hello.

i’m still making my way through elliot jay stocks‘ latest book, sexy web design, which is a fantastic read btw (i recommended purchasing it)! it’s no secret that i am a huge fan of elliot’s work and i knew i had to get my hands on his book. it doesn’t disappoint. elliot has a way of writing that makes you feel like you are sitting having a coffee with him and just chatting about design. i already have so many things i’d like to talk about here from the book. i still have a few chapters to go though, so more on that later.

i was especially chuffed, and utterly surprised to be honest, to see a site i had designed, decor8, featured in the book to showcase a good example of artistic details. (ok, in all honesty, i squealed with delight when i saw it and read elliot’s comments). credit must also go to my client, holly, who i was extremely lucky to work with on the site as she is wonderfully creative and inspiring.

but, enough of that and back to the topic at hand that i want to discuss: great design. one thing that really hit home while reading sexy web design, is the idea that great design is in the details. i couldn’t agree more. as elliot says:

Attention to detail goes a long way towards creating a visually rewarding experience for people: it can be the distinction between good and great design.

on more than one occasion i’ve had discussions with other designers, developers and clients over elements that are so subtle, they are hardly noticeable. i often get the argument of: “why put in the extra time to add in this little detail if 90% of people won’t even notice?” the thing is, they will. if they aren’t very design-savvy it is true that they may not notice a subtle element specifically such as (“oh, look at the subtle gradient there!”), but they will get an overall “mood” or “feel” from the design and all those little details is what creates that mood. perhaps the gradient softens an element or adds in a little depth. i’d go so far as to say that the little details aren’t there to be noticed; they are there to enhance the design as a whole. as designers, our goal is always to deliver the best design we can, and that means paying attention to the minutiae of a design. i reckon it’s also what a lot of us love about design: the subtle changes you can make to create something really stunning…or, even perhaps sexy!

my goal with this redesign, first and foremost, was to simplify things and have a clean, more “me” look. step one done. as i mentioned though i plan on being a little more “organic” with this redesign. instead of worrying about every detail from the start i plan to work on the site in stages. next stage: polishing and adding in those ever important details, while still keeping the design simple and clean. details aren’t about unnecessary embellishments. i think most designers will know what i mean when i say a design is never done. you’ll always look at it later and consider a new approach, a slight adjustment, removing something or adding something in. the beauty of a personal site like this is having the freedom to do just that.

so, the last month or so has been very busy – which is always a good thing – and one of the projects that kept us very busy was the new Knopf Doubleday website which we just launched!

for anyone who’s into publishing you will know that recently the industry has been going through some changes. Random House recently made some adjustments, and part of that was combining two of their houses: Knopf and Doubleday into one. in doing so they needed a new web presence, and one that could accommodate a suite of other sites for the imprints within Knopf Doubleday. 5 weeks, many cups of coffee, a few choice-words for IE6, and some great team work with Random House later and we’ve launched. the site is built in WordPress and is really a testament to how flexible and powerful WP is. site maintenance is a breeze for content managers and adding in new imprint sections can be done in a day.

for me the biggest challenge was creating a design to accommodate the sea of content each imprint requires. there’s a lot going on and making sure that it didn’t look messy and overwhelm the visitor was key. the main site is made up of shades of grey with the only colour used to signify the various imprint posts according to their logos in the header (and of course the book covers which is really the main focus of the site). once in an imprint section, this changes so your focus is on the specific imprint itself giving it it’s own space. each imprint can have it’s own distinct look, which we’ve already adopted for some of the imprints with some simple CSS changes, but we will continue to work with the various imprints in the coming weeks to update and fine-tune this.

finally, my personal site/blog is sporting a new design. it’s been a long time coming. in all honesty, i’ve gone through about 20-30 ideas/concepts. i finally decided to go with something minimal and simple. i’ll be working on adding things here and there in the coming weeks, but mostly i was keen on just updating the site as quickly as possible.i like minimal. i like clean. i think this design is a little more fitting to my overall “style”.

i’ll be using the blog as an “experimental” area for fun new techniques and plugins. i still have a bit of work to do actually, but that will come as i work on the various kinks in the coming weeks. there are still a few things i want to play with, and a number of things that need some attention. excuse the mess for a few days at least.