January 28, 2007
A couple of books coming up which may be of interest. Firstly, Web Standards Creativity is up on Amazon for pre-order. It’s a sumptuous full-colour paperback covering topics like Typography, PNG transparency techniques and Grid Design from the likes of Ethan Marcotte, Simon Collison, Cameron Adams, Aaron Gustafson, Jeff Croft, Derek Featherstone, Dan Rubin, Andy Budd, Ian Lloyd, Rob Weychert, Andy Clarke, and me.
Secondly, Five Simple Steps: Designing for the Web is nearing completion. It’s not quite finished yet, and yes I’m going to miss the January deadline, but it will be worth the wait. To keep you going until then, here’s a few tasters…
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January 04, 2007
Colours chosen from different spokes on the Colour Wheel will provide a variety of colour combinations. Deciding upon and selecting a colour combination that works for you will very much depend upon the job at hand.
Will it communicate what you want it to? Or are you just choosing them because you, or the client, like them? These are very difficult questions to answer because any designer or client will let their personal style and preference interfere with their decision-making. Colour combinations tend to evoke certain reactions either by cultural, or personal experience. Understanding these experiences will help you create colour combinations that tell a story. That is what good colour theory can give you; designs that tell a story.
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January 02, 2007
I need your advice. As you may know, I’m writing and self-publishing a little book on designing for the web. It will be published in two ways: initially, a pdf for download and shortly after, a printed version which you can buy from Lulu. These two media require different design considerations.
Firstly, pdfs are read on screen and can be printed out on individual sheets of paper and probably on a black and white printer. Secondly, the printed book (from Lulu) is bound and needs the margins adjusted accordingly. So, my question is this. Do you think it’s necessary for me to typeset two versions? One, a pdf with minimal flat colour (so as to not waste toner) and even margins. And two, a version which has facing pages etc for the printed book?
October 31, 2006
In the last part of this Simple Steps series I talked about designing without colour. But before applying colour, it’s always a good idea to have a basic understanding of colour theory. There is a great deal of complex terminology surrounding colour theory, so in this part I’m going to outline some of the basics.
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October 27, 2006
This is a project of mine that has been kicking around for well over a year now, so I thought I’d stick my neck out and just go with it. I’m going to be releasing Five Simple Steps: Designing for the Web as a PDF download book in a couple of months time (around Christmas). It will cost $19. It will be stacked full of useful, practical information for applying graphic design principles to designing on the web.
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October 19, 2006
It’s been ages since I’ve had a stab at a Simple Steps series. So far we’ve had Better Typography, Designing Grid Systems and Typesetting. This one has been kicking around for a while so I thought I’d just publish the first couple and see where we go from there (of course there will be five, I just haven’t written the last couple yet).
Designing with colour is perhaps the element of graphic design which is the most difficult to get right. Why? Well, because it is the most subjective. For some, a palette of dark grey with splashes of bright pink will be just great; to others it would just be all wrong. Too many designers, whether schooled in colour-theory or not, end up making subjective decisions about colour and then when it comes to explaining those decisions to a client, things begin to unravel.
This first post in the series will be dealing with looking at tone and the value of limiting your palette.
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April 01, 2006
The screen is just one of the media types for which we have to design for. Another media type, which I feel is often neglected as part of the design process for a web site, is print.
There are times when a web designer has to know about print design. Not just the values and aesthetics of designing for print, but the terminology, measurements and production values that are important in print design—including typesetting. I’ll be addressing these, along with a working examples over the course of the next three installments of this ‘Simple Steps’ series.
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February 06, 2006
In this installment I'll be talking about three dashes which are often used, but frequently misused. The Hyphen, the En Dash and the Em Dash.
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I'm a graphic designer from near Cardiff in the UK. I've been a designer for over ten years now and primarily work on the web. I'm still partial to a bit of print every now and then though. I used to work for