June 15, 2007
There has been a lot said recently about Vertical Rhythm. Richard Rutter began the work on 24ways last year with the piece ‘Compose to a Vertical Rhythm’. This was built upon by Wilson Minor on A List Apart recently with his article on Baseline Grids. All sound typographic advice. If you haven’t read both of them, I’d urge you to do so now otherwise you know what I’m on about it in this post.
At @media this year, I presented ‘Five Simple Steps to Better Typography’. Step two in my presentation was was Vertical Rhythm where I reiterated some of the excellent points Richard made in his article and also the presentation we both gave in at SXSW in March. I also added something of my own: Incremental leading, or Incremental line-height.
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May 16, 2007
For the past week, I’ve been designing the printed material for a certain conference. I often forget the mixed emotions that come with switching medium and designing for print again. On one hand, it’s great not to have to think about IA, usability and CSS bugs and to focus on just creating something nice and smelling paper (we’ll get on to that). On the other hand though, especially when designing to a specific deadline which can’t shift, the feeling of finality that comes with print still scares the shit out of me. If it’s wrong, that’s it.
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March 06, 2007
I’ve just been pointed to a post by Andy , called Five Principles to Design By by Joshua Porter. It’s a very good post, but point 2 has set some alarm bells off in my head once again.
Design is not art. That old chestnut.
This keeps coming up recently. Why? I’ve no idea but it’s beginning to bug me. Here’s my take on it all.
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February 19, 2007
I’ve had a few people over the past months contact me and ask what has been happening with Flow Well, we’re still working on it, but as one of the developers, Keeran, states on his blog:
While it is achievable to ship new products in a short amount of time, as we have seen with companies like 37Signals and Carson Systems, there are always going to be times, certainly in the early stages, where Real Paid Work must take priority.
Damn right, especially for a business which is only six months old.
Since returning from snowboarding a month ago, I’ve been consumed with Real Work and everything else, including the book, has been put to one side. Such is life and, as I’m learning, business.
That said, Flow is coming along and as I’m writing this, I’m working on the templates whilst a couple of guys at Beanlogic are working on the backend. It’s coming along. Slowly but surely.
January 03, 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 01, 2007
I’ve just been directed to a article on About.com stating that Web Design is not Print Design. Just to forewarn you, this may turn into a little rant, but I’m hoping there will be some interesting points raised.
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December 01, 2006
In March I’ll be heading over to Austin for the third time for the SXSW Interactive conference. This time I’ll be on one panel: ‘Web Typography Sucks’ with the guy behind The Elements of Typographic Style Applied to the Web and fellow Britpacker, Richard Rutter of Clearleft. The second panel isn’t really a panel at all, but a ‘’Power Session’: “Grids Are Good, and How to Design with Them’ with my good friend, Khoi Vinh.
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November 21, 2006
When I left the BBC a few months ago, they were kind enough to give me an Amazon voucher with which I bought a new Apple iPod Shuffle.
Well, Amazon took two months to actually get the stock in from Apple (don’t know whose fault that was, but the delivery date kept on going back and back with no word from either party.) But all that aside, I received it yesterday and it’s a little thing of beauty.
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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