In spring 2005, after an unsuccessful joint venture with a web company in California, I returned from Francisco to Zurich, which had been my starting point. I was disillusioned. My entire energy had been used up to invest into building up someone elses web company. Back in Zurich in April 2005, I didn’t know how to go on with my job, I didn’t know with what, and most importantly, I didn’t have a clue about valid XHTML and CSS. During my time in San Francisco I simply did not have the time to take a deeper look into coding.
The situation forced me to become creative, beyond the usual. I thought about everything I knew and cared about: my background in advertising, branding, marketing, strategy, design, the processes of Web design and evolutionary learning, systematical and structural development. The entire web business, blogs, the idea of conversations instead of monologues, social networks, tribe.net, trends and folksonomy — it all had a huge fascination for me.
The result of this thought process were a couple of rather radical but good decisions. I could have gone back to advertising business, starting over as a creative director, which had been my job previous to my San Francisco adventure. But my passion and fascination about the Web did not allow that.
Pregnancy
All decisions I made had consequences, from technology to strategy and presentation. It was all about the hard way. For once, I had to start learning to develop websites from scratch.
Because when you have designed websites using GoLive or Dreamweaver and you are looking into CSS based XHTML layouts, you first have to learn thinking differently. Forget what you know about the development process and learn hand coding. It has to do with systematic thinking, testing and finding out how to make things work smoother, designing elements better and smarter, and going through a cycle of this process over and over, until everything works together, with elegance and simplicity. Everything you learned yesterday, you have to let flow back into development today, and bringing it online by tonight.
Add usability questions, user interaction questions, experience design, blog software (Movable Type in this case), a personal philosophy joining a bullet proof marketing idea, and you get an idea of what the task involved. Not enough I am quite passionate about these things. I also happen to be quite a perfectionist. I do not accept results below my standards.
The task I had set out to do in 2005 was to redefine those standards, on all levels of the scale: backend technology, information structure, presentation and marketing. The initial idea of core was born before I went to San Francisco, about 4 years ago. But it took its time until now to realize it and shape it into what you see today.
Corebasis.com has become more than a regular website. It is a hub, a system, a conversation website. It is my playground and at the same time stage for my business. The idea of core is conceptually strong, and everything my consulting service is based on the idea of communicating with your core, the best possible transmission of what is inside your product, service, or company.
Birth
In summer 2005, I this approach found first recognition. After sending out an email to Goto Media, Kelly Goto contacted me and we worked together on a very small project. In August, Netdiver mentioned the core website update in its news. But the site was nowhere from being finished. It was still table based, and not even close to the idea I had in mind.
It has been more than a year now since I found myself washed back to the shores of Switzerland. I think this experience was extremely good for me, despite the disappointment I had felt when I had left San Francisco. Leaving the place where you are in immediate touch with the heartbeat of Web evolution felt like missing the big party. Being set back to my experience and capabilities, forced to learn new things, to innovate myself, redesiging my whole outlook in business turned out to be a good thing. It charged me with a whole set of valuable experiences.
This week, core was recognized by two leading Web galleries, CSSMania and CSSElite. Which is fun and a nice experience. It is interesting to get feedback from people, to see what they think about you. You learn a lot about yourself. It reminds me of the time back when we were kids and made first friendships. We were showing off our toys and shared our secret treasures.
Sometimes I think of the Web as a child growing up. We are at the beginning of understanding how the Web is influencing our way of life, how it is making us learn and understand more about the way we work. And just like the Web, after an eventful childhood, the idea of core is slowly reaching its teenage years. It is still a long way on the road to maturity.
Resources
Core featured on CSSMania
Core featured on CSSElite
Core featured on Netdiver
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