May 10, 2006
Maybe it’s something about spring or maybe it’s the 48 hours I spent on a plane recently, but I thought it was about time I spruced this site up. Actually, the main reason goes back to @media last year when Jeremy included in his presentation a javascript image gallery. It kind of spiralled, totally out of control, from there really.
April 23, 2006
Just a quick post, now that he has more content up there, to pimp my younger brother’s site.
About six months ago, my younger brother Jon, left his job of six years with Norwich Union with a big fat pay off. So, he’s spending it travelling the world over the next twelve months. He asked me to get a little site together for him, mainly so he can chuck some photos up there and blog about his travels so all his mates can keep up.
It’s built in Expression Engine of course over the course of a couple of days and, yes, it’s black and white. Why? Well, why not - he seems to like it!
So, if you fancy, go and have a look. If you say hi, tell him I sent you!
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.
February 17, 2006
Three weeks today, I'll be landing in Austin, Texas for SXSW. I cannot tell you how excited I am about going to this event again.
Two years ago, A collegue and I attended to what I thought was just going to be another industry do. How wrong I was. The inspiration fuelled my creativity and design direction for about six months. Little did I know then that in two years time I would be sitting on one of the panels. Nervous? Me?
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.
February 01, 2006
I've just been asked this question by a client and I'm not so sure my answer was right.
I said, 'A good business card identifies a person with a product, brand (and/or) company and gives the contact details for that person.' I didn't mention creativity or design. Should I have done?
I know it completely depends on the person and the context of the job, however, I started thinking about business cards and where they fit in the scheme of Corporate Identity design and they are difficult things to design if you want to challenge the conventions. But, should you challenge the conventions?
I dunno, what do you think? Any examples of what you think is a good card?
December 16, 2005
'Gill Sans, is he mad?', I hear you cry.
Well, Gill Sans - as well as Helvetica - are perhaps the two typefaces I use the most. I have a love / hate relationship with them both, or rather with particular weights of both, but they are two typefaces which continue to surprise me with their beauty and versatility.
November 24, 2005
In the Web Standards community we hear the words 'Semantic Markup' thrown around a lot as a concept—the right thing to do— but I know a lot of designers who are trying to learn this stuff are being confused by the whole 'semantic thing'.
It's a difficult task for a designer, who primarily thinks very visually, to relate to a concept like semantics in a document when all they want to do is create something.
After doing a ton of research over the past couple of weeks I've begun to notice links and patterns between typographic theory and Web Standards.
These links are now pulled from my del.icio.us account. You can subscribe to the feed if you like.
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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 Agency.com in London as an Art Director before working as a Senior Designer for the BBC in sunny Cardiff. This was all before I took leave of my senses and formed my own design consultancy, Mark Boulton Design Ltd.
I've got a thing about grids and typography and occasionally ramble on about them to anyone who will listen.
If you're after simple, clean and effective web design; let me know.