Goodbye Art-Deco-Style.com, Hello ArtDecoStyle.ca

I've FINALLY redesigned Art Deco Style! After almost 8 years I have decided to relaunch this site in a blog format vs. a traditional website...and with a new domain name. It's been quite the journey and I'm thrilled to announce the launch of ArtDecoStyle.ca!

A bit of background....

I always wanted to have my own website. My first foray into web design was in 2001 after taking an Adobe Dreamweaver web design course at Humber College. Armed with some basic web building skills I created my first website.

I was living with my boyfriend at the time and each year we threw a huge Christmas party. This was the theme of my first site, HolidayHeroes.com. The site counted down to the party, listed guests as they RSVP'd in real time, allowed for guest commentary and showcased a gallery of past holiday party pics. It even had a cheesy 'snow flakes falling' effect and Christmas songs playing in the background! As elementary and tacky as it was, I was so proud of it. I'll never forget the thrill of it going live! It was so exciting knowing my friends and family could access it over the internet...anywhere in the world.

I never got over that thrill. So for years I tinkered with various web ideas but nothing ever stuck. I wanted to create a site that would allow me to express my personal self AND contribute some kind of value to readers.

In 2008 I came across an article about Infopreneurs. These were people who were making a living sharing information about personal passions (cars, wine, pets, etc.) via websites, blogs, online articles, etc. It finally clicked! A topic of endless fascination for me was Art Deco. I knew a lot about the movement from personal readings and research and I figured maybe there were people out there who might actually be interested learning more about it too.

I began working on the first incarnation of Art-Deco-Style.com (ArtDecoStyle.com was taken of course) in January 2009 and it went live February 2009. I used a template block builder site (SiteBuildIt!) to create the first few pages, which looked like this...

I quickly grew frustrated with the limitations of using a template and knew if I wanted to have a unique looking site, I'd have to learn some basic computer code. I spent the next few months teaching myself rudimentary HTML using online articles, video tutorials, coding forums, etc. I then tweaked the site to make it a bit more visually interesting. Art-Dec-Style.com take 2!

In 2009/10 I started teaching myself Adobe Photoshop....hello Erte-inspired custom banner!

Of course semi-decent design in 2009 qualified as a dog's breakfast only a few years later! So I knew I needed to upgrade my HTML skills and learn CSS as well. I took HackerYou's Web Development & Responsive Design Class in early 2013 to learn HTML5 and CSS3. The class was invaluable!!I (Big thank you goes out to HackerYou founder, Heather Payne, and instructor, Wes Bos, for a life-changing experience!) Using my sweet, fresh new web design skills I was able to redo my outdated, messy, purple-deco-disaster home page into something much more modern and slick!

And then life happened and I ran out of steam. The only page that remained 'decent' looking was the home page. The rest were still a hot mess. I neglected the site for the next few years, but it kept calling me back.

Fast forward to 2016. I realized that I can't keep up with how fast the world of web development changes, so I made the decision to transform the website into a simpler, cleaner blog format. I've spent the last few months transferring, re-writing, editing, url mapping, domain-switching, etc. my old site to the Squarespace platform and I'm so excited to relaunch it today! My decision to move to Squarespace was simple - they develop visually stunning designs. For an art-focused website like this, the main aspect is visual content. My goal is to post big, beautiful pictures showcased in a simple, modern design. I hope I have achieved it....for now ;)

I know Art Deco Style will continue to evolve and I hope you continue to join me on the journey. Thank you to my loyal readers and new visitors alike. Thanks for your patience and support over the years and please continue to write to me - your input really helps me to develop content that interests you. And I hope you enjoy reading the posts as much as I do writing them.