It's over a year since the first invites were sent out for ORIGINATION: INSITE's celebration of England's cultural diversity. With the party still throbbing in the cyber marquee, Brian Burns pops in to take some style notes.
This, you understand, was no 'come as you are' invite. Dress to express was the idea, so, to help things along, software companies Zyweb and Moonfruit threw open their walk-in wardrobes. On offer was the full range of off-the-peg items - menu bars, fonts, picture galleries, graphics, file attachments (including music and video), easy-to-use navigation and links, and, of course, colour. The first challenge was - rifle the racks, customise, accessorise, mix and match, and see what you come up with.
First impressions
The colours just hit you - burnt oranges and sunflower yellows, bleached whites, earthy greens and browns (fertile here, parched there), slabs of ice and sullied snow, kiss-me mint, vibrant purples and brooding blues, healing yogic hues, evening-crisp black and white, and dizzy dancing squares of yellow on black. These colours suggest, variously, far-away environments and places of origin, harsher climates, extreme seasons, sunny and sombre temperaments, those with long memories and those confidently stepping up to the mark.
Narrow your eyes and you start to see what people are actually wearing. Living Rhythms have opted for cool linens and brightly coloured T-shirts. Pickled Cabbage means business in a formal blue suit with co-ordinated handkerchief, while Calder Valley Community Samba, with its graphic black-on-red poster-cum-T-shirt, certainly knows its pop-culture radical chic (Che Guevara, we thank you). Millennium Volunteers have turned up expecting a digital disco, while Bobby, Asian Drag Queen, is blushing pink all over.
Of course, whatever the weather, whatever the occasion, some people always wear black (Mr Cash, we thank you). Photography from Bristol has the knack (yes, just Photography - how 'man in black' can you get?). Not everyone should, of course. There's pale and enigmatic, and then there's pale and anxious, hugging a corner, puffing on a fag and just looking, well, a bit puzzled. If this is you, worry not - there's still time to nip home and change.
A style to suit everyone
Narrow your eyes further and something much more significant snaps into focus. And it's this: a website is just a form of publishing, and publishing is, at root, simply arranging text and images in order to say something. A child with a crayon and sketchpad is already having a go.
Websites can mimic and embrace a range of publishing formats and styles, from the most informal and personal to the most business like and professional. It's strikingly clear from many of the INSITE sites that people of different ages, backgrounds and levels of education, including those who had barely touched a computer before, quickly recognised that the software tools made it easy to emulate a familiar, friendly format.
So, at the domestic end of the scale, we have: photo albums (Commonwealth Cocktail, Seen Unseen, Elizabeth Edwards), personal journals (The Afridis), scrapbooks (Liaquat's Journey, A Key'n'Soul Fish, Massawa) and the occasional combination (Lea Road United Reformed Church).
Venturing outdoors a little, Indian Vegetarian Food in the West aims to combine cookery book, personal journal and a big hug for mum, while Sweet and Sour goes for the wipe-clean menu look. Meanwhile, Fineapple and Dutty Girls vigorously embrace the DIY/punk aesthetic of the fanzine.
A sizeable group of people here have a strong streak of civic responsibility and, frankly, work to do on behalf of others (Travel Training Unit, Bradford & District Women's Forum, Ethnic Advocacy, Arrow and A Moveable Feast). Fittingly, these all opt for the low-cost leaflet or brochure approach - simple, modest and to the point.
No surprise, artists abound. Some have produced stylish gallery catalogues (Redemption Art), some invite you into the workshop (Artoria) and some take you on a tour of the gallery itself (Nicola Bird).
Honourable mention goes to Underground England's self-published political pamphlet. Truly subversive, it's radical libertarianism - dressed in Conservative blue (Mrs Thatcher, someone thanks you). Activists and Trojan Horses, take note.
Of course, a number of sites do fully embrace the medium. By combining moving/fading images and fonts, sliding galleries, cut-outs, subtle blends and gradations of colour, music, video and film, these sites work dynamically to achieve a successful match of style and content. For inspiration, see: X-Plosion, Fennoscandia, Morwennacatart, Pat Belson Art Work, Joanna's Art, Simply Bhangra, Daholl Arts, Shaiwan, My Gener-Asian, Mehndi - Henna Art, Polonia-Wolverhampton, Urbance and Locombianos.
Build your own
Remember, if you haven't yet started, just use the tools to create what's comfortable for you, and develop your skills at your own pace. Among the sites already built, a lot of people have revamped several times. They've raided the family albums, prised their artworks and letters out of drawers, added music and video, and dug out home-movie reels. Many, through their links pages, now feel confident enough to introduce you to other people they'd like you to meet.
So, enough about style - why not build your own free website?
