design and the web
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- unknown
why is there so little good design on the web?
The vast majority of sites on the web were made by people wanting to show off their cute cat or dog.
Then we have the trendy techno-kids who are up on the latest pixle-blurs or random 3d enviornments.
Then we have the wannabe techno-kids who hide their lack of design skills behind sites which contain 32 navigation elements from flash-kit.
The number of high calibre design firms, producing consistantly good design can probably be counted on two hands.
Before the internet explosion, you had to have an artistic background, get a degree or diploma from a respected university or college, learn about type, composition, colour ect, apprentice at a design firm, pay your dues and then you can finaly consider yourself a designer.
now every 13 year-old with a crack of PS and flash is a web "designer"
- sauerbraten0
no shit. you hit the nail right on the head there.
duh.
- unknown0
man, you're not telling us anything new...
but thanks for throwing a link to FK for providing so many navigation tutorials. :)
- rh0
It's definitely the clients' fault. If they would just spend the right amount of money, they could afford us :)
- gravityroom0
It goes back further than that. After Apple introduced postscript and personal computers became common - secretaries began working on newsletters and all sorts of other things designers once did.
I agree - the web took this to another level. There are lots of people who think they are designers when they really just like to play on the computer.
Don't give up the faith. There's still pleanty of great stuff on and of f the web. Plus the economy is tight and no one wants to spend the dough on anthing good right now.
- unknown0
how bout some cheese with that whine?
- sauerbraten0
ooooo, i love cheese. i like this kind called Hollander, i suppose it's from Holland then..
- Bio0
yep. print is free of desktop publishing. {/extreme_sarcasm}
pshaw.
get used to it. hacks are everywhere in every aspect of every field. ours just happens to make aesthetic value decline.
- unknown0
I'm sure if I looked hard enough on the web and read a couple of books, or wathched the "surgery channel" a couple of times, I could probably remove someones liver, but does that make me a doctor?
you need a licence to practice medecine, and you need a license to be a mechanic, so why not for design? is our profession any less noble than others that we allow it to be hijacked by a bunch of no talent hacks?
- Bluejam0
"why is there so little good design on the web? "
Cos we're all too busy trying to be part of a 'design community' by posting on message boards, selling third rate T-shirt designs that are so Kool™ (when in fact they really look like shit and remind everybody else of vomit), trying to fake what someone elses has achieved through cut'n'paste and then screaming 'rip'...and finally, thinking that style is design.
...we built this shitty, on cock an' balls.
- Bio0
word on that blue, but may i correct you on one point?
Kool™ should read Kewl™
but you were close. . . so close.prometheus, i feel your righteous anger, but this is not something that you really protest. it is the way it is. and if the web all looked great... then your shit wouldnt stand out.
at least that is one way of looking at it.
- sparker0
bluejam is my hero.
:)
- unknown0
bluejam's post made sense... better than any explanation i can think of. now im craving cheese and crackers damnit
- unknown0
ditto, bluejam.
Have you seen some of the submissions to threadless.com that get voted on?
I look in on them every now and then, and I get this feeling that some of these totally mediocre ones are done by people walking around saying, "I'm a t-shirt designer."
- Bluejam0
Word.
or...
Werd.
or...
Wurd.
:)
- davetufts0
It's not just the web...
"why is there so little good design in TV commercials, magazines, newsprint, billboards, store signage, peoples homes, funiture design?"
make a 'good' website before complaining about the state of web design.
but the REAL answer... most web users care more about good usability than pretty pictures.
- Gorbie0
Nostalgia for an age yet to come.
- ********0
web design has only been around for like 10-15 years if that.....so there is still money to be made..lots of money...mom and pop shops that see a competitor on the web now want in...and who will be there a top agaency that will charge 10000 for a super pimp site...or a kid who will charge 7oo bux for the same thing just not super pimp
- sparker0
who defines what "good" design is, though?
i prefer more usable, functional sites. i don't care much for useless fluff on the web.
- Gorbie0
I'm going to start an award called "The Command Double U"
an award given to all "fluffy" websites!
- davetufts0
yes sparker, i agree... your site is pretty minimal:
{html}
{/html}i like it.