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Cloninger covers 10 new underground Web design styles, with names
like SuperTiny SimCity, Mondrian Poster, and HTMinimaLism. He traces
the roots of the styles to the past. He shows current masters of
each style, how to perform some of these techniques, and which
commerce projects apply for each style. This book will expand your
design vocabulary.
The idea is to create a compelling experience through great design.
Branding matters when selling products. The "usability legalists"
say that "an elegant design that is unusable will fail." Cloninger
agrees but in addition proposes a corollary: "a perfectly usable
site which lacks elegant and appropriate design style will fail."
He says that the Jakob Nielsenizing of the Web, avoiding "bad
usability" at all costs, has fostered an entire generation of safe,
bland, copycat Web sites that "are about as engaging as a book on
usability testing methodologies."
Cloninger is out to shake things up. He says that to succeed a
site must have a "focused narrative voice, an angle, a plan, a
consistent point of view to unify its disparate elements and give
it a cohesive personality." To Cloninger, creative visual design
is an integral part of this site-building process. Inbred
conservative copycat design is boring, so Cloninger explores the
personal sites of today's leading Web designers. What's wonderful
is the way he classifies these styles, relating the present design
style to the past with great insight and humor. Here are his ten
design styles:
>Gothic Organic Style
GO stylists take a more abstract "part for the whole" design
approach that suggests the irregularities of real life without
depicting them literally.
>Grid-based Icon Style
A combination of Bauhaus style, a fetish for maps, charts, and
graphs, and a desire to push the Web's limits produces the Grid-base
Icon style. This fake stylized "interface" gently ridicules the hype
of Web interactivity. Characterized by grid-based geometric layout,
45-degree angle increments, composition and balance. "Roll over,
Walt Gropius, and tell Kandinsky the news."
GO is pioneered by Mike Cina. Here are some representative URLs:
http://www.testpilotcollective.com
http://www.trueistrue.com
http://www.mikecina.com
http://nikewomen.nike.com/nikewoman/
>Lo-Fi Grunge Style
Where popart meets pixels. Uses the irregular printing of the
late 60s with loose antigrid layouts. Characterized by smudges,
scan lines, fashion models, tiling backgrounds, and lots of
Photoshop. Pioneered by Miika Saksi:
http://www.smallprint.net
http://www.nokiantyres.fi
>Paper Bag Style
Funny Garbage and P2 have a playful anachronistic approach to
their design works, using asymmetrical fonts, scanned sketchbook
drawings, line art, paper bag textures, and a mostly colorless
palette. Willful anarchy is a reaction against the professional
elitism that frequently infects the Web design community. It's a
loose antidesign style.
http://www.funnygarbage.com
http://www.p2output.com
http://vintage.levi.com
>Mondrian Poster Style
This is Piet Mondrian, Dutch abstract expressionist, without
the black borders. MP stylists use negative space, eschew borders,
and big bold blocks of color to delineate sections. Embracing the
minimalist aesthetic, MP sites have an elegant classy look.
Characterized by full screen layouts, two-color backgrounds, and
no borders.
http://www.design-museum.de
http://www.bauhaus.de
http://www.aiga.org
>Pixelated Punk Rock Style
An in your face, disorienting style.
>SuperTiny SimCity Style
Derived from the old low-res sprite designs. Video designers
turned pixel Picassos. The idea is to cram as much info into
the screen as possible. Characterized by fast-loading, playful,
and jam-packed screens. Pixelated people, buildings, tiny
fonts, and intense compartmentalization are hallmarks of this
design style.
http://www.k10k.net
>HTMinimaLism
Usable, clean, scalable and elegant. Using optimized code,
HTMinimaLists craft clean, fast-loading sites.
http://www.37signals.com
>Drafting Table/Transformer Style
Mike Young pioneered this sharding 3D look. In DTT styled
sites, 3D sharding shapes float in semi-negative space. The
more illegible the fonts the better. The effect is machinated,
technical, and futuristic.
http://www.designgraphik.com
>1950s Hello Kitty Style
Gives a mod, retrokitch vibe. Amy Franceschini pioneered this
playful style. Animated 3D bubble people cavort about in
organically styled surrealistic environments. 50s pastel
palettes, retro-futuristic fonts and artwork characterize
this style.
http://www.futurefarmers.com
I really enjoyed this book. Highly recommended.
Fresh Styles for Web Designers: Eye Candy from the Underground
By Curt Cloninger
New Riders, $35.00
ISBN: 0735710740
http://www.lab404.com/dan/
http://www.newriders.com
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