I'm in the process of redesigning Buttermilk & Molasses, and thought I'd ask the world to weigh in on two starting point designs -- for the site's main banner/masthead. I've posted both of them below; voting takes place in the comments section.
When I launched Buttermilk & Molasses some seven years ago, I'd know idea that it would become an essential part of my identity in the Richmond community. Hell, I didn't even think about my identity in the Richmond community all that much seven years ago -- my claim to fame lapsed in 1994 when we stopped publishing Caffeine Magazine (though I did find myself startled in a Safeway six years later when someone approached and asked when the next issue was coming out).
Buttermilk & Molasses actually started as a Radioland Weblog in the form of a private space to dialogue about foreign policy issues and random cultural bullshit with an out-of-town friend. He once referred to our exchange as "buttermilk and molasses," by which he meant the Southern version of the Land of Milk and Honey. Early in 2002, a career change put the cap on our exchange, so I migrated the name onto a new site with an emphasis on obscure cultural noise and the burgeoning "War on Terror" with its increasing Iraqi-centric drumbeats. It stayed somewhat esoteric for several years, drawing in the neighborhood of a dozen or two hits a week from friends and random Google searches.
In 2004, Buttermilk & Molasses rang in the New Year with a new home at Typepad. For the next two years, the site remained an eclectic mix of news, commentary, cultural esoterica and personal noise. Sometimes, my hit meter clicked upwards of 100 visitors in a day.
That all changed on January 2, 2006, when I posted the first of many blog posts about the New Years' Day murders of Bryan, Kathryn, Stella and Ruby Harvey. For a variety of reasons, I chose not to report on the gruesome and overly speculative details of the crime and emphasized the unique nature of the Harvey family. I noted as much on January 5, as thousands of visitors from around the world landed at Buttermilk & Molasses:
As more and more websites and news organizations report on or discuss this horrible tragedy, the amount of speculation, rumor-mongering and lurid details has increased at many sites. For personal reasons, I will not be posting links to these sites in the coming days. I will continue providing links to news stories and websites that offer straight-forward details on the case, or provide genuine glimpses into the personalities and contributions of the Harveys.
... there is a fine line between compassionately telling the story of a vibrant family and the lives they've touched and telling a sensational story about the tragic events that stole them from their family, friends and community.
It was about this time that I truly realized the power of making a choice in what I posted on Buttermilk & Molasses -- in my case, the relatively simple choice to avoid the drama and celebrate the lives.
Buttermilk & Molasses refined its community voice that same spring when I participated in the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce's inaugural Greater Richmond Challenge -- and wrote about my experiences online:
The Challenge involved about 100 people from the area, who met for the first time last Monday to form teams in the above topic areas. My team tackled affordable housing...
... Our team (Team 6B -- sexy name, huh?) took a narrated drive through Richmond's oldest public housing community in Gilpin Court, heard the story of Oregon Hill's William Byrd House, visited the South Richmond SRO (single room occupancy) development (and fell in love with a 62-year-old resident, Mr. Mason), spent time with the Catholic Diocese's Refugee and Immigration Services team, explored an amazing mixed-income development in Chesterfield County (of all places) and toured a Habitat for Humanity project in Hanover County.
But it took Richmond's Downtown Master Plan to really provide a platform for Buttermilk & Molasses' community voice. The 2007 effort to create a new citizen-influenced development plan for downtown Richmond almost became a singular focus for Buttermilk & Molasses, and I worked hard to keep the site updated with information as the plan (ever so slowly) progressed.
There is plenty of white space between those events -- the 2002 launch on Radioland; the 2004 migration to Typepad; the death of the Harveys; the Greater Richmond Challenge; and Richmond's Downtown Master Plan -- but those are a few of the seminal moments behind one of Richmond's longest-publishing weblogs.
And now I'm moving toward the next chapter.
As I launch a new business (focused on organizational and leadership development), I've also decided to carve some extra space in my calendar for Buttermilk & Molasses. Step one -- a significant site redesign.
If you made it this far, you get to vote. The banners shown below are starting points, not finished products. Which one speaks to you, tickles your inner design genie? Use the comments to register your vote.
