The Monthly Log #2: Website Templates

Hey friends!

No need for a long intro this month so let’s get straight into this second monthly log.

Time has flown by so fast this month - on top of being a shorter month and taking a 5-day trip abroad I’ve also been busy with client work which is always nice but it meant I had a bit less time to work on my projects. Anyway, I still managed to get some stuff done and I'm excited to share with you what I've been up to.

In last month’s log I talked about creating more than I consume and one of my goals this year is to build and sell website templates, focusing on Framer as a platform.

Back in December last year I started coming across more and more tweets about a platform called Framer, a no-code platform to build websites, that was getting a lot of praise from established designers. I then decided to follow a tutorial on YouTube and got hooked on the platform straight away. If you come from a design background and use Figma on a daily basis you’ll feel right at home with Framer, but the bonus point is that you can deploy your site instantly with a click.

As a front-end developer, I felt like I should stay away from no-code tools and work on projects that showcase my coding skills using JavaScript or frameworks like React but I’ve always been interested in building website templates and Framer is definitely a game changer.

All of this to say that I’ve been working on my first Framer template, which will be a minimal portfolio website that will easily let you display your projects and share your thoughts with blog posts, as well as capture email addresses for your mailing list. It’s nearly done - stay tuned!

THIS MONTH I CREATED..

Staredown - test your colour vision
A few weeks ago I was procrastinating on the Figma Community and I came across this very clever game from Matouš Jemelka that challenges you to find the duplicate colour out of 15 colours. I instantly loved it and decided to code my own simplified version with vanilla JavaScript (I do like a bit of a challenge). I even got 1.7K users in the first 24 hours thanks to Reddit 😎 Check it out below.

Test your colour vision

NEXT MONTH I WILL..
The Framer template I’ve been working on this month will be launching in early March - I’ve done 90% of the work so I’m keen to get this live ASAP.

I love both designing and coding so when I don’t do one for a long time I always feel the itch to get back to it. So this month I’m planning to get back into learning React and build a project - I’ve found a YouTube tutorial with a really cool tool to build and then the plan will be to build on this project to develop my own little web app. Wish me luck 🤞

It already sounds like a busy month ahead but I also really want to start working on a new concept for a newsletter I’ve been brainstorming for months. If you’re an indie hacker building/running your own app or if you just like discovering new apps then you’ll love it - sign up for my newsletter here to find out first.

CURRENTLY I’M…
🎵Listening:
The amazing Yo! podcasts from Rob Hope returned at the beginning of the year and the second episode with Dru Riley dropped this month. Love the new format!

📘 Reading:
Every now and then when I lose motivation I just reach out to Show Your Work by Austin Kleon. I only need to read a couple of chapters here and there to slowly get back on track.

📖 Learning:
I’ve started reading more about growing a newsletter and I came across this 1-hour workshop with Codie Sanchez which was part of Ali Abdaal’s Part-Time YouTube Academy. Some great insights!

COOL SH*T
Bento - A link in bio, but rich and beautiful. Think Linktree but way nicer and I finally got access when they did their ProductHunt Launch earlier this month.

Reflect - A super powerful note-taking app. I only came across it this month, the UI looks amazing and I’m planning to give it a try next month so I’ll report back.

Tasks.wtf - Create a super simple list of tasks to get through your day. I love these minimal tools that have the bare minimum in terms of features and are so simple to use!

Minutes from now - A free tool that lets you calculate what time it will be in a specific amount of minutes.

Thanks for reading this second log - you can find the first one here if you fancy checking it.

You can also follow my journey on Twitter where I share updates regularly and sign up for my newsletter to get the next Monthly Log in your inbox next month.

See you in the next one 🫡