Design
Web design is package design
The main thing non-web people (IE clients) don’t understand about the internet is that web design is package design. It’s a wrapper around what really important, the content. This is how clients think of the web Let’s imagine a scenario where you’re a widget maker. Your widgets are friggin’ awesome. Since you started widget-making, these things have been flying off the shelf of your corner widget store. You can’t wait to get your widgets out to a broader customer-base. You say, “Man, I need to expand my widget sales by shipping them to customers that can’t come to my widget store. I need to put these things in a box of some...
Read MoreInterview with graphic design great Erik Spiekermann
Check out Dorm Room Tycoon for a great interview with graphic design great Erik Spiekermann. You may remember Spiekermann from the movie about type “Helvetica,” where he eloquently speaks about the genesis of the world’s most popular type face (and the only one with a movie about it to my knowledge). He’s also known for founding Germany’s largest design firm MetaDesign, and advancing the field of typography by creating such fonts as FF Meta. In this interview, despite the sometimes awkward pundit asking questions, he employs much of the same eloquence when discussing the design process, his inspiration and a little trash talking I love...
Read MoreOwning up to your design
Don’t be a pixel pusher Offering more type faces than you can wrap your mind around, indistinguishable text over low-contrasted backgrounds, crazy iconography, and more information than you could ever conceivably (or safely) read whilst driving past, this billboard is the mother-load of poor decisions. I can’t pretend to know the design process that delivered such dribble, but it amuses me to imagine someone quipping “Throw a green star in there. Yeah, that looks real nice…” The reality is probably less amusing. This is the kind of thing that is derived from pure lack of thought. I doubt the designer set out to create a masterful work of...
Read More3 biggest reasons design contests are a raw deal
There are a ton of reasons why design contests are a raw deal for both the designers and clients. At worst, they rip off designers and make the client seem like a two-bit operation. At best, they only appear to do so. Last month, I got an email from a local Mac dealership, Mac HeadQuarters. This place isn’t a trendy Apple store, just a regular-looking Mac dealer. In fact, the furnishings in the store couldn’t be more dissimilar to a typical Apple store. Instead of the obsessive elegance Apple stores are known for, Mac HQ is covered in mauve carpet, accented with retro-yet-still-uncool wood paneling on the walls. It feels like your uncle’s basement....
Read MoreAbout Me
I'm a web designer & front end developer for the ecommerce and web publishing company Juggle.com and writer for the music blog PlaybackSTL.com.
When I'm not scribbling wireframes, tweaking CSS, or trying to find yet-another way to describe sounds with words, I doodle, play guitar, try to write and kill zombies.