You can set back up fonts to use if your first doesn't work. You can read more about it with fallback fonts.

I agree about individually coming more easily on decentralised web (in my case, Neocities). As others have mentioned, I have also noticed myself becoming more open with others. I also think it helps me be more creative because I'm thinking about what I like and not what somebody else (my audience) might like. It's very freeing, and I feel a lot happier updating my website than when I update say, my social media.

Branding as a concept has done my head in a little as a graphic design student. On the one hand, I understand the concept. On the other, I don't think trying to fit myself into one box is helpful. I find it difficult to communicate the different parts of myself that people would normally think conflict. I used to do science, and now I do art - it's like I can't be both on social media, I have to be one or the other. But on my site there's pieces of both (though it does lean more towards art these days).

I also am a minority in a lot of ways, but also are privileged in a lot of ways too. I just don't feel like I fit into neat little boxes that social media seems to make me want to do. So I've tried my best with them and try to emphasize the "biggest" parts of me or the biggest interest I have! In the end I feel more free on websites. I'm not constrained by the potential audience as much, I can literally do whatever I want. That's a wonderful thing to think about.

I agree with Melooon about the font. It's a good font but I think if you restrict its use to headings and maybe a few small places it would work best. You could find a similar geometric blocky font which is easier to read for paragraph text. I would also recommend trying to improve type contrast for lists and for links - they are all currently using the same style and it all kind of blends together.

In general, the easiest line length to read is between 40-60 characters. Yours are very short, it seems closer to 20 characters or something like that, it feels a bit cramped to me.

The snowman looks pretty friendly though, I like it.

Hope that helps. Have fun!

Alegria is interesting. In some contexts (like on big tech sites) I hate Alegria. It's also called Corporate Memphis though I think has little in common with actual memphis style from the 1970s. However, some of this memphis style actually looks kind of nice and especially when it's associated with a smaller site or business I kind of like it. It can be unique, and its soft organic shapes can be interesting. I don't think I hate Alegria specifically but just the association with corporations has made me disliked it. Though I will say that Alegria which has characters with missing faces is kind of creepy. I prefer the styles where the characters have some expressiveness and face detail, it's much more human.

Look back at old clip art, and some of the visual trends that make up corporate memphis like wood-cut or cubist abstract or surreal art is actually a bit like corporate memphis now. I think since clip art used to come in huge catalogues with a lot of variety, there was a lot of mixing and matching of styles, it looked a bit less soulless. Since clip art catalogues don't exist in the same way, I think corporate memphis trends toward flat style partially due to the speed but also because it is easy to make into vector and thus scale on digital displays.

So for me, I think it depends on context. But ultimately, I think art online is all the richer for a variety of different kinds of styles. It's a lot like web design. The current trends of web design I find a bit unappealing. I much prefer the amateur web designs, even if some of them are a bit ugly, they have a lot of character.

One YouTube whose stuff I watched a lot is Rantasmo. He makes short video essays about queer characters in TV and film. I don't think he has a super large following but things could have changed recently.

Oh nice. I watched Fantastic Planet awhile back when I was watching a bunch of old animated films (think Ralph Bakshi). I should check out the other films sometime.

So, I don't think it counts since it's technically a Japanese film but it's set in France is Belladonna of Sadness. Warning though, it's R18.

Oh I love seitan schnitzel! I made a variation of this recipe awhile back, I'll post it on my site eventually! Seitan rules.

Back when I could eat soy I also had made a vegan fish and chips with tempeh, which was also pretty good.

...I've been wanting to learn more about accessible design too, especially when it comes to websites, as I've somewhat neglected that aspect of mine. Hopefully, I can fix that soon.

Accessibility is something I've been digesting in small chunks. For example, if I'm adding something to my site I might look up a post online about how to improve it for accessibility purposes. WebAIM is a great website for that but sometimes I need to go a bit further and poke around a bit online. I always feels a bit happier knowing I've tried to fix a common issue that is often overlooked. The WCAG document is helpful but also a bit overwhelming, it has some specific advice. I usually refer to it if I don't know where to start looking for improvements.

Hello again,

Thank you everyone for your thoughtful replies. First I want to clarify that I am not making money from my business yet (I have not started) but this assignment is essentially a part of advertising for that business. I'll be starting it at the end of the year. Anyway! So the assignment has a good reason to do this, as an illustrator most of my art is on another account and has been for years - it's difficult to completely not use it since that's how I've made some connections and built an audience over time.

