Arteliance

Here is a list of some of the ideas from yesterday:

• Work Environment and things that are used (concrete):

  • working - coffee cup, paper and mouse
  • computer picture
  • art tools: paper, pencil jar etc
  • print background: press sheets, loupe, pantone swatches (experience), spec-ing type
  • photographic equipment and tools (seeing and capturing) -> light?
  • typography: metal, letterpress etc
  • tools = eyes, brains, ears
  • artsy collage type thing
  • symbols and plans, wayfinding, signage, organization, clarity, blueprints
  • Type overlays photos etc (multi-layered, messy)
  • textures

• Design is (ways to define it - abstract):

  • multiple A’s (typography, many ways of presenting things, thinking about them)
  • different ways of seeing: glasses, microscopes, telescope, magnifying glass, digital, analog, insight, big picture/little picture (fractal?)
  • targets, goals, strategies, aim
  • connection (of minds); communication, transmission of ideas
  • concepts: diagrams, graphs, maps, drilling down to the heart of the matter
  • more on diagrams, abstracts, visual representation of non-create things like ideas
  • gears/machinery: design as a cog in overall business plan

• What design does (movement, emotional):

  • patterns: morphing, transformation, nothing to something, sketch to final?
  • simplicity, road, journey, prairie ref sinclair
  • life, energy, mark making, scribbles forming an image (how I draw)
  • urban sketches/story-telling (design is story-telling)
  • perspective, urban, architecture, escher, surprising
  • focus (broad to narrow)

Most designs can, IMHO, be broken down into these 3 aspects. Good designs incorporate all 3.

Armin Vit (before he was so soundly trounced by Marian Bantjes in Layer Tennis) started a worthwhile and far-reaching debate on what makes a web design great:

Speak Up › Landmark Web Sites, Where Art Thou?

Design solutions that, in their consistent use as exemplary cases of execution, concept and process, don’t even need to be shown anymore and that, for better or worse, (almost) everyone acknowledges as being seminal works that reflect the goals that graphic design strives for: A visual solution that not only enables, but also transcends, the message to become memorable in the eyes and minds of viewers. Whether these projects are indeed as amazing, relevant and enviable as we have built them up to be is cause for a separate discussion but it’s safe to say that, as far as designs recognized around the profession, there are a certain few that invariably make the list, usually without question. Myself, I could list projects in every category from logos, to annual reports, to magazine covers, to packaging, to typefaces, to opening titles that could be considered landmark projects… But when it comes to web sites, I can’t think of a single www that could be comparable — in gravitas, praise, or memorability — as any of the few projects I just mentioned. Could this be?

To which some really thoughtful responses have been posted:

• Do Canonical Web Designs Exist? - Bokardo
• Subtraction: Something’s Missing in Web Design
• A List Apart: Articles: Understanding Web Design

By injecting the idea of an historical perspective into a field noted for its lack of history, Armin gives web design the very things he questions—gravitas, praise and memorability.

I’m trying to direct folks to view ‘design’ in the sense of something much grander—an approach to framing problems and devising solutions. An approach that works with imperfect data and produces multiple options. An approach that shows empathy for people involved. Design is about so much more than ‘making things look pretty. poetpainter: In Defense of Eye Candy

I am often taken aback by the number of business people who are completely unable to think strategically. That is, to figure out what they want to say, why they want to say it, who they want to say it to, and how they want to say it. As designers we take our own ability to do this for granted, assume “everyone can do that”, and sell ourselves short in the process.

An exercise to gain insight into blog design, colour, and structure based on this fascinating full-size, 374-page reproduction of the entire 2007 IKEA catalogue reduced & abstracted to only averaged color & lay-out structure.

• Canadian English Dictionary
• del.icio.us 1.2.1
• Firebug 1.0.5
• Google Notebook 1.0.0.18
• GreaseMonkey
• ScribeFire 1.4.2
• TinyUrl Creator 1.04
• Todoist Post 0.59
• Web Developer 1.1.4

Citrus theme by minimanjapan

kuler colour theme generator. One of the joys of my new computer is getting to try out lots of new (to me) applications.

lines and colors :: a blog about drawing, painting, illustration, comics, webcomics, cartoons, concept art and other visual arts » How to Display Your Art on the Web

a rough guide for illustrators, gallery artists, cartoonists, comics artists, concept artists and other visual artists who want to present a professional representation of their work on the web.

I’ve known of Miraz since she ran a mailing list for eudora-mac back in about 1995/6 and more recently on the Wise-Women list. Her book WordPress 2 : Visual QuickStart Guide should be out at the end of May. I am so happy for her.

I started this blog without a clear vision of what I wanted to do with it. The challenge I set for myself was simply to post rather than to constantly redesign it.

The clearest vision might be to post my own artwork but I find myself posting links to things I want to remember and to things I find important or interesting. These things include design (I worked as a designer and art director in Calgary for 15 years), other artist’s perspectives, and various web applications that I use on a daily or weekly basis.

As I stick with this blog over time, I am learning that it can be much more than a personal bookmarking tool, it can be a place for:

• sharing ideas and doing it with authenticity and learning about myself and others in the process.
• sharing my own experiences with AML and a bone marrow transplant.
• sharing my artwork.

With these things in mind, I’d like to make the following New Year’s blog resolutions:

• post biographical information (my resume and portfolios) to facilitate contact and trust.
• posting of more Bone Marrow Transplant information to help others who are considering or going through that process (may be contained in a different blog and keep this one more focussed on art and design).
• posting more including doing and posting more artwork

And, finally, because I can’t resist:

• redesign with an emphasis on typography to support the visual information and the process of communication.

The Elements of Typographic Style Applied to the Web - a practical guide to web typography