We’ve all endured enough Squarespace commercials by now while listening to our podcasts to grasp the concept that, in the modern age, everyone and their mother needs a website. No matter your profession, having a landing page for your work and personal brand is pretty much a must-have at this point.
To help those of us who are coding-illiterate and daunted by the whole ordeal of making a website, self-described “interdisciplinary-at-heart product designer and creative technologist” Jackie Liu has created an accessible, illustrated guide to making a website.
Jackie shares on her own site that the idea for the zine came in 2019 when she was simultaneously developing a workshop for BUFU’s WYFY School called “Website Design as Personal Storytelling” and taking a class at the School of Visual Arts’ RisoLab on creating mini-comics using their Risograph printers. “In addition to making something tangible to take away from the workshop, I decided to create this zine to organize my ideas and share it with a broader audience,” she writes.
“Jackie’s Guide to Making a Website (by you & for you)” is a 28-page, Risograph-printed zine offering insights into the process of creating one’s own website, from brainstorming and designing to pushing it live. The guide serves as a much-needed antidote to a space that can be cold and intimidating to most. With a bright pink and blue color palette and sweet illustration style, Liu strips away the scariness of building a website.
“This comic is meant to guide people who have little visual design or web programming background through creating their first personal website,” she says on her site. “It’s told through my perspective as a hybrid artist/designer/programmer, and what has worked for me, personally, to tell my story and craft a space for myself on the internet.”
Even the medium of a physical book is refreshing in itself, considering the intangible nature of the World Wide Web. As someone who still uses an agenda instead of a Google calendar, that concept alone puts me at ease.
The zine is currently sold out at Printed Matter, where it had previously been available for purchase for $15, but customers can email wishlist@printedmatter.org to get notified upon its restock.