The Man Behind It:
I, Ian Main, creator of e-lusion.com, newbiehub.com and the latest, esheets.org
found my area of interest
while studying visual arts in high school. Trying to find the best way to make my artwork digital I started to re-create my work
by drawing it into anything the computer had installed. One of the biggest steps in my learning process was the usage of a software package
called Paint Shop Pro, version 5. From there the foundations were in place, I knew I had found my future.
From self taught methods I knew I still needed a more professional influence before I threw myself out into the big world.
A course called Electronic Design and Digital Imaging built my skills even further and half way through the course I landed my first
professional design job. I now am a web designer for a Government agency in Australia.
I have started using the flickr service to upload a few of my photos I have collected over the years. If
your interested, you can view them at my flickr account.
The Site:
The e-lusion domain is now on its third year. The name was actually bought to make fun of the disaster of the dot com ecommerce boom,
hence the e- part. For over a year it sat without out any movement, waiting for the right moment. I don't really remember what happened,
somehow Jeffrey Zeldman influenced me so much I dropped everything and dove straight into web standards. I spent two solid months researching CSS and other
related information. Finally the time came where I started working on my first layout. My major layout influence at this time was Dan Cederholm and even in my
latest designs you may still find Dan's influences in my style. From there I showed my online friends this new way of life and helped them make the move.
The next big step in my CSS journey was the acceptance of my first Zen Garden design. This was a huge turning point in my development and it really felt I had made it a very long way.
From this I rebuilt e-lusion into a mainstream design blog which was mostly dedicated to personal and design related information. With the ever growing trend of blogs I wanted to destroy the stereotypical views that they had to be built around
boring box shapes. I released e-lusion - v2 to the public and it received a great deal of attention. CSSVault featured e-lusion in its showcase
as well as Wowfactor.
After realising my interests were in other areas, I decided to close my journal and concentrate on other projects. One final design to let visitors know what was happening.
That brings us to this design. Its simply another way for me to promote my work and inspire others that the times have changed.