From the category archives:

aesthetics

Chart Wars: A Designer’s Critique of the Universal Health Care Charts

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Setting aside that fact that many think the Dems’ proposed national healthcare plan is a total nightmare, this chart is no sweet dream from a design standpoint.

Creative Differences: Illustration and Design

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By straddling two “worlds” in my design practice, I often think about one of them while engaging in the other. For instance, while working on a design project, I’ll be musing over the illustration in progress over there on my drafting table. And when I’m in my illustration mode, I’ll be considering the next step [...]

Aesthetics: In Support of Style

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Aesthetics and style are not the same, despite opinions that claim otherwise. It’s popular to think that both aesthetics and style are subjective concerns, yet one is objective. Style sits on top of aesthetics. Aesthetics support style, as the foundation and framework of a house are established before sheetrock is hung and paint is rolled [...]

Design Priority Is Another Casualty in the Banking Industry

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  Washington Mutual understood the important of design in reaching out to its customer base. We won’t see these kind of graphics in a Chase branch office. I went into my WaMu branch this afternoon to make a deposit and found that all was business as usual. As I stood in the surprisingly short teller [...]

For What It’s Worth: A Designer’s Value

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Without the aesthetic, the computer is but a mindless speed machine, producing effects without substance, form without relevant content, or content without meaningful form.   -Paul Rand  There are those who know how to write code for a web site, but not how to design one. Technical know-how does not make one a designer, just as [...]

Random Photo Shoot

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  Light and shadow define form. I love road trips. I frequently will take off in my Jeep with my camera and see where I end up. Most of the time I stay fairly local, because I live and work in an area surrounded by the Santa Monica Mountains; near beaches, harbors, ranches, farmland and shopping [...]

A Captured Image

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St. Maximilian Kolbe Church, Westlake Village, CA. I was on location at this client’s campus doing some photography for a brochure I was designing. I liked the way the light and shadows were delineating the forms, and the shape of the bench against the wall.

Lighting the Way

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An insightful article on Edward Hopper, whose work is currently on exhibit at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Through January 21, 2008, is found over at The Weekly Standard. Being an illustrator at heart and by training, I have always had a happy response to Hopper’s work. I understand and am inspired [...]

10 Tips for Design Students (Especially Mine)

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Having mentored so many students over the past 20 years (wow, has it been that long?), I’ve learned that their success as students and ultimately as designers depends as much on them as it does on me. Here are some tips gleaned from both observation and experience for making the grade: The teacher is there [...]

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