Hello all! Today, I stumbled upon a website called Way Back Machine. Basically, it's a web archive that displays screenshots of websites at certain points in time. I decided to check out the screenshots of some of my old websites and boyyyy was it a throwback!!! I started out making websites on webs.com, or "freewebs.com," in 2009. Freewebs was an extremely popular free web-builder for many webmasters and webmistresses of my generation, especially graphics websites.
Anyways, THIS is what my first website, Sunny Chic, looked like in the beginning. I was such a noobie... *cringe*. Look at that unprofessional-looking premade template, and here's the funniest part: in my sidebar, I had to explain what a sidebar is. Wow. Just wow. -_- *facepalm.* I do miss some of the old interactive content I used to put up though, such as Sunny Chic's Got Talent and Dear Sunny... my website was such a feel-good, empowering website for girls and that's exactly what I branded it as :')
Many more tacky website layouts later, my website naturally transformed itself into a graphics website. Why? Simply because I was following the trend. To be quite honest with you all, I did not particularly like making blended images of other people's photographs on Photoshop. Some part of me felt like it was almost stealing, like it wasn't right in some way. I did it just because I wanted to be popular. As a little girl (I was only 8 when I made Sunny Chic), I was very materialistic... well, I think most little girls are because of their naivete. They dream of becoming child stars, of living in castles, and of marrying a handsome, rich, impeccable prince one day. And I was no different. I wanted to be the youngest, most famous web guru in the world; I wanted to live in a big, big house; I wanted to be surrounded by expensive dolls and adorable stuffed kitties; I wanted to be spoiled and I wanted attention. Although I shake my head at the me that existed eight and a half years ago, I do not regret my experience because I did grow to love creating photography and digital art (graphic-making included, eventually, after I discovered royalty-free stock photos) and it led me to become a somewhat-master of Photoshop.
So anyways, continuing on with the story... As mentioned before, I did eventually fall in love with graphics-making. After being hosted shortly by a good online friend at the time Victoria, at her website frostedrain.info (my subdomain was then fable.frostedrain.info), I entered a contest for reecito.info (no longer open) and I won my very own domain, my first one yet!!! I decided to name the domain re-dream.info because to me, true strength is having the bravery to dream again when your dream gets crushed into pieces the first time. It was during that period of time where I believe I made some of my most beautiful digital collages/graphics:
(Don't worry, I believe all of these collages were made with stock photos that are free to use.)
I also ventured into vectoring and typography:
And now, I am finally where I am now... with my true love, photography!!! *round of applause for the cheesiness* So, allow me to post on here my absolute favorite photography piece of mine from back in the day (the "windows to my dream" picture) as well as 2 never-before-seen photos:
And one last confession... my name is not actually Sunny. I gave myself this alias because my real name is one of those un-pronounce-able Asian names, and also because at first, I thought it would be unsafe to give out my real name on the interwebs. But you best believe that Sunny is a part of me. She's the braver, more outgoing alter ego who is never afraid to follow her dreams!!!
I hope you all enjoyed this rather nostalgic, cheesy (sorry about that guys :P ), and "heavy" post. Let me know if you all would like to read more sentimental posts like this in the future, haha. Thank you everyone, for allowing me to have this amazing journey of almost-a-decade. I've met many amazing people, read many inspiring stories, and practically just grown up with all of you. My beginning intentions may have been shallow, but trust me when I say that I am blogging 100% out of passion now. I know I do not blog as frequently as some of the other bloggers you read, but I am in my 3rd quarter of junior year in high school and sometimes reality just need to be dealt with first before I can escape into my dream realm here. Oh, and I should have many awesome new photos for you all coming up because prom (prom is a school dance, for those of you who don't know) is in less than a month for me!!! So excited... wheee.
Also, one LAST bit of news:
The charity promoting education which I am president of (Teach to Learn Foundation New Jersey) started a new online book club. Hope you all can participate and follow the blog: http://book-cult.tumblr.com.
(We are the NJ branch of a nonprofit organization. We donated 1,700+ books to school destructed by Hurricane Sandy and we are currently working in partnership with Ronald McDonald House to provide meals for the families there. In addition, we are also partnering with Kits for Kidz to send school supplies to underprivileged children in Nigeria.)
Alright guys, that's all. Byebye...
Dream and re-dream again!
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I love this post. I've been thinking about my history on the web for a while now as well. And how much it's changed. There's a brand new generation of web designers and bloggers coming in, and it actually makes you feel quite old!
ReplyDeleteLike you, I started on freewebs. Well piczo at the very VERY start, then freewebs. One of them is closed now, and the other has changed brands. It's so weird. When you look around, it's like coming back to a home town that you've left years ago and wondering when everything changed around. You're still trying to find those cute old restaurants you loved, or that secret alley you used as a short cut. It is honestly bewildering.
I do remember the fashion of graphic design- I thought it was a really true, lovely thing. I remember I loved doing graphics and code because you helped out all the other web designers in your network and they helped you out. And at such a young age like we were, that must have been a force for real good. The community that we were involved in was creative and helpful and taught the values of that. Admittedly, there was the celebrity image blending stuff- that was the demand back then, but I think a lot of it like you said was a sort of naivety and a sort of goal to just make things, whatever you could really.
It has been an absolute journey and a genuine pleasure, I do agree! A sort of passion evolved that I don't think will ever leave us.
