What's with EyeSpark?
Since August 2024 I've wanted to have an easy way to be able to upload my projects and share them with others, and by the turn of the year I made my first attempt at a "blog" in Medium! Once it was up for a while, though, I realized that it didn't really gel with me properly. I limited myself to a rigid weekly schedule, and to only posting about my data-visualization hobby, which lead me to abandon it after just 2 months and 7 posts, and medium just isn't generally the most blog-friendly place.
Fast forward to last week, I finally felt motivated to try blogging again! This time with my own website, not a publication where I upload specific things about a specific topic, but a page where I don't have to worry about wanting to write about something different or random.
I set up the website, and I've had a logo for years, but there was one huge part of the page missing: the name.
The Logo
This is a logo I have had since December 2022, over 2.5 years ago. It was made for an unrelated year-long school project that I was extremely unhappy with, and so for over a year it sat in my archives as just a part of my history I kept hidden.
Then, when I thought about blogging for the first time, I wanted to have some sort of emblem to myself. I took some time trying to think of something new for me, but then I noticed that this logo has been with me the whole time!
I twisted its original purpose a bit, making it a symbol that mixed two of my interests: astronomy (star) and geography (compass), two topics I thought I would write more about in the blog (though only the latter was in the end). A bit later after sharing it with my art teacher, she pointed out how it looked like an eye, which I found interesting and so I rolled with it, saying it represented how observant I am! I didn't think about anything more than that at the time, though.
The Name
Ever since the original blog I had struggled with what to use as a name, not just for the blog itself but also the credit for things I uploaded. I could've used my gamertag/username, which is easy to share, but not really formal and could direct to multiple different places. I could've also used just my real name, which is more formal but isn't good at showing others where to find me, that is unless I pulled off a Dave Matthews.
In the end I took the middle ground where my account went by my username, but it displayed my real name. Although that solved the first problem, the second remained, and I usually just made two versions of things (one with my real name and one with my username) which was inconvenient, to say the least.
Because of this after I was inspired to blog again, I felt like I had to create a proper name for my page. I brainstormed names with friends and even my dad. I came up with Story Mode from an inside joke but it wasn't available, thought about Enhanced Edition from just looking through my Steam library for game subtitles, and got suggestions like Chatter Mind from my dad.
Eventually I thought back to my logo itself. I remembered what my art teacher said about it being like an eye, and suddenly, came the spark.
That spark of genius. That spark of finding something new. That spark of seeing people excited when they learn something new. The spark that I've been able to have and give to others with the help of my observant and curious eyes.
And thus, the name of this blog and the logo was born! With this I am finally taking a stab at blogging again, finally free to a site all of my own where I can share things and express myself without the restraints of a schedule or coherent theme.
