May 11th 2008
1 Response »
I recently came across the amazing Sydney-based artist Nanami Cowdroy. Her style is both unique and captivating and it has left me staring at the simple beauty of her artwork, I highly recommend taking a look at her portfolio, its quite spectacular.
May 9th 2008
8 Responses »Continuing along my series on minimalism, I decided to discuss the pros and cons of a minimalist design. The arguments for both sides are valid, however, personally I lean a bit more to the “minimalism is good” side of the argument.
Minimalist design is, in short, design that has only the needed elements. In other words, minimalist design is a design that has been simplified down until it has only exactly what it needs for usability and nothing else for extra style or flare.
Although this may seem like a lousy excuse for being lazy, it is not. Minimalist design, just like any other form of design, covers certain principles and elements of design. Space (particularly negative space), balance, emphasis and contrast are all used in minimalist design.
Yes, I will admit, there are many designs out there that fail to heed the necessity of the elements and principles of design, leaving their minimalist design to be simply whitespace. White space when used properly can look nice, however misusing it proves to be a critical mistake of many designs…
May 7th 2008
15 Responses »To start off my short series of articles on minimalist designs, I collected over 40 minimalist web designs to showcase what minimalist design looks like for those of you who are not familiar with it, and to provide inspiration for those of you who do. So, I present:
March 23rd 2008
No Responses »When someone first begins to play your game, usually the first thing they will see is your intro. Your intro is not only an outright promotion of your site or yourself, but it also is a first impression.
Many times, I begin to play a game, see that the author refuses to put time and effort into the intro. Most of the time, I stopped playing the game. The intro, if done well, can make the player more interested in the game.
March 17th 2008
1 Response »While I was browsing, I found this one site with an interesting idea, Trauma. Trauma is a language structure developed by Aliceffekt (Ikaruga), that focuses on giving a clear message quickly.
On the plus side, it is a very interesting language and it looks very neat when put into sentences, however, it seems to be very hard to memorize. It requires a reader to have memorized twelve (thirteen really, but the thirteenth is a closing tag) symbols and the three levels of each symbol.
When I see Trauma in Ikaruga’s artwork, I still have to rely on the grid on the Trauma website in order to decrypt messages. Despite it being difficult to read, I still find it a neat language (and an interesting read), and it’s still under development, so he might solve these problems.
Trauma Website - Click on the Trauma tab on the left
Trauma Wiki
March 16th 2008
No Responses »
Many of us have seen this picture, but I didn’t realize the extent of the lack of creativity and individuality between these icons. They are all a block, with a 45° gradient screen coming from the top left, going to the bottom right. Then they have a white graphic, logo, or two letters. I’m sure this is great if you have all these programs and are trying to make a rainbow in your dock, but otherwise they are simply bland.
On the plus side, it lets you associate colours with programs. Which actually turns out to be quite effective and makes it easier to identify the type of document, and use the folder icons.
March 15th 2008
No Responses »Recently I came across this stock vectors/images site that has a lot of inspiring vectors. Although I have yet to buy something from their site, I still find it quite interesting to browse through their vectors and stock motions, particularly their vector crests. If you lack inspiration, or you just have some free time on your hands, I suggest you check them out.
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