Wisdump

Dumping wisdom on design and the web

Who are the cool kids now?

Fortunately or unfortunately I haven’t been that involved with the design community for the past couple of months besides what I notice in my newsreader. Last year I wrote a post about the movers and shakers in our industry and thought it would be cool to see who you thought is making the most noise now.

Gone are the days of Shea, Bowman, Zeldman and Cederholm. In their places are who, who, who and who?

What I find interesting is how many people have entered the standards community field causing us to have less and less “leaders” and simply more speakers. I don’t know if we need leaders anymore since the path was pretty well-laid out by Zeldman, but it would be nice to have a place to go where we know good things would happen. Sort of like how ALA was a while ago.

Here is my short list of who I see as the innovators today and it’s no small coincidence they are part of the 9rules Network:

  • Particle Tree: If most websites could accomplish in two years what these guys have done in two months everyone would be happy. I am going to take a risk now and call them the next 37signals (but better).
  • Jonathan Snook: Simply a web dev genius developing right before my eyes. In a sense I like to refer to him as the web renaissance man because he does it all and he does it damn well.
  • Mark Boulton: From articles on Grid Systems to deep thoughts on Typography is there anyone else in our community today that sounds more like they know what they are talking about than Mark?

No doubt I have missed a few, but those are the five that stood out immediately. Who do you have on the list? And please note this has nothing to do with the (fabled) A-List as none of these sites would be considered on it.

Originally posted on August 2, 2005 @ 2:06 am

Stylegala

In what many people in private have called my competition I would like to think of as a site that took a concept and pushed it to the next level. I am sure there were some CSS galleries before me and we all know that there were certainly some after me, but Stylegala I think was the first to bring respect to CSS designers in the graphic design world.

Flash-based, table-based, and straight-up graphic designers always had their portals to lean on (eg. k10k, Newstoday, etc.), but as CSS designers I think we were always having to read multiple sites to get our fix of gallery, news and community. David obviously had a vision when he started Stylegala (which he mentioned to me many times) and that was to take the site beyond just being a showcase gallery.

I don’t know why I am even writing this (maybe because I never say thanks as often as I would like), but after randomly going to the site I realized how special it has become. To everyone that has put in the work to make that a great site and to David who steers the ship I have to give a hats off to you. Thank you.

And it should go without saying that Dave Shea is the one that really started this off (in my opinion) with the CSS Zen Garden.

Originally posted on April 11, 2005 @ 12:17 am

Design In-Flight April 2005 Issue

The latest issue of Design In-Flight is now out. I remember speaking with Andy about this publication late 2003 before it was released and was very excited to hear what he had planned. It seems that he has now hit his stride with it as this is the best one to date.

This issue sports a newly redesigned style with brighter colors and new typefaces. It all fits in perfectly with the new Spring season that has fallen upon us. It also introduces two new recurring features: Eye on Type (typography column) and Six-Penny Anthems (comic series). Other articles include:

  • The opportunity to change
  • Smooth Slide: SlideShowPro
  • Choosing color combinations
  • Feeling your way around grids
  • Who owns your portfolio
  • Beyond Portfolios: A fresh look at marketing your skills
  • Acing the Interview: Tips and techniques for success
  • The more things stay the same, the more they change
  • Designers as agents of change

Go check it out and make sure to subscribe if you haven’t done so already. It is well worth the $10/year.

Originally posted on April 11, 2005 @ 12:44 am

COLOURlovers

Color inspiration and color selection articles are all over the web (there is even one included in the latest issue of Design In-Flight), but sometimes you just want a place to go where you can see different color combinations at work. This is where COLOURlovers comes in.

The site hosts a number of color combinations and even allows you to rate each color and combination. Definitely a site that every designer should have bookmarked. I think I will play with some of the combinations on this site today to change things up a bit.

I’m really feeling this palette. Which one is your favorite?

Originally posted on April 11, 2005 @ 10:50 am

Sites That Suck

If you dare not venture outside of our community you might not come across any designs that aren’t too gut-wrenching. However, to build up your confidence there are times where you need to see a site and think to yourself:

Hell, I can do way better than that and I’m not even that good.

In case you ever wish to say something along those lines I suggest you head over to Sites That Suck and read their commentary on ugly designs. Here is a sample of what you will get when you visit.

That’s right, this is not FrontPage. Believe it or not, this is well commented code. Someone who knows how to write code, but takes their design sense from a Miami Vice episode. Then there’s the wave sound that repeats. Over and over and over. Man, this site is bad. I wonder if this sends more people running from Century 21 than brings ‘em in. This is yet another good reason for corporations to institute logo usage policies to stop brand degredation by design idiots.

Funny stuff since they really hold no punches and go after company sites. Of course their site is nothing to smile about, but coming from me that doesn’t mean too much.

Originally posted on April 12, 2005 @ 9:53 am