A Look at the First Month
It’s been about a month since the last site post talking about how everything has progressed. i think about… zero people have read these, but for posterity one must trudge on. i would like to list the site changes in the last month and what the future of the site is looking like.
the future:
the summer special edition has been extremely taxing! it’s taken weeks of building the pages, thinking of what the posts look like, planning items to review, writing the reviews and still fixing the pages nearly each day. i guess web design tastes develops over hundreds of cut-throat decisions made in a never ending string of tiny moments. all that to say, it’s been an insane effort for one person, and i truly couldn’t be happier. i know the scope was greatly limited to begin with, that i could only make so much. for what it is, i’m very pleased. i’ve been able to have focused review considerations, work on cohesive design themes, and enjoy some more tiresome education on web design. it’s been a blast! and for the rest of the summer feature, my only true hindrance has been having to holding myself back. i’ve wanted to write so many pieces about so much music that i’m excited about. it’s been more difficult to write just 3 good pieces, instead of 10 terrible ones. and those 3 pieces still deserve more love… whew!
after this i’ll actually be a bit sad to see the feature end. i regretted the summer feature as soon as i put it down. a promise is easier made than kept. but keeping to it meant a lot for me as the site creator and believer. it presented me an opportunity to pursue this site and learn more for it. so after this i’ll just be back to simple reviews and features for a while. i think it’ll end up feeling too easy for me and i’ll get sidetracked on to some new insane feature. if the rest of this goes well, i’ve already considered and autumn feature. some of my favorite music comes from autumn season. but… that would be insane, right?
i also think i have some great news for the site, but the details need some ironing out. looking forward to addressing it soon. you’ll know.
when i compare how the site looks now to how it looked a couple months ago, i’m actually pretty floored. i remember i started it on my initial portfolio website as tab under the nav-bar. a sub-website that lived within my original portfolio site. after tinkering with this smaller version for a day, i got fussed over it being too small for the idea and just bought the domain name and started a fresh website. anyways, it’s cool to see where my usual sensibilities have taken my website-making tastes. after the past few months, i’m beginning to see what the site is supposed to look like. its not there yet, and i have a lot i want to adjust before then. everything needs to be just so. just like i am in my actual life. very tiresome. but the joy is in the pruning and growing to finding something unique.
this past month i fixed:
a new set of site fonts. they make the whole thing feel so much better its crazy. the site title especially feels great in bold. very Japanese. but i still don’t think i’m happy with the sans-serif font. pending alterations i think.
the “front page” section needs a lot of work, i just don’t quite know how. i’m waiting on an epiphany from God himself atm. that’s all i got.
as mentioned, the summer special edition. i also added hooks for this edition and future special editions across the site. in case i feel like melting a few more precious weeks away again. i created a summer site color palette. also within the special edition, the pages themselves took 4 times the hours than any review i’ve actually put on them. this lead me to plenty of styling epiphanies, the main one being addressing the button link situation.
the button link situation. two steps forward. ten steps away. something about this system really upsets me. the last jewel on this page, one day a decade from now, will be perfect buttons. for now, they’re okay, but not clean on every site version. for now they look mildly professional.
i have been working on some light coding now both in CSS and HTML to better bend this website to my iron will.
my addition of the “lists” page has left me a bit perplexed. i know i need it in the future, yet have no content for it today. years from now i’ll be happy i implemented it, but its been a strange site pillar to justify. in any case i have a page to find reviews by rating. and i have some week excuses for a recs page right now. it’ll be robust one day. i promise.
countless minor and tiny adjustment and changes to make the site imperceptibly better (maybe it’s not even perceptive to the human eye!!). things like shifting the site title and links around to have the exact perfect amount of negative space. or like making sure every single page has their site elements in exactly matching positions across the site, so when someone clicks a new page, the resulting elements look cohesive. or that i’ve gone through every single review on the site, three times, to update the review page’s visual flow.
review pages have been updated to look more professional. i want the pages to look so iconic, that when someone thinks a music review they think of “That Sagasu Review” and how it’s webpage looks. it’s getting there little by little. i am now adding Apple Music album embeds to every review! you’d be surprised to know that it adds 30 seconds more work for me, per review. it feels like a lot. the bolder and larger review title font looks very clean. i like it.
please do NOT ask me about viewing this site on a tablet. i’ve spent many evening trying to untangle that one. not yet.
i’m not satisfied with a lot of the site yet, because a lot of things feel out of place, not quite right. the problem to this is twofold. i either haven’t been inspired to a solution of said problem, or that implementing the solution usually takes a couple hours or a couple of evenings. i’m at about 35 hours a week on this site just working the thing myself. call that crazy, but only after all that work am i finally beginning to feel what the site should be. if i’m slow, then i’m slow.
also, not to lowball myself, but i’m working on hard writing better reviews as well. some i’m actually rather proud of, some are just a job to be done, some have fallen short. i’d like to bring general consistency up to a certain standard. its tough work. i want to give each album and write up their due and proper attention and care.
okay, that’s all. congratulations on the first month of the site! many many more to come.
sincerely,
Marcus Landeros
Editor-in-Chief, The Sagasu Review
currently listening: ROUND TABLE feat. Nino – 潮騒 (Shiosai)
