Webdesigninformer.com

Adactio Go to the source

There’s been quite a brouhaha over the past couple of days around the subject of standardising responsive images. There are two different matters here: the process and the technical details. I’d like to address both of them. Ill communication First of all, there’s a number of very smart developers who feel that they’ve been sidelined by the WHATWG . Tim has put together a timeline of what happened : Developers got involved in trying to standardize a solution to a common and important problem. The WHATWG told them to move the discussion to a community group. … Read the rest here

Jason Santa Maria Go to the source

Hillman Curtis, artist, designer, filmmaker, Brooklynite, bicyclist, friend, and explorer passed away last week at the young age of 51. I put off writing about him because I couldn’t find the words. Everything I would try to write felt so insignificant for such a significant man. Thankfully, as is usually the case, I found my words among friends. The folks over at Happy Cog have collected some thoughts on Hillman and invited a few of us staff alumni to share too. Below is my contribution: I followed Hillman’s work when I was first getting started in design. … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

Don’t Expect Applause : Seth Godin: If your work is filled with the hope and longing for applause, it’s no longer your work—the dependence on approval has corrupted it, turned it into a process where you are striving for ever more approval. Who decides if your work is good? When you are at your best, you do. If the work doesn’t deliver on its purpose, if the pot you made leaks or the hammer your forged breaks, then you should learn to make a better one. … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

“Creativity is a Verb” : Milton Glaser, as quoted in Jonah Lehrer’s Imagine : There’s no such thing as a creative type. As if creative people can just show up and make stuff up. As if it were that easy. I think people need to be reminded that creativity is a verb , and very time-consuming verb. It’s about taking an idea in your head, and transforming that idea into something real. And that’s always going to be a long and difficult process… Read the rest here

Adactio Go to the source

I got an email from Ben Frain recently asking if I’d answer some questions for an upcoming article in MacUser UK about responsive design. Seeing as this is a topic I could natter on about endlessly, I happily obliged. Here are my answers to his questions. There’s a good chance that much of this will get trimmed or altered for the final article so I figured I’d share my verbatim responses here. … Read the rest here

Andy Budd Go to the source

The argument for “designing in the browser” seems very seductive at first glance. The web is an interactive medium that defies the fixed canvas of traditional layout tools, so why not use the browser as your primary design environment? The reason is simple. The browser was intended as a delivery mechanism with HTML and CSS a means of describing content rather than defining it (a subtile distinction I know, but an important one). As such the browser lacks even the most rudimentary tools like the ability to draw lines or irregular objects through direct manipulation. Instead this process is heavily abstracted through code. … Read the rest here

Hicksdesign Go to the source

I loved bike shops as a kid (especially the smell of them!) but we didn’t, and still don’t, have anything quite like this. 718 Cyclery is not only a great retail space, but the whole attitude to building bikes and access to the process is unique and just plain brilliant. I found myself nodding in agreement to everything Joe says. As for the bike they build in video – gorgeous! Via twinfish on twitter. … Read the rest here

Snook Go to the source

So, yeah. I wrote an e-book . It has been an interesting experience and I thought I’d share a few random thoughts on how things have gone so far. Backwards When I first started down the path of writing the SMACSS e-book, I had intended it to be either an e-book or a printed book. … Read the rest here

Hicksdesign Go to the source

‘The Bacon and Cheese Machine’ is a collaboration between Illustrative genius McBess and P-G Bikes for Dudes Factory I’m a sucker for art projects like this, and really fancy having a go myself! This video shows the intricate painting process unfold: … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

Hero : This is a really fantastic, well-shot piece. And the resulting portrait definitely wasn’t what I was anticipating. Update: The process of creating art with small dots is called stippling . Had no idea. (Thanks @signalnoise .) /via @jontangerine … Read the rest here

Andy Budd Go to the source

Have you every been in the situation where the client keeps requesting tweaks to the design or changes in functionality? As you sit moving boxes around the page, the budget is slowly draining away and you’re no longer sure whether the project can be completed on target? In these situations what do you do? Some designers will push back on the client, claiming that these changes were never in the agreed brief and that they had only budgeted for 2 or 3 rounds of design. … Read the rest here

