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Worked on a mushroom mascot for the IndieWeb. Rounded up reference images, brainstormed look and feel, thought about how they would be useful to be added to the website.
Trying to use mushrooms to illustrate the “three routes” to the IndieWeb: plug-and-play, CMS, and custom built. I was trying to see whether using the same kind of mushroom in different ages, or different types of mushrooms, would work better, and was playing with the visual metaphor of takeout food, meal kit or sandwich, and chef.
Played around with Adobe Color to choose some expanded colors to add to the IndieWebCamp logo color palette.
Here’s the one I think is most useful:
/* Color Theme Swatches in Hex */
.Indie-Web-shades-1-hex { color: #FF0000; }
.Indie-Web-shades-2-hex { color: #FF5E00; }
.Indie-Web-shades-3-hex { color: #FFB100; }
.Indie-Web-shades-4-hex { color: #FFDD90; }
.Indie-Web-shades-5-hex { color: #FEF0CE; }
/* Color Theme Swatches in RGBA */
.Indie-Web-shades-1-rgba { color: rgba(255, 0, 0, 1); }
.Indie-Web-shades-2-rgba { color: rgba(255, 94, 0, 1); }
.Indie-Web-shades-3-rgba { color: rgba(255, 177, 0, 1); }
.Indie-Web-shades-4-rgba { color: rgba(255, 221, 144, 1); }
.Indie-Web-shades-5-rgba { color: rgba(254, 240, 206, 1); }
/* Color Theme Swatches in HSLA */
.Indie-Web-shades-1-hsla { color: hsla(0, 100, 50, 1); }
.Indie-Web-shades-2-hsla { color: hsla(22, 100, 50, 1); }
.Indie-Web-shades-3-hsla { color: hsla(41, 100, 50, 1); }
.Indie-Web-shades-4-hsla { color: hsla(41, 100, 78, 1); }
.Indie-Web-shades-5-hsla { color: hsla(42, 96, 90, 1); }
But also tried out options adding in contrasting colors of blue and green:
Added colors and pulled in graphics / plugins / formatting from current homepage to my 2021 homepage proposal.
5 replies on “Mushroom Mascot Design at IndieWeb Create Day”
This Article was mentioned on aaronparecki.com
Replied to Homebrew Website Club – The Americas (events.indieweb.org)
Shared my mushroom mascots around and we all liked the different types of mushrooms best. Got some support for the mushroom design tilted back to show its gills.
Some future add-on projects for the IndieWeb wiki: updating the colors in the wiki, and changing the sponsors not to show on the footer of each page, but maybe on the homepage and as a page of its own or even on an about page. (Also the contrast on the sponsors footer is way too low.) Looking at recurring sponsors might want to figure out a way to recognize those too.
(Note to self: might want to make “support us” an action to highlight on the homepage proposal 😉 )
Question about the philosophy of subscribing: right now we have feeds but we might really want to follow people, or cats, or houses. What if you could subscribe to a person, and then select the types of things you wanted to see from them (maybe category of content, or maybe format – like if all I want to see is photos).
Replied to Homebrew Website Club – The Americas (events.indieweb.org)
Angelo started throwing some more colors into the IndieWeb wiki’s custom.css and looks like the expanded palette needs some more expansion on the lighter side. To do item for me!
We checked out Kicks Condor‘s new project, the Multiverse, which feels like old web but new again, a mashup of forums/comment threads, blogging, MySpace, with a retro-modern neon pastel color palette and old-school Windows tiling patterns that somehow also feels very now. Because you can put text and graphics wherever the fuck you want within the post, they can be like collages and moodboards in a way Pinterest claimed to be except not commercialized because it’s not all focused on linking back to everything else (although could be bad for people stealing from artists and not giving credit).
I appreciate the way Kicks’ website asks more of the internet, doesn’t accept the usual as a limitation and goes all in on adding layers and interactivity and making it feel more organic and casual and conversational. Side-branching conversations inline with the text that’s being commented on in a way that still feels like conversations and not like a Word doc comments thread. TBH their homepage is so much and so different it’s almost hard to read but it’s still cool.
Liked Rewilding your attention – UX Collective by Clive Thompson (UX Collective)
(Coming back to the mushroom metaphor for IndieWeb 😉)
Weird is interesting. I think a lot of my reading and living is about soaking in newness, trying to do different things, go new places, read widely, listen eclectically. I’m looking for inspiration offline, in paper books and at gardens and outdoors since I’m not willing to go inside places yet. I’m reading indie published books to see what stories are out there beyond what publishers feel like they can sell.
Lately I feel like my RSS feeds and newsletter subscriptions are a bit off, like I’m not getting enough variety. I notice the same articles be recommended time and again. I’ve been taking that as an indication that I really need to read that article, but maybe it’s that I’m reading within the same spheres. Ironic since I made an effort to cast a broader net with what I’m reading earlier this year. Funnily enough I did often find new things on Twitter, when I let myself use it, because I was following a ton of artists and writers – I wish they all had blogs or newsletters I could follow instead!
Links back again to browsing as a form of discovery and serendipity. Wandering through the stacks, seeing what catches your eye, pursuing bubbles of curiosity. StumbleUpon or webrings might be similar online formats? Not quite the same…
I wonder if what’s throwing me off is taking in too much without making enough of my own.
Replied to IndieWeb Create Day (events.indieweb.org)
An initial illustration of a mushroom mascot for the IndieWeb. I sketched up ideas initially at Create Day in July.
Another activity idea: canoeing
Kawaii Versions (with face)
Added 10/12/21: