Surfing the web has become an everyday routine for the majority of teens today. Depending on  a teen’s interests, the websites they visit and things they do online may vary.

Typically, the average teen does not know the steps behind the process of creating a website. Senior Yoojin Seol, however, knows the ins and outs of website design, as she has her own website called Lucky Cubed. Seol picked a name that she felt was catchy and was an accurate reflection of her identity.

“I describe myself as a lucky person, blessed with this education and living in the U.S.,” Seol said. “My website has a 3-D feel to it, so I put a 3 there so it could be called Lucky Cubed.”

Seol initially began the process of designing her website the summer before her junior year in preparation for studying business and art in college.

“Some of the colleges I’m applying to want a website portfolio and most people would probably use Deviantart or Flickr, but I wanted to make my own,” Seol said.  “I wanted to see how far my limits could go and [see what they could produce].”

Although one of Seol’s main reasons for creating the website circulated around college admission, she has been interested in web-designing since middle school.

“In sixth or seventh grade, I started having an interest in web-designing and that’s when I started to learn coding by myself,” Seol said. “I just learned it over the years. I never took a class or anything, and I just like learning about it. […] I learn from other people’s coding and other people’s websites.“

One of Seol’s first steps in establishing the website was to come up with a URL for it.

“Once you purchase a domain, you need to pay [a certain amount of money] a month, and I don’t like to spend money, so I found a person who uses star-bottle.net,” Seol said.  “[I thought] it was a pretty name so I just contacted [the owner] and asked if she could host my website.  […] She hosts my website for free and I just have to keep the star-bottle.net to show that she’s my host.”

Seol describes her website as a gallery to display and sell her artwork.

She receives private commissions from visitors of the website on a certain theme or character which she then draws digitally on Photoshop or CS5 or herself using colored pencils. Seol is also capable of creating pixel images, Lolita hats and felt plushies for anyone interested in purchasing them.

“[A piece of art usually] takes about five hours depending on how complex the background is,” Seol said.

A memorable experience Seol has had while running her website was when she was acknowledged by one of her website fans.

“One of the biggest clients I had was someone in Australia, and he had this photography contest and the winner would get a prize and an artwork done of the photograph, and I was the person who made the prize for him,” Seol said. “It was pretty fun because you got to manipulate a photo [into] your own style.”

According to Seol, the general payments she receives are proposed by her customers.

“All the offers are a lot [more] generous than I thought [I would receive],” Seol said. “[I think it’s because] buying art is not [like] buying an object. It’s a [personal] request.”

While running the website is significant part in Seol’s life, she has to prioritize the amount of time she invests in it.

“I usually save all my [work] for the summer or spring [and] winter break,” Seol said.  “I think my priority is more school than my side hobbies. [My schedule is] very flexible because I am my own manager so I close commissions or I [make] wait lists so I [can] save them for the next break.”

Seol plans on continuing her work in web-design.

“I won’t stick with the same website but over [my] college years, I’ll keep continuing online businesses because I do want to major in art and business and make it a part of my future,” Seol said.

Thus far, Seol has received much praise from her family and friends on her website.

“It looks amazing!” senior Rachael Kim said. “There’s so much detail and creative artwork, you know that a lot of effort and thought was put into it.”

Explore Seol’s website at yoojin.star-bottle.net.