Work in Progress
Originally Posted on August 5th, 2007:
Ah, web design. I remember the days when plain text and a few animated .gif’s was all it took to impress anyone. When pages full of links to your favorite things was common; when a guest book feature was a non-negotiable part of a personal website.
Then came a day where pages had to have a uniform look. Animated .gifs flourished only on free homepage sites. Nobody wanted a guest book, but comment sidebars were all the rage. People didn’t have simple “About me” pages with a few pictures or tutorials. Fully-featured weblogs with commenting systems and forums were the standard. But templates having basic colors in visible tables was still par for the course.
Now, with the increased popularity of the web, coupled with our computers’ increased capabilities, standards are high as ever. One must at least make an attempt to push the envelope, or else be left in the dust. Multiple, user-selected themes are common, as are sleek graphics and flashy logos. But more than that, the site now has to actually have interesting content.
It’s been awhile since I’ve fired up Photoshop and tested my capabilites. I’ve always wanted to do something sleek and flashy, but minimalist at the same time. One thing I definitely do not want is a canned, pre-packaged look, which was sometimes the result of past labors.
The key to good design, in my opinion, is delivering substance without meandering off-topic. For instance, in a minimalist design, one must choose what the overall look is going to be while taking care not to over-do it. Less is more, but how much
less is the dilemma. Even when pursuing a more robust format where the designer must go over-the-top a bit, it’s a challenge to make the design effective without making it look “busy.”
Peer review can be helpful when it’s done by like-minded individuals. But everyone has their own particular likes and dislikes. While it’s good to have your work appraised by people who know what they’re doing, it’s difficult not to have their influence inserted into the process.
I’ve found that general review, on the other hand, is almost never a good idea unless you’re trying to market and sell something. This is either because they don’t know or understand what you’re trying to do, or because they wouldn’t know good design if it sat on them. You might find their version of good design by visiting their geocities.com homepage.
After much toil and trial, I think I’ve come up with the look of blargen.com and the technique to replicate it. What I’ve created so far is a header for the page using a simple, glossy sort of plastic look. This might change at any time, whether it’s by addition to what is here or subtraction. By next week I might hate it and try another approach, but it’s a start: