This is a new website … or, to be more correct … a rebirth of several old ones. So, welcome to Gilmour Design … again!
As with all things WWW, life is a work-in-progress, evolving continually in response to whatever the universe throws on the path. Spanning the 20 years I’ve been designing and making things (so far), I’ve presented my work through a few websites that have reached varying states of ‘finished-ness’. Most have come and gone and since I’m not good at continually hacking on something I feel no longer serves me to just ‘make do’, I usually reach the conclusion that it’s better to start afresh. Whilst this practice arguably has a few pitfalls … it’s how I do things!
So here, fresh off the press, is the beginnings of a new online home for Gilmour Design. This is a ‘clean sheet’ site using WordPress as a framework but starting off with a pristine empty project environment. I’m not a fan of pre-built themes so I like to write my own front-end in PHP/jQuery. Again … that’s just how I do things.
As we enter the final quarter of 2020, it’s impossible not to realise this year has been an exceptional one … but, the question remains is this exceptional going forward … or do current times become the new normal? The world is still solidly in the grip of the global COVID-19 pandemic with no real ‘end’ in sight … only the vague promises of vaccines and snake-oil remedies. The looming US presidential election takes on the centre stage of a slapstick comedy with the incumbent president refusing to guarantee he’ll actually leave if he loses the election. The worlds’ economies have tanked yet enterprising individuals and businesses are making fortunes opportunistically exploiting the business potential of the virus. And, then there’s climate change … oh, everyone has forgotten about that.
Back in my part of the world, because of imposed social and lifestyle changes under COVID regime, I’ve used the opportunity to take a year off from public engagement to concentrate on how I wish to move forward with my work. I’ve continued selling basic homewares online to only Australian audiences (until international postal delays ease a bit) and I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about where I want to direct my efforts next. I don’t have a whole pile of answers yet but the light in the tunnel is getting brighter … mostly.
One of the things that’s emerged is it’s time for the utensils and homewares to take more of a back seat from public selling and be represented mostly online. Going forward, I’d like for my public representation to be more revolved around non-functional works … wearables, sculpture etc.
During the year off so far, I’ve also experimented in some leather craft and have re-visited my childhood passions of drawing and painting a little bit. Additionally, I’ve been working on my photography skills and made physical upgrades and improvements to my product photography studio set up and methodologies.
It’s been a fairly tumultuous year for most people although I’ve really enjoyed the chance to disengage a bit … the sort of disengagement that can only happen when there’s major forced change brought upon us. It’s been an opportunity to pretty much just do my own thing each day and think just about me and my needs without the complexity of meeting other peoples’ expectations. And now, that period of withdrawal is starting to come to a close and soon the need to re-engage in society will be back … but my normal will be to the rhythm of yet another different drum.