After my post I set up ColdTurkeyBlocker again and based on the advice in the thread I set up a one hour window for me to use social media in the afternoon (4-5PM). I think this will help a lot. (Thank you graveyardsoup for the practical suggestion!) I need to find a new app to block social media on my phone again, though, unfortunately my new phone is quite conservative and will automatically shut off almost all the blocking apps I download due to a battery drain.

To Gans, your comment about shifting my graphic design focus away from social media posts is a great one and actually what I've been trying to do (as much as I can as a student!). Like by making my professional website I can shift emphasis away from social media by posting more stuff on my site. Additionally, I have plans for my career to try and not make it about social media as much as possible - focusing on web design for example (I have several web design pieces I can put in my portfolio), focusing on web graphics and animation, illustration, with less emphasis on branding as much as feasible. I also plan on doing some training for web accessibility later in the year as it's something I'm very passionate about, helping to mark up documents like Word, PDF, and websites, so it's easier for everyone to use.

To purelyconstructive, those links are amazing. Especially deceptive design or dark patterns, as a designer I think it's really important to be aware of these and it helped put a name to some patterns I've noticed in web design myself! I also really appreciate the link to the Design Activists Handbook as well, that seems completely relevant to me.

To tarocchilla, it's good to hear from other artist's experiences online, especially how people use Twitter (it's my primary social media site as well). In general it's Twitter where I spend the most time.

To MamboGator, in general, I think if I was braver I might have asked the teacher for an alternative but the thing is I do see potential value in social media (in fact I've gotten commission requests from followers before). That's not to say I don't want an alternative (I know Mastodon is a thing but not many people use it yet). I also see it more as a personal failing that I can't control my social media time well especially since I know I've had it more under control in the past when I was using ColdTurkeyBlocker regularly. In a way that might sound like victim blaming because of course we all know social media sites are the problem for making their sites addictive. I'm mainly seeing this assignment as a temporary thing, because they're making us post relatively frequently when in reality once the assignment is over I know I would not be posting as much (on Instagram, at least). But I appreciate the acknowledgement that I have a social media addiction.

To purelyconstructive for your second post, I appreciate that you're taking my problems seriously. At times it does cause some stress. Just to reiterate, I won't be requesting another assignment from the teacher since it's quite a large assignment with two parts, and I've already completed part 1 (it was making a plan for posts essentially, part 2 is implementing the plan). But in the end, I just see this as a temporary thing since in normal circumstances I would not be posting as frequently as this assignment is making me do (it might normally be half or a third as frequently). So I think I can find ways to manage this assignment. However we do have to actually talk to the teacher about our social media posts for the assignment to discuss our progress so I think I might actually bring up some of the issues I've encountered with addiction to them and how I'm managing it.

Also a related issue is that the problem was worse recently because I was on break from class, but once I go back next week I'll have less time to spend on social media so it will partially help.

Thank you everyone for the thoughtful posts, practical advice, and resources.

 

Hi everyone,

I'm actually curious if anyone else is in the same situation as me. So I made a Neocities site and learned HTML/CSS this year, and have had my main Neocities account for around 6 months now, and made a newer one for my professional design account (not really released yet). Those accounts are under a different username so if you're interested, please send me a DM and I'll share. I just wanted some anonymity for this post.

I am studying graphic design and one of our main assignments is social media posting. Now, part of the reason I started a Neocities is probably the same as everyone else. For me I needed to make the web a more positive space since I have serious troubles with social media addiction (I literally spend hours on there) and it's worse when I post stuff. So I made a professional site so help dissociate my professional graphic design career away from social media but it will always be a part of it for the sake of advertising, I need my feet in social media sites to some extent.

So essentially, my mental health is suffering because of this assignment, I really have a hard time dealing with social media and I would rather not. And as a part of this social media assignment we essentially have to reply to messages within a day or two, so I can't just completely switch off from it either.

I use ColdTurkeyBlocker and it helped me get my social media time under control but because of these assignments, I turned it off (big mistake). Think I'm going to turn it back on again and only give myself a small window to do social media stuff in the evening again.

So I guess this was more a vent but my question to other forum users is: If you need to use social media for business, how do you manage it? How do you keep yourself sane? Thanks for listening.