kostinlewis.com
Q&A
What inspired this website?
In terms of content, I'm primarily inspired by the everyday portfolio-websites that are ubiquitous among the STEM community. More specifically, I have always admired personal blog websites and such: the kinds of websites ran by just one or two individuals, in which many fragments of their personality are evident within their strongly-worded essays or their simple product reviews or their blogs—because websites of this category are almost invariably effective in informing readers about both the website authors themselves and the ideas they intend to convey while being uniquely intimate and entertaining.
And sure, it can sometimes be a chore to maintain websites like these, but the process is worth it—even for a website like this, which is geared more toward professional content and is therefore greatly limited in its scope—in (my) consideration of its professional (and artistic!) value.
I chiefly hope to maintain that aforementioned professionalism in this website while still appealing to the things I admire in more personal, "artistic" websites; I've realized this balancing act primarily via items in the essays and miscellanies section on the homepage of this website.
Why is this website so ugly?
First of all…
Just kidding. Yeah. Maybe it isn't the prettiest website you've ever seen—but maybe that's okay. Look: it is no longer difficult nor impressive to develop an attractive website. I might even say that it's trivial if you are simultaneously computer-competent and even remotely aware of the infinite libraries, templates, and tools that are now available to developers. What I'm getting at is that this website is ugly for philosophical reasons. I know, I know.
Stop reading now, unless you're prepared for lots of pretentious ranting.
[To be finished.]
Who created the favicon for this site?
Jose, a friend of mine, created the original PNG favicon. I converted this favicon into an SVG and removed its background before using it here. Thank you Jose.