The process of building my website has been a real journey. The majority of my reflection on the process is in my sketchbook but I will summarise it here. Strangely I began the web building process with a black background which was a decision I now realise I had taken because I was inspired by other websites that had used a similar colour scheme but I had forgotten to revisit my media pack and remind myself of ‘I’m a woman who…’s core values which scream for positivity and empowerment and therefore bright and dynamic colours. I went back to my colourful gradient background and started to get playful with coloured text and text boxes throughout the site.

I was initially proud of my scrolling images behind the logo but again, on reflection, realised that the homepage needed an injection of fun, playfulness and positivity. I am relieved I went back to the drawing board and came up with my sticker collage. The stickers I had designed previously in the project were originally only to be sent out to collaborators with the t-shirts but this context suits them even better. I now smile when I look at the homepage which is exactly the effect I hope this homepage and the wider campaign achieves for its’ audience. This web design has proved that more serious subject matters like some of the negative experiences of women can be discussed and promoted within an empowered, positive, and progressive visual setting. The web design now visually presents as the literal and metaphorical, light at the end of realising you can be yourself without society’s approval no matter what trying experiences you’ve been through.

A lot of work also needed to go into revising the Manifesto as I realised it was too wordy and the more I worked with it the more I saw it could be summarised in much fewer words that would make reading it much more manageable and appealing to visitors of the website.  Another huge part missing from the manifesto was the ‘WHAT’ which meant the manifesto was just a series of statements that left people (even myself at points) thinking but how is this going to be achieved? through what means?

It took me a while but I also managed to part ways with the wordy section titles, ‘limiting and toxic views’. After a lot of consideration, despite this section demonstrating what motivates this campaign, I did come to terms with the fact this section gave an overly negative tone to the page. Due to its length it distracted from other sections looked like the most important piece of text. I feel good about this decision now because I understand that as the campaign grows and women tell their stories this section would’ve been usurped. And what better way to explain why this campaign exists than with the words of the women it exists for.