Are designers artists?
If so how do we handle the result of our work? Do we make what we feel or do we care more about what our work accomplishes?
I guess my question is do we constrain ourselves or are held in constraint by the public?
october 2008 archives
Today I give up Twitter and go back to reading blogs, talking with friends, and paying attention to life instead of tweeting it.
What I have gained from using Twitter? An amazing ability to write brusquely in 140 characters or less, and a timeline of my thoughts and experiences over the last six months. The timeline is the most valuable, but being brusque is a skill I’d rather not have.
Sometimes, when design rhetoric and deep discussions (such as the one presented by Frank this week) start to cramp my brain, I like to unwind by reading science fiction. One of my favorite authors is Dr. Ronald Chevalier. His work is deep. The graphic design of his site is a bit dated, and a bit over-the-top, but I highly recommend it.
A Cluster Award-winning, published author since the age of 13, Dr.Chevalier’s robust body of work includes titles such as Cyborg Harpies, Brain Cream, and the all new, completely original novel Brutus & Balzaak. Currently, Dr. Chevalier lives on a ranch in southern Utah.
Love this new Museum of London logo, dissected over at Brand New. I don’t agree with his small bits of criticism at all – I love the type, the shapes, and the whole feel of it. The website, on the other hand, seems to dilute the vibrance of the logo by splashing those colors across the header and nav and such. But the logo, I love.
A good diagram explaining the different areas in user experience design and how they are affected by content. Several more models and theories can be found at Challis Hodge’s UX blog.
“Embracing the word “ugly”—so readily identified with everything popular design claims to have been a reaction against—seems a logical choice if we are to create a vision for the practice of design freed from the restrictions and prejudices of its past.”Tad Toulis makes an argument for Ugly, suggesting that our pre-conceived ideas about beauty and aesthetics may be a dogma that is actually holding us back. Great read from Core 77.
“Interaction Design (IxD) is a reverse blanket term that describes how people apply many theories in psychology and physiology, including Heuristics, Cybernetics, Ergonomics, Planning Theory, and even more disparate fields dealing with Audio and Visual design.Read in a discussion at interactiondesigners.com. The members are discussing the difference between Interface Design and Interaction Design.
To reduce that. Interface Design is about where buttons appear on a page, and what those buttons look like. IxD is whether or not that page needs to exist at all.
Or
Interface Design will tell you how best to ask a user for his address, IxD will tell you to harvest it from somewhere that you already have it stored.
Or
Interface Designers design interfaces, IxDs design ways to avoid them.”
Continuing the rash of content today.. KayaKing jumbo peanut ad.
Reckoner Lockdown – a DJ Earworm mashup of Kanye and Radiohead. Both Chris and Sam should love this one.
“If web standards ever get a foothold, I’m hosed.”Pete, reflecting on his future relevance once his days of
gratuitous browser wrestling are over.
Veerle threw in a nice surprise in on her new business site for peeps with larger monitors.
Typeface is a new documentary about the Hamilton Wood Type Museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin. Wonder if we can get a screening in SLC?
Reflections of Christ is a wonderful project of photos depicting the life of Jesus Christ. There is just something about the images being photos instead of paintings that make them feel different to me. It brings life and reality to the scenes much as Lamb of God did when I first saw it. It is rare that a YouTube video can allow you to feel the spirit, but this one will definitely move you if you allow it to.
These photos are part of a traveling display that is currently at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake City until Nov 7, 2008.
I’ll take these cans any day over the new ones.
Are Designers also Marketers? I’d say yes. And that includes personal marketing. I’ve said no to many an interviewee (and hire) based on bad ties, hair, shoes,.... If you’re a designer, should you know how to market? Love this excerpt: “when designers are tasked with selling their product they make better products.” Word.
“In the Shaker world, the appearance of a thing or person mattered only to the extent that it revealed its underlying function. Whatever did not interfere with function, served function. This is different from saying that whatever did not serve function interfered with function.”A few weeks ago, Kaleb posted a bit about the Shaker Design Philosophy. This post inspired me to look back through the book Shaker Built where I found this subtle shift in thinking. Thinking this way about your designs allows you to create something simple without being plain. It also allows the artist or designer an incredible amount of freedom within what may otherwise be considered hefty constraints. As long as a design element doesn’t interfere with the essential function, there can be an argument to keep it, even if it doesn’t serve any purpose itself.
Sometimes when I work, I like to play a little music in the background. Recently, I’ve been listening to a lot of Jonathan Coulton. However, other times, when I want something a little more relaxing, I put on Solo Piano Radio. What internet stream or artist do you enjoy while working
A rather unique layout for a signup form.