Bucking Design Trends

#1

"Are we simply trying to please ourselves more than we are the clients or their audience?"

I think that we do try to please ourselves when designing for clients. Our clients have come to us because we have knowledge of what works and what doesn't, and what they need to help them acheive their goal online.

So if we were to put out a design that doesn't please us as well as your clients, then we have really failed at doing our job. Granted, in some cases everyone has put out a design that they were not happy with to satisfy a client who stood firm about one thing or another, but I think those cases are few and far between.

As far as the copycat issue goes, elements that I place in my design are my choice. I use them because I feel they will enhance the design of the site. I can't really be worried about whether it has been used by others or not, because it is more than likely going to have already been done at one point or another.

Jeremy Flint (http://www.jeremyflint.com)

#3

Well, as long as you can back up your decision to use elements like dropshadows, large text, etc., then it becomes less and less of a copycat issue.

When you start doing stuff because "you think its cool and saw someone else do it", then the choice begins to lose credibility.

Jeremy Flint (http://www.jeremyflint.com)

#5

I'm definitely already tiring of my most recent redesign of jeffcroft.com, in which I use some of these elements.

The key to doing trends well is doing them in moderation and combining them with basic staples of design that will never go out of style.

Think about it in terms of fashion for a minute. If you sport the latest trends from head to toe, you look ridiculous. But, if you rock a really trendy button down with some classic jeans and loafers, the ladies will swoon. Similarily, if you're going to roll out in your trendiest whiskereed Diesel jeans and Puma sneaks, then you probably better stick to a basic shirt and jacket.

Jeff Croft (http://jeffcroft.com)

#7

I totally disagree that the "web decreases our ability to be unique!"

The possibilities are endless! Think of flash!

I think people in general are herd oriented,(designers are no exception which is sad), and do things because they think its now the cool thing to do instead of being original and creative.

Also with the arrival of the blog community - you get community and critique which generally shifts people into a mediocre mass of blah.

I say just have fun and do your own thing!

Fuck design trends!

Check http://www.mjau-mjau.com/classic.html

for a unique site...(not mine)

Almustafa El-Said

#9

On the subject of bucking design trends - congratulations Paul on your new design here. Very clean, elegant even. I'm impressed.

Jonathan M. Hollin (http://blog.urbanmainframe.com/)

#11

You said flash like it's a great thing:) And don't get me wrong, I love using it, but let's not talk about the endless possibilities of flash, when we know it's disabilities. In that, calling designers herd oriented, while mostly true, also fits you in the category of the free-your-mind-and-spirit-kool design.

I don't know, I see the trends in everything, it's hard to steer clear as POP culture shifts our imagery -- I find a majority of sites carry the similar look -- but this is the same of print design and art history has shown for years. You have a select few who break the mold, and you have a large group that plays catch up until someone else breaks the mold. I remember a few years when grayscale was out and halftone dot imagery was in -- still is for some things.

I also see a lot more photoshop file > image > adjustment > threshold going on with imagery and that's getting old too (the cartoon look).

What I find most confusing is what is a trend, and what is a standard? Some things must be kept similar for the ease of average users -- if you want hits then you need intelligient layout, structure and navigation. While left menus aren't a trend, but a standard, are the little icons by them a trend? Horizontal headers? These similar elements used by designers keep our customers comfortable when playing on our work. That type of stuff keeps me awake at night:)

And the drop shadows -- those can't be a trend, their just becoming popular in every medium now -- I had an Art Director tell me once "if your client doesn't like that logo, pop a drop shadow on it and show it to them again. They'll probably love it." Need I say more:)?

So I would say that trends will always ride in corporate design -- unless your working for Nike, you are a company designer making your client and their consumers content, and you'll get 'I love those horizontal drop shadows...' because they and their users are comfortable with it. But for you personal stuff, well, you should try as hard as you can to rock the vote and push yourself. Learn print design if you know web, learn web if you know print, take some art history classes or buy some books -- it may be a different medium, but I garauntee you'll see similar mistakes and similar trends and you'll find yourself wondering why you ever thought in 2-D:)

Brady J. Frey (http://www.dotfive.com)

#13

I think, as I think Brady alluded to with the clothing store example, you really have all kinds of trends to follow. You have design trends, industry trends, client trends, customer trends...

Whose trend are you going to break?

I understand your point, however. Here's how I'd look at it. Wherever you see a trend, it's typically something found in a group of like-minded individuals - a team, or community if you will. Far better - I believe - to push the envelope a bit and coerce the team / community / industry / social group into a new way of thinking, rather than come in and bust everything up just in the name of change.

I've been in a couple of situations where someone came into an environment to shake things up a bit - usually it didn't work out, and said person found themselves on the outside looking in.

Having said that however, I think shaking things up a bit is a good thing in some situations. However, to pull it off, you have to have a high level of trust and leadership capacity within the environment.

Mark (http://www.lightpierce.com/ltshdw)

#15

A few more:
6. Links, when hovered will change the bg of the text, but won't have any padding around them.
7. *The greatest and latest* entry on blogs are almost hidden. (When Stopdesign first went 3-coll, but the latest article is more prominent now)

P.S. The new front page design is really nice scrivs, _but_ (:P) two things:

#centercoll should have it's top defined in ems. To see why, just increase text-size.

Could the latest (and greatest, yadayada) article be more prominent, say, like stopdesign has it.

For the rest I'm just glad that I still have room to innovate the frontpage design for my own blog (in the works, after other projects get finished) Also, an article in which you share your path of thinking when coming up with this new design would be appreciated.

AkaXakA (http://akaxaka.gameover.com)

#17

I don't think it's so much that we get sick of seeing these ubiquitous little design elements, but more that we get *accustomed* to them. They are the "safe" route to go when working on a design's visual appeal. Traveling off of this road can be uncomfortable and doesn't always yield attractive results, so designers tend to stick with the tried-and-true.

In the long run, it's just a matter of time. It's like evolution. Current human biology seems to work pretty damn well, and thus we keep generating the same sort of thing through reproduction. But each new person has a few small genetic changes that make them unique; they may look like their parents, but they still have a special blend that nobody else has. Eventually down the line, things are looking very different.

I can't believe I just made an analogy out of that. It's not perfect, but it gets the point across I think. Basically, as long as a designer puts his or her heart into each work, design trends aren't harmful; something very tiny and unique will always come out, and it will eventually lead to greater things.

Gist of this post: we will never stop coming up with the next design trend, even if we stick somewhat to the current ones.

Chris Vincent (http://dris.dyndns.org:8080/)