Understanding your design in order to add detail
Posted on 26 June, 2009 at 17:16 PM There are already 5 Comments

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In my opinion a design is never complete unless it has consistency and detail. Consistency and detail are what separate the good from extraordinary, those sites where everywhere you look there is something to be found.

We all want to achieve a level of design which can blow our visitors out of the water and I am sure many of you have experienced what I have recently...

We have been working flat out on our new themes Left Handed and Arcade. They are both two completely different styles but both require a huge amount of detail. Up until yesterday I was having issues with the culture of Arcade.

I found myself asking questions such as, what is it? A space theme? A retro theme? How do I improve empty areas? etc.

Slowly but surely I was trying to get an understanding of my design, an understanding of its position in my own design world. I needed to understand why I put certain elements where they are and why I used a colour for this link as apposed to that link. As I sat there thinking away and trying multiple different footers/link colours/buttons styles it all eventually clicked.

And once it clicked it was like an avalanche, the detail came pouring out and I was eventually able to focus on the range of blacks, the intensity of the shiny-glare elements and link colours.

I would have never got to that point if I had never challenged myself, I could have stuck with what I had but it just didn't feel right. I am a strong believer that if you try hard enough you can be completely satisfied with your design. It takes effort and complete understanding of what you want and need.

To end off an awesome Friday I thought I would also leave you with a cool list of sites that I really really like:

Apple Reviews

Metal Labs

Pirata

Weight Shift

Stack Overflow - Carsonified

Elliot Jay Stocks

Washtenaw

User Comments

Max Stanworth 26 Jun, 2009 17:35:20 PM

Same thing happens to me sometimes, i was working on a design and i hadnt worked on in a few days opened it up and thought to my self there is something missing.

The best thing for me to do was actually make a mood board of related sites and images and it helped the flow of where the design was going and how to add some extra details to certain elements.

didnt know elliot jay had relaunched now, off to check that out!

Good episode guys keep it up.

divinefusion 26 Jun, 2009 18:00:16 PM

Thanks for the links. Haven't seen some of them yet. Totally stellar. Whenever I get stuck on a design, I try to take a step back, get a crit from another designer, run some errands, work on another project.... Coming back to the design a bit later, allows me to re-approach with a renewed vision.

Brett Davis 26 Jun, 2009 22:04:01 PM

Great topic, Love it, Very applicable. Linking design elements together gets very tricky sometimes. Thank You!

SteHan Botha 29 Jun, 2009 10:36:25 AM

Really great point guys. This was my 1st visit to your blog [via Danny Outlaw - River Current] and I'm well impressed, no doubt I'll visit again. I think the difference between a remarkable designer and a mediocre one is that awareness when something is indeed missing - and finding it is part of the adventure which is design! ;-)

Steve Forbes 07 Sep, 2009 14:45:59 PM

I can totally see where your coming from, I quite often find I get lost while in the middle of designing a site and forget what was the initial reason for designing it in such a way.

Oh and what's the URL for this 'Bump' site? I can't seem to find it. :S

Keep up the great work guys! :)

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