I see many print and web designers today diving deep into code, standards and aesthetics without knowing the basics of communication. Hopefully this article sheds light on the subject to some of those people!
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N Campbell
Thanks for the inspiration Andy. I must echo the other comments as I lack a strong understanding of the fundamentals of art and it makes communicating more and more difficult as I try to express more complex ideas. Combine that with the necessity to keep up to date with technology and it becomes a real challenge to concentrate more on the basics that are so important.
Having said all that, would anyone like to share some great resources for learning in this field, or recommend ways to learn without going back to school. There must be some great books out there? Google here I come …
Thanks, everyone, for the nice comments. I’m very happy that you’ve enjoyed and got something seemingly worthwhile from the article. I’ve not checked in here in a while and didn’t realize that there were so many comments since I was here last.
@N Campbell: I appreciate your question about resources to help aspiring/learning designers (all of us) go back to school on this stuff. I can recommend a couple of useful resources:
“Universal Principles of Design,” by Lidwell, Holden, and Butler and “Painting Better Landscapes,” by Margaret Kessler.
Both of these books can be quite valuable to anyone seeking a better grasp of design communication and human perception. I hope that some of you pick them up and utilize the great information within.
As a struggling web designer without a design background, this article may have saved my career! All kidding aside, I think I learned more from reading this article than from years of reading so called “design” books. Thanks a lot!
I have a problem with white and black colors.
http://www.mwoa.ru/images/uploads/vemas.jpg – if you look at right part of image, where black menu panel meets shadow, you can understand that black panel is 1px smaller than white below… And that shadow is less bright. Who can explain me the reason why it happens or refer to an article I can read to unserstand such effect?
I feel mostly, it is the web 2.o bug which has bitten a lot of web designers around the world. We need to think creatively and keep sharpening our tools, learning is an ongoing process…
“Universal Principles of Design,” is a great resource indeed, every designer should have it on their table.
Thanks Andy, for this article, I will surely pass it on to my design team.
Just wanted to say thanks for a great article. I often get so tired when designing a layout. I just want to get it done and move onto the building of the site, my favorite part. I need articles like this to help me persevere through it and make my designs/layouts more meaningful and purposeful. Your article was a great refresher and motivator.
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I see many print and web designers today diving deep into code, standards and aesthetics without knowing the basics of communication. Hopefully this article sheds light on the subject to some of those people!
N Campbell
Thanks for the inspiration Andy. I must echo the other comments as I lack a strong understanding of the fundamentals of art and it makes communicating more and more difficult as I try to express more complex ideas. Combine that with the necessity to keep up to date with technology and it becomes a real challenge to concentrate more on the basics that are so important.
Having said all that, would anyone like to share some great resources for learning in this field, or recommend ways to learn without going back to school. There must be some great books out there? Google here I come …
Andy Rutledge
Thanks, everyone, for the nice comments. I’m very happy that you’ve enjoyed and got something seemingly worthwhile from the article. I’ve not checked in here in a while and didn’t realize that there were so many comments since I was here last.
@N Campbell: I appreciate your question about resources to help aspiring/learning designers (all of us) go back to school on this stuff. I can recommend a couple of useful resources:
“Universal Principles of Design,” by Lidwell, Holden, and Butler and “Painting Better Landscapes,” by Margaret Kessler.
Both of these books can be quite valuable to anyone seeking a better grasp of design communication and human perception. I hope that some of you pick them up and utilize the great information within.
Kind regards,
Andy
Scott Chapman
Very nice article, I’ll most certainly be passing this on to some designers I know.
Keep it up!
Regards,
Scott.
arslan hassan
i think that,s very nice work by you.
Alan Takushi
As a struggling web designer without a design background, this article may have saved my career! All kidding aside, I think I learned more from reading this article than from years of reading so called “design” books. Thanks a lot!
Paul Markov
I have a problem with white and black colors.
http://www.mwoa.ru/images/uploads/vemas.jpg – if you look at right part of image, where black menu panel meets shadow, you can understand that black panel is 1px smaller than white below… And that shadow is less bright. Who can explain me the reason why it happens or refer to an article I can read to unserstand such effect?
Cheena Kaul
I feel mostly, it is the web 2.o bug which has bitten a lot of web designers around the world. We need to think creatively and keep sharpening our tools, learning is an ongoing process…
“Universal Principles of Design,” is a great resource indeed, every designer should have it on their table.
Thanks Andy, for this article, I will surely pass it on to my design team.
Matt McClard
Just wanted to say thanks for a great article. I often get so tired when designing a layout. I just want to get it done and move onto the building of the site, my favorite part. I need articles like this to help me persevere through it and make my designs/layouts more meaningful and purposeful. Your article was a great refresher and motivator.
thanks again
Rennell Garrett
This is some good information. It’s important to think of web design as an art!