Hicksdesign Go to the source

I’ve written my first book! Its taken even more time and energy than I ever dreamed it would, but yesterday marked the very last chapter passing it’s final stages of being buffed and tweaked into a manuscript that people would actually want to read. I started planning this book 5 years ago, and only the combination of Five Simple Steps , Chris Mills (A.K.A “Mills of Steel”), Owen Gregory and my technical editor, Gedeon Maheux of The Iconfactory has made it actually happen. All the icon artists I contacted (bar one – but I shan’t name any names!) were enthusiastic and responsive, which made it a joy to organise. Many responses came with fantastic icon material that hasn’t been seen before – early ideas and process snapshots, as well some yet to be released. … Read the rest here

Jason Santa Maria Go to the source

Tiles is an animation made of a large photographic collection of street tiles. By viewing this collection of photographs as a sequence, different movements and processes become visible within the frame of the tiles. Both music and animation are trying to find a balance between a thought-out arrangement and an arrangement of ‘chance’ deriving directly from the tiles. Mesmerizing. … Read the rest here

Snook Go to the source

With all my work at Yahoo!, I’d been thinking more and more about CSS architecture. I really sat down and took the time to analyze my process. What’s the most flexible but straightforward way to do it? How does this fit in with the team process and how does this work in comparison to how other people are doing it? I started making notes and eventually started writing up my thoughts… Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

Target.com Redesign : Wow, how’d I miss this news about this? I’m pretty sure someone made an argument like this at some point in the design process — and won: Look, everybody uses the search bar or those big fat categories strung across the top anyway. So, why not have a little fun with the rest of the page? Update: For those asking, since it may not have been clear in the sarcasm: I’m quite impressed by the new design. … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

Visual Design is Not a Thing : Mark Boulton: Talking to and observing your audience is a fundamental part of graphic design research. In fact, it’s the first thing they teach you about communication theory: what are you trying to say, and who are you trying to say it to. So, you see, graphic design is not Visual Design. And given that the look of something — in my mind at least — can’t be considered holistically without the feel of it, or the use of it, then how can Visual Design be separated as not only a step in a process, but as a job title? … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

Nosh 404: Behind the Scenes : The deftly talented Alex Cornell (director, cameraman, editor, voice talent, designer , musician ) describing the production process for the Nosh 404 page : The script was basically this: cool place, action and stuff, guns, cool sounds. Generally that’s about all I have to go off anyway for my videos, so I figured we were ready to rock and roll. It’s pretty impressive to read just how much was done by one individual, and done so well. … Read the rest here

Snook Go to the source

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about CSS architecture these days. One thing in particular that has crossed my mind is how to handle certain situations. For example, we want to hide content on the page and then reveal it (or vice versa). In JavaScript, this is relatively straightforward: get an element, and apply a class or remove a class to change the state of the element. … Read the rest here

Hicksdesign Go to the source

I’d reached that point in my rides, where I wanted some sort of cycling computer to track my progress and show my route, so I recently picked up a Biologic BikeMount to allow me to use my iPhone. Rather than buy a dedicated unit (such as a Garmin, which isn’t really an option financially at this point) this lets me reuse a device that’s already replaced lots of other separate devices like Camera and iPod. Here are my thoughts after 2 months of use. The phone gets clipped into a sturdy protective hardcase, which is then mounted to your handlebars via a supplied bracket. … Read the rest here

Adactio Go to the source

Over on the HTML5 Doctor site, Oli has written a great article called Quoting and citing with <blockquote> , <q> , <cite> , and the cite attribute . Now, I still stand by my criticism of the way the cite element has been restrictively redefined in HTML5 such that it’s not supposed to be used for marking up a resource if that resource is a person. But I think that Oli has done a great job in setting out the counter-argument: By better defining <cite> , we increase the odds of getting usable data from it, though we now need different methods to cover these other uses. Oli’s article also delves into the blockquote element, which is defined in HTML5 as a sectioning root . Don’t be fooled by the name: sectioning roots are very different to sectioning content in a fundamental way. Whereas sectioning content elements— section , article , nav and aside —are all about creating an explicit outline for the document from the headings contained within the sectioning content (using the new outline algorithm ), the headings within sectioning roots ( blockquote , td , fieldset , figure , etc. … Read the rest here