The whole can sometimes be less than the sum of its parts. This happens most often when those parts don’t fit together properly. Which occurs when a project’s objective is not to be good, but rather to accommodate some trendy bell or whistle.
You can imagine a film studio where the producers know a project needs to be in IMAX 3D before they have a script. The writers are inventing reasons for their characters to lunge toward the camera when they should be developing a plot. Before you know it, the film isn’t interesting enough to fill a 60 second trailer.
Graphic design can at times be no...More
The web has an ability to shed its skin and emerge anew every couple of years. It should not be news to you that the future of web browsing is mobile. Mobile has already overtaken desktop browsing in parts of the world and is projected to do so in the US before the end of 2013. The technique that most proactive studios and shops have coalesced around is ‘Responsive design’
It is a term I believe was coined by Ethan Marcotte, the author of Responsive Web Design and a leading voice on the topic. For the uninformed it attempts to address the ever-expanding array of device sizes and...More
The first thing every designer learns when they go to school is the power of using grids. That is, to establish a framework from which all of your content can be arranged. Thus, it will all be neatly organized and consistent.
At best, design grids make work easier and can be proprietary – as much a part of the brand’s toolkit as its color pallet or typeface. At worst however, it can be an obstruction, as it may prioritize mathematical cleanliness above visual and contextual considerations.
This all comes to mind because I find myself working on a collateral piece, which of course I began with...More
Last summer at the Boston Design4Drupal conference and again at DrupalCon Chicago I had the pleasure of watching Jared Spool speak about web usability. He is the kind of presenter that sneaks up on you with a dry subject matter but leaves the crowd rolling with laughter as he quips his way through examples of UX failures.
Among the lessons learned from Spool was the idea that there is sometimes a gap between what users know, and what they need to know to operate your site. That is where we call upon design to bridge the gap.
Unfortunately, I feel that many have simply opted to eliminate the...More
When visual communication was rendered through oil on canvas one would not have a hard time arguing that it was the oil, and not the canvas that mattered most. While a well-crafted substrate was essential it was also something to take for granted. The great masters were painters and the skill with which they applied their medium was the measure of that greatness.
Today’s canvas of choice is the web. It is so powerful, dynamic and ubiquitous that it has devoured all other forms of media. Music, theater, film and even traditional art are now most commonly seen on the Internet. Often times...More
For the past two years I have attended the Boston Drupal Design Camp at MIT. Understandably for a Drupal camp, most sessions focus on the technology but with a unique slant toward its use in the service of aesthetics.
I guess you could say it sprang from a movement that began at DrupalCon DC, where many designers gathered to set an agenda during the code sprint. I was a fly on the wall of that meeting and I saw many leaders voice concern that their presence within the community was undervalued.
As I sat down to an early session of the Design for Drupal Camp I could have sworn I recognized the...More
