Draconian
Solid State Member
- Messages
- 12
- Location
- Vancouver Island
What you think about when someone uses the word “design?â€
Do you think of brightly coloured images with the ulterior motive of selling you something,
or do you think of slick contemporary furniture in your home?
Do you think that design is something that is frivolous, that it should be done after and only after your content is complete,
or does it come first before any great amount of effort has been involved?
Design is an important part of human evolution. It is the art of communicating with each other in a clear and meaningful way.
Design combines colour, composition, and imagery in with, arguably mans greatest triumph, writing to grab peoples attention,
to make them more comfortable, or to strike them in a profound way.
Before the digital revolution, design was a much more technical undertaking that required a large gamut of tools and steady
hand to eye skill. In the modern age with computers and software like the Adobe creative suite readily available,
why don't we design more?
What makes good design?
Here's some great reading material for people who are just starting and would like to get more acquainted with design.
Choosing colour
---> Choose a colour pallet and stick with it, ooh! but what kind to use? Triadic? Analogous? Monochromatic, maybe complementary or compound? I hate figuring out which ones are web safe and which ones are not.
I always use kuler to make things easier. Even if you don't know much about colour theory it will get you up to speed quickly and help you pick ONLY web safe colour.
Choosing graphics
---> Graphics are hard when you're working in design, The best practice is to generate your own instead of turning to I stock or other stock photo companies. I purchased a small Digital SLR camera and learned how to use it properly so do not have to pay others for graphics. All of this is generally done in Photoshop unless you are working with vectors then Illustrator is the program of choice. Make sure you think about your colour pallet you built previously to be sure your graphics fit in seamlessly with the theme you've already set for your page.
Free High Resolution Textures - Lost and Taken is one of my favorite websites for textures, Everything posted is 100% free for anyone to use.
If I'm trapped in the code and am in need of a temporary place holder while I'm busy, I turn to lorempixel - placeholder images for every case for a temp image.
Typography
---> (It's different from topography)
The art of arranging type in a way to make language more visual.
I absolutely love typography, it can communicate messages and be artwork at the same time.
Typography: Appropriate Typefaces – Serif vs. Sans-Serif | Marsid M&M Group Blog Knowing what kind of font to use is only half the battle.
I think the only way to really get yourself properly aqcuanted with type is to visit a few of the royalty free font websites and just start to play! Use the grid, which you will read more about in the next section, to pull special content to the users attention.
Great design doesn't exist without great typography. If you emphasise everything you emphasize nothing.
15 Excellent Examples of Web Typography. Part 1 | I love typography, the typography and fonts blog
The Grid
---> The grid is the basic structure of how most everything is built. It's built or broken but you should never ignore it. The grid existed before the dawn of printing, manifesting itself in beautiful tapestries and calligraphy of early history.
Grids are good is a fantastic free pdf book by Mark Boulten titled 'grids are good' that was featured in Smashing Magazine, It had some fantastic examples and more in depth explanation of what the grid is, and why we use it.
http://www.subtraction.com/pics/0703/grids_are_good.pdf
Visual Hierarchy
--->combine all the elements you learned in previous articles when you start arranging your content.
A good hierarchy will make sure your content is actually read. All that design theory means nothing if
you don't combine it with good visual cues.
Understanding Visual Hierarchy in Web Design | Webdesigntuts+
Do you think of brightly coloured images with the ulterior motive of selling you something,
or do you think of slick contemporary furniture in your home?
Do you think that design is something that is frivolous, that it should be done after and only after your content is complete,
or does it come first before any great amount of effort has been involved?
Design is an important part of human evolution. It is the art of communicating with each other in a clear and meaningful way.
Design combines colour, composition, and imagery in with, arguably mans greatest triumph, writing to grab peoples attention,
to make them more comfortable, or to strike them in a profound way.
Before the digital revolution, design was a much more technical undertaking that required a large gamut of tools and steady
hand to eye skill. In the modern age with computers and software like the Adobe creative suite readily available,
why don't we design more?
What makes good design?
Here's some great reading material for people who are just starting and would like to get more acquainted with design.
Choosing colour
---> Choose a colour pallet and stick with it, ooh! but what kind to use? Triadic? Analogous? Monochromatic, maybe complementary or compound? I hate figuring out which ones are web safe and which ones are not.
I always use kuler to make things easier. Even if you don't know much about colour theory it will get you up to speed quickly and help you pick ONLY web safe colour.
Choosing graphics
---> Graphics are hard when you're working in design, The best practice is to generate your own instead of turning to I stock or other stock photo companies. I purchased a small Digital SLR camera and learned how to use it properly so do not have to pay others for graphics. All of this is generally done in Photoshop unless you are working with vectors then Illustrator is the program of choice. Make sure you think about your colour pallet you built previously to be sure your graphics fit in seamlessly with the theme you've already set for your page.
Free High Resolution Textures - Lost and Taken is one of my favorite websites for textures, Everything posted is 100% free for anyone to use.
If I'm trapped in the code and am in need of a temporary place holder while I'm busy, I turn to lorempixel - placeholder images for every case for a temp image.
Typography
---> (It's different from topography)
The art of arranging type in a way to make language more visual.
I absolutely love typography, it can communicate messages and be artwork at the same time.
Typography: Appropriate Typefaces – Serif vs. Sans-Serif | Marsid M&M Group Blog Knowing what kind of font to use is only half the battle.
I think the only way to really get yourself properly aqcuanted with type is to visit a few of the royalty free font websites and just start to play! Use the grid, which you will read more about in the next section, to pull special content to the users attention.
Great design doesn't exist without great typography. If you emphasise everything you emphasize nothing.
15 Excellent Examples of Web Typography. Part 1 | I love typography, the typography and fonts blog
The Grid
---> The grid is the basic structure of how most everything is built. It's built or broken but you should never ignore it. The grid existed before the dawn of printing, manifesting itself in beautiful tapestries and calligraphy of early history.
Grids are good is a fantastic free pdf book by Mark Boulten titled 'grids are good' that was featured in Smashing Magazine, It had some fantastic examples and more in depth explanation of what the grid is, and why we use it.
http://www.subtraction.com/pics/0703/grids_are_good.pdf
Visual Hierarchy
--->combine all the elements you learned in previous articles when you start arranging your content.
A good hierarchy will make sure your content is actually read. All that design theory means nothing if
you don't combine it with good visual cues.
Understanding Visual Hierarchy in Web Design | Webdesigntuts+
