I am slowly but surely getting closer to being able to put something more than a placeholder page up at http://withoutpockets.com.

The underlying code for the site is coming along nicely and I hope to have something to show my select group of testers later this week. But what I'm really struggling with is coming up with a design for the site. I have mapped out some general principles that I'd like to follow with the design, but I'm finding it difficult to get any inspiration that will get me off the ground.

Back when the name for Without Pockets was first conceived, Aidan came up with a little character which was quickly dubbed "Mr. Pockets". While it looks as though we probably won't use Mr. Pockets in the design I'm going to explore that idea of having some kind of creature as the logo for Without Pockets.

In an effort to force some inspiration I'm going to design a new and different creature each day for the next five days and post them here. Maybe it will lead somewhere, maybe it won't. If you love or hate any of the creatures tell me. If you're feeling particularly creative (and maybe a little bored) you too can have a crack at designing a logo for Without Pockets. Who knows, maybe I'll want to use it.

Update: I should make it clear that these creatures in themselves were never intended to be a logo per se (thank god!) but merely to get me thinking a little more creatively. I think it's kind of working, though I'm quickly learning that creating original drawings isn't my forte¹.

Monday's Creature

Ok, I didn't think this through. At all.

These things are going to be ugly. I always intended that they be just quick an dirty sketch type creatures, but I didn't anticipate them being quite so dirty.

This is the first time I've done such an exercise and I should have known it wouldn't be safe to do in public. It's clear from my first effort that I'm going to quite significantly embarrass myself. Anyway, what the hell. I name this ugly beast Tipsy and I hope it dies without coming back to haunt me.

Tuesday's Creature

So today's creature is not so much a 'creature' and more of a character. He's pretty rough I have to admit, but I only managed to spend a few minutes at work scratching him onto a post-it note. Anyway, I name this one Jake.

Jake isn't as ugly as Tipsy, which is definitely good. And while he's not drunk, he's probably just as unstable due to his exceptionally high centre of gravity.

By the way, some people seem to think Tipsy is male, but I'm pretty sure she's female. Stay tuned for Wednesday's installment.

Wednesday's Creature

Since it's now Thursday and I still haven't posted Wednesday's creature, it's clear that I'm doing very badly at this challenge in more than one way. It looks as though I might now get to the final three until next week for a variety of reasons², but stay tuned, I already have ideas and they will be forthcoming.

1. Obviously, I knew that already, but I would like to be a little better at it. At least good enough so that I don't totally embarrass myself if I try. Obviously I'm not there yet. [↩]
2. Soccer tonight, bucks party starting tomorrow, weekend away, etc. [↩]