I’ve read iPad rumors like a hound. It’s been one of my few tech industry predilections. Most things with Apple generally are, considering how much of an Apple fangirl I’ve become following the purchase of my iMac.

Now, I like the name of the device, and initially I was very impressed with the surface, just like I am with all of Apple’s products. I’ve always had a huge amount of respect for Apple’s interface design team (considering that it’s their interface I’m most rabid about), but as I dug into the technical specifications… I kind of took a step back. It certainly wasn’t what I expected, which was exactly what Apple had promised, but I don’t think they really meant it in the sense that I found it to be “unexpected.” Read more »

Turn on your favorite song and listen to it for a few minutes. What do you notice about it? Do you feel carried away on a journey through the ups and downs of the song? Ever wonder how songwriters do that?

Let’s take a step away from music now. Go to your favorite design and look at it. Is your eye pulled to particular areas on the page? Do you feel drawn more to one area or another? How is it accomplished? Perhaps through the use of arrows, curves, or other design elements.

This is flow. Ya’ve either got it or ya don’t! This is how we’re going to make a design really sing.
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There, I said it. Web designer’s aren’t Superman.

WANTED: Graphic designer who can make beautiful graphics, code front-end designs, knows PHP, can make coffee..

Graphic design and front-end design ends at design. As it is, it takes four years to get a degree in this field, and back-end and front-end development use two completely different areas of the brain. This is why it irritates me so much when people post advertisements wanting a person who can do anything; there is a very limited amount of people who can both code and design, and I am lucky to be one of those few..

The man who does your front end can’t necessarily do your backend (pun intended)

The theories and psychology behind design are actually quite fascinating and take years to develop. It takes a certain kind of thinking to be able to do front-end design and nail these theories. Remember in grade school when they had you do those “mind maps” that were supposed to determine whether you were a mathematical thinker or if you were more of an artist? Designers, typically, fall into the realms of “artist” rather than the more logical “mathematical” types. There are maybe a handful of designers who can do both, but these are few and far between.

When hiring, please educate yourself.

So many people think that a developer and a designer are inter-changeable. Unfortunately, most times they are not. Most of the developers I know haven’t got a clue about how to do an aesthetically pleasing design that will deliver the message it needs to, and I know many designers who don’t have the capacity or time to go and learn the finer things of development, such as PHP or MySQL.

So as a final word…

Stop trying to hire both! Get one, and then another.

The essential energy of a design is created through the spacing. Spacing is not only important for defining elements and setting them apart, but also for creating the overall tone and energy of a piece; unequal spacing catches the eye, and adds the general flare to a design. With this in mind, it is essential that even the most novice designer learn the importance behind placement in a design, and through practice, develop an understanding that placement cannot just simply happen, just like good design doesn’t simply happen. Through nature and experimentation, the novice can best learn to use the placement and division of a piece in order to convey a proper message, and understand how it is used in the media around them. Read more »

How the hell did I get here, and where am I going?

Sometimes I sit back and wonder about the journey I took to become a web designer. I started out as that kid you pay $20 to for something quick because they know a little bit about computers. I loved graphics, and making images. I would take poetry and images, and combine them through blends, with textures and other things I experimented with. A friend of mine from childhood knew a little bit about how to get started with a website; she had me going with Geocities in very little time. I was able to post my writing, my graphics, and explore a world I was only just beginning to learn about. Read more »