Design for the Rest of Us
Two things that I get asked a lot are: “What makes good design?” and “How do I learn good design?”
I spend a lot of my own time thinking about these questions, both personally and professionally. While going through some notes from this year’s SXSW festival (Austin, TX last March) I realized that I had a few good answers tucked away from the “Hi-Fi Design with CSS” panel. If you want to see the full slide shows from the panel (and ignore the rest of my post!) go to:
» Doug Bowman’s presentation
» Dave Shea’s presentation
» Dan Cederholm’s presentation
From Dave Shea’s panel session, I learned about important design concepts to master if you want to learn and practice good design:
- Color theory
- Typography
- Form and shape
- Spacing
- Texture
- Dimension
But, how to grasp these concepts? Some very good practical tips from Dave Shea:
- Know your tools
- Find imagery sources
- Practice
- Study inspiring design
- Keep your eyes open
- Study typography
From Doug Bowman, more great advice: Spend time looking for beautiful examples of design in nature.
I hope that I can improve my existing design skills and learn more as the year goes on. As far as inspiration, look no farther than the Garden.