Screw Design Portals
- Started
- Last post
- 112 Responses
- blackspade
"...Yet we don't call architects concrete designers. Or sculptors clay molders. So let's never use the term Flash Designer ever again. Maybe then we can start to think about interaction in its wider sense. Maybe then we can stop looking at other peoples work on all those design portals that rot our brains and stop us from creating our own work. What a crazy idea: making your own work rather than blindly following other people's. With such recursive inspiration, you'll always be looking at a limited horizon, rather than the infinite possibilities that are waiting for you in the real world.
For me, things like design portals make life a bit too easy. It's design for a fast food generation. Of course, we need to look for inspiration in all sorts of places - and design portals can be a good place to start - but it can also make people very, very lazy. It fast becomes the only place they go for inspiration.
So why bring up my feelings about design portals when I'm writing a book about Flash? Well, I think a generation of designers have grown up with them. Instead of looking at the wider world around them, they've simply emulated or copied what's gone before. Many designers portfolios have become bland and unoriginal. They're all clones of one another, all desperate to be accepted by the design community, and its easier to "get in" if you're wearing the right clothes, so to speak. I'm not saying this is true for all - there's some breathtaking talent out there- but it just worries me that many of the resumes I receive all look the same. We've had conversations at work about why no-one seems to be breaking things any more. Surely that's where the fun is?
But being original takes hard work. And we like things to be easy, We like the commonplace. We like to feel comfortable.
But nothing good ever came out of feeling comfortable. Look at elvis. As soon as he had it all, it was down hill creatively - not to mention for his waistline."
- Brendan Dawes
http://www.brendandawes.com--------------------------------...
Discuss...
- mikotondria20
I was just thinking yesterday, that I hadnt found anything new recently that breaks any rules.
Just making a site awkward to read and navigate, whilst still following Nielsenesque rules on structure, and lathering seo techniques on top isnt doing anything original ro exciting.
Where are the newest incarnations of, eg:
http://www.requiemforadream.com/…
For me that site seemed to typifiy the zeitgeist of thought-provoking and entertaining webology, and although there were many similar projects around at the time (most dire of course), noone seems to me to be publicly pushing the narrative envelope. I'll admit to being guilty of that too, haveing spent the last 12 months honing my back-end skills, cause basically that pays the bills. Im also too guilty of developing an intolerance for anything other than stylish functionality, having becoming disenchanted with Flash after seeing so many thousands of dreadful applications of it.Who is cutting the Flash mustard these days ? Come on, I want to be scared and confused, thrilled and informed at the same time...
- blackspade0
exactly, ..I was my above post last night;
for me what stood out was"
"It's design for a fast food generation. Of course, we need to look for inspiration in all sorts of places - and design portals can be a good place to start - but it can also make people very, very lazy. It fast becomes the only place they go for inspiration."
Im guilty of this as im sure we all are at times, maybe I need to ban myself from looking at any other designers sites including NT for a while...
"I believe that inspiration and ideas are never on short supply - I think it's a matter of disciplining yourself to see things differently every time... no matter how mundane or familiar the situation might be.
For example... When I moved to New York 1992 I had never ridden a subway. I was in total enlightenment that I got to take this underground rollercoaster (the closest thing comparable to the feeling I had) everyday for $1.25. However over a period of a few months I become like every other New Yorker, half asleep on the train as it merely takes me from point A. to point B. How did something so exciting become so mundane ?
Complacency. I had closed my eyes to seeing this experience like I did for the first time.
So... there are a million little scenarios, movements, forms, paths, and systems at play all around us - I've just gotten really good at seeing things, writing them down, assessing the limitations of the technology I use and trying to recreate them." - Josh Davis
- blackspade0
sorry^ should be...
I was *reading* my above post last night...
- jevad0
gotta love brendan
- mrdobolina0
I think this goes hand in hand with that thread from a week or two ago where we were talking about not seeing anything really amazing anymore. We are all guilty of emulating styles.
It's pretty difficult when your client 'knows' what they want.
- blackspade0
yes, what was that thread?. I think rasko started it.
..reading this really woke me up a bit to be honest... its easy to get 'lost' surfing the net sometimes
- mrdobolina0
can't recall.
- mikotondria20
ah...it had slipped my mind
creativity = 1/(client.count['friend_who_is_a...
- Mimio0
I don't think things are that stagnant. This field isn't really in need of a motivational call to arms either.
- blackspade0
perhaps you're right
& things arent that stagnant
i was more interested in his comments on design portals
- grafholic0
agreed to some point in a way that when someone posts "crit please", i often feel that the poster is looking for approval from the community rather than individual criticism.
however, what's different about flash (or other web/graphic) designers from "concrete designers" is the fact that our work has some commercial functionality (in which certain UI is desired than cutting-edge crazy design) and we mostly work with clients who often have some opinions about what they want.
- k0na_an0k0
what the fuck did he say about elvis?!?
*get pissed
seriously. design portals are good for inspiration, new technology and help with technology you don't know. aside from that, i really haven't see too many sites in the pbs that look the same. there is usually a nice mix of styles and functionality.
- blackspade0
you havent seen portfolio sites that look the same here!?
i sure have
- k0na_an0k0
out of the almost 90 thousand posts no. there are a number of styles, and more than a few utilizing the antler, deer, dripping, 45 degree angle 2a whatever. but relatively speaking no.
- zedvox0
i think it really has to do with how we choose to look at ourselves. there have been many discussions on here where people get divided up on the job of a designer. seems to me many people are simply interested in being on the cutting edge of style because thats what the clients want and thats what pays.
A lot of people think the whole exploring and cutting edge design should be left to the artists.
i find a big problem with the rhetoric well because i believe it is our job to question and explore.
and my friend jaane said recently
content is always the king.
- mg330
What he wrote is pretty right-on.
Though my time there is less and less each month it seems, I have been a moderator for Flashkit since the summer of 2000. Think how different web design is since then. I remember several sites like Vir2l, early incarnations of 2A, WDDG, H73, sites like that really getting my interest.
It wasn't that I felt "here's a style I want to do," instead it was more of "Wow, cool, there's stuff out there that looks like things I see in my head."
I had studied architecture for 2 1/2 years before changing majors to Advertising and focusing on design and interactive work. When I started to see those sites, it was awesome, because they reminded me of architecture, of buildings, of space, so many things.On FK there was and always has been a plethora of "kids" who were out to do little more than copy every idea they saw getting some interest. I used to type until my fingers hurt trying to preach the same exact thing that Dawes is in what was posted. I hate to say that I've somewhat grown out of that mental state I used to be in for talking about things like that (which makes this conversation all the more welcome) but the bottom line is that it's a frightening thought to think any designer would only get their inspiration from the links they click on a portal.
So much awesome stuff out there, and very amazing how much of it is intertwined. Painting, drawing, photography, communication, language, social interaction, history, nature...an unlimited world of inspiration that is the very essence of being "tools" for unique and individual creativity.
Anyone else feel that way?
Nice nice thread. :)
- zedvox0
i hear you mg33.
ther eis so much raw material out there....go down to the city...the sounds, the people,the street food,
take picutres, read books, fuck it just step outside and listen to your fav band and you will have better ideas than just clickin away.when i look around the web its to explore whats out there and sometimes things surprise me an di go wow..that is super cool....but instead of thinking how can i copy that....its mostly how can i find my own process which will take me to a solution as coll if not cooler than that.
- blackspade0
nice points mg
- blackspade0
the thing you have to ask yourself is "whats my point of difference"
- zedvox0
or in the words of Agent Smith.
"What is the Purpose, Mr. Designer?"