far more responsibility than I've had to deal with in the past. When I was helping to run The Fateless Flows Collective, years ago, other people in the collective would take care of stuff like this. That's what they did because they were a collective. This is a company, my company, which means the bulk of the workload and responsibility falls on me.
Plus, the momentum and expectation that I've unintentionally built around this launch over the last few years will bite me in the ass if I don't do it right. I look bad enough already for having taken as long as I've taken to get this far. ,'-)
But not to throw this experience under the bus--at all. It's been a workload, but there are aspects of this work that have been extremely redeeming and, quite frankly, a lot of fun. I've created some of my best still artwork over the last week and a half, and I've started to form a small community of still artists whom I'm also inspired by. This is definitely leading somewhere intriguing. I've also learned a lot more about web design, and Wordpress.
Not to mention the additional music producers I've been forming alliances with over the past months. There is some serious music waiting to be exposed, and serious enough for me to be unfailingly excited.
...I'm suddenly getting strong flashbacks from my weird-and-profane dream last night... I better go before I unintentionally write something on here that scares away all of the non-electronic-music lovers.
Dean
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