I love your graphics there, they're brilliant. As much as I loved to do it, I was never incredible at graphic design, so I moved over to code-based things later on and worked with that instead. So I'm in complete admiration of those! They're gorgeous :) And like you, I do photography now which I love love love!! What'd I tell yo', a force for good haha! :P
Your old layout is much better than my old layouts. Much better! It's pretty swanky actually haha! I remember I once mixed a bright orange and a dark brown together for a template and shoved a quote over the top in the tackiest font around. Haha! You've got a gift for it! ;)
I think the generation now is coming in with sites like tumblr and blogspot as their base and then working their way in that route. It is interesting when you look at entry points and the resources people have available. I don't know whether it's better or worse, or simply just different to how it was when we started. But what does make me sad is how many of the old folks (that's us, haha!) aren't around online anymore. I still remember commenting blogs, helping out certain people, getting inspired by or getting subdomains with certain sites, that are no longer in existence. I miss them haha!
I still think I have a warmth for some of the old cronies of the freewebs and piczo start-ups that I will probably retain for the whole of my life. I'm always glad to stumble across a post like this on a blog like this. Keep on kicking! Haha
Soph x
Wow, this post takes me back! I launched my first website when I was 13, and it was horrendous. I think I used .bmp for my images. I looked up my old sites on the Wayback Machine, and it didn't seem to get any good captures of my layouts which is a shame because it'd be a good laugh. I was hosted on Geocities and my blog was on Diaryland. Those were the days!
ReplyDeleteI made graphics for Livejournal back then too! I had a lot of icons and I even entered icon contests. Sometimes I wish LJ was still active. I really miss those days.
Wow, the charity you're part of is really fantastic. :D Such a great cause, Sunny (or whatever your real un-pronouncable Asian name is).
ReplyDeleteThis was a cute post & I think you should always post what you feel you yourself would like to read. If you can't read through your own post because it's boring, negative, sad, angry, or just wayyyyy too cheesy, then it's best that you fix it until it's something you like. I enjoyed the happiness, honesty, & positivity in this post & I love seeing how you've grown because you're more self-aware. You'll become even more self-aware when you grow much older. It's kind of crazy because you look back on in your high school years & think, "umm.....why did I even do that...was I even thinking?" That's what happens when your frontal lobe isn't fully developed yet, you don't do logical things sometimes!
I would love to see more graphics from way back then to your more recent work. I love seeing before & "look at me, I'm so much better" work. Your vectoring skills are fantastic!! I can't vector to save my life & I have a Bamboo tablet thing tooooo. I'm just awful. Help me vector, Sunny!
Anyway, loved the post. It was adorbs & yes, you should continue to post what you think is worthy of reading. :)
Oh I had so much fun reading this post and seeing your old work. I love to see how you got better over the years :) It really takes everyone back on how they started, haha ;)
ReplyDeletexxx
I love the Eye graphic, and it's always nice to go back and see what we were like in the past. It shows us how much we've grown and in how many different ways. :) I will be sure to check out the Charity...bookmarking it right now. My laptop hates me having too many tabs open. :(
ReplyDeleteJust a few days ago, I was on the Way Back Machine looking at my old sites too, haha. I think the first time I went on your site was back in 2010, no? It has almost been half a decade! There's nothing wrong with your old layouts; same with everyone. We gotta start somewhere and grow from there. I remember your Sunny Chic's name.
ReplyDeleteI could never get into that graphics/resource site. I really don't know what people like. Though at least you got to practice some skills in graphic designing. In all realness, you got some skils!
Hopefully you'll continue on improving your design and photography skills along with keeping up with the blogging world :). And wow, you're barely a junior in high school? :o. You're so young!!!
Hey Sunny! It's been so long since I've talked to you but I think we should make it a regular thing again :)
ReplyDeleteI remember all of our old websites! I can't believe it's been almost ten years since we started with the Webs sites (or freewebs when we started). I'm so glad I found you in the huge wide world of the internet! You definitely got way better than me in the graphic design department! I still have layouts from when I had my first domain...chickenbuckets....do you remember that?!?!?
Oh and you are just so beautiful Sunny! I don't think I've ever properly seen a photo of you...that sounds a tad creepy :D I'm so proud of all of the things you are doing, I'll talk to you soon <3
Oh my god, I love that website. I've just looked back at all my old layouts. I can't believe how many of them contained images of celebrities (and in particular Heath Ledger). Thank you so much for sharing this link. :D
ReplyDeleteYou should definitely write more sentimental posts like these. I love reading things like this. :)
Haha omg I love this blog! So many memories!
ReplyDeleteI remember back in the day I did genuinely enjoy creating graphics, I'd sit by my computer and work at them ALL day long, but I think as I grew up my interest in that faded, and I definitely would not have enough time to do it today. It seems like those websites have disappeared, I wonder if any still exist?
This was so cute to read, definitely going to have a look at how my website looked back in the day. :)
Thanks for sharing the website! I had the chance to go back see some of the layouts I used to have / done throughout my years of blogging. Now I hardly have time to build customized layouts anymore... gone are those days but they are still remembered :)
ReplyDeleteAw, that is so good to look back on old websites. It’s good to reflect on what you have made then and now.
ReplyDeleteWow, that is amazing that you were only 8 when you started the website and making graphics, that is pretty impressive. Even if you were younger and the goals and motivations behind doing it might be a lot different to now, it allowed you to gain a lot of skills, and that is really cool.
Wow, the graphics and vectors are really amazing. :D You should make more and more and moaaaaaar! :D
When you have an online alias it does become apart of you. Especially when you have it for a while and you have been able to express a large part of yourself. :D
You are so good at what you do! I kind of ventured into the graphics thing back in highschool but was never skilled enough to venture into vectoring. Most of I did were banners for the fanfics my friends and I made. Your work is amazing! Thank you for sharing this. I love your photography as well. It's very tranquil and laid back. I hope to see more of you real soon! You've earned a fan in me :)
ReplyDeleteI totally remember making websites on webs.com - haha! So long ago and I'm glad I was introduced to Wordpress because webs used to kill me with those annoying ads!
ReplyDeleteI'd like to take one of your advertising spots. How much?
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