Getting Started Designing
There are any number of ways to start working on a design concept; however, there are multiple entry points and dependencies that make the task difficult. Here are some ideas to help you.
Move Beyond Element to Concept
Rather than focusing on an individual element—an image, or a font, we want to get to a concept. A concept is something like a blueprint or strategy, or some set of guiding principles and ideas to dictate your design choices that you'll articulate more fully in a mock-up later on. Remember that focusing on the micro (a font, an image, a color) can lock us into a bad design idea. A concept should guide us in further exploration.
Think as Large as Possible
What is the concept for the whole site that can be carried across multiple pages? Are there words or images, whether used in the design or not, that capture a sense of the concept?
Ask yourself: if no intelligible words or identifiable images were on the page, but the layout, color, typography, etc. were there, what would users' emotional reactions be? What do you want them to be? Why? What is appropriate for your rhetorical situation (which includes, of course, your character/personality as the person making it)?
Follow Many Concepts
By allowing yourself to follow a concept, you'll do a few good things for yourself:
- You'll open yourself up to exploration in terms of the ideas visual execution, but...
- ...you'll avoid getting worked up about what you don't know about technology—your concept and later your mock-up will guide you through what software techniques you need to learn.
- Working with a concept lets you focus more on your rhetorical goal, versus focusing on visual elements you just like—e.g., your favorite color, your favorite painting or photograph, etc.
Conversely, Start as Small as Possible
It can be very helpful to play with ideas guided by (instead of just working with) an image, color, font, etc. Ask yourself about the layout/composition an element seems to suggest, and complementary (or pleasingly different) elements requried by an element.
Look for Existing Strong Compositions
Find page compositions you find appealing and effective. What is it about the page that works for you? Try to be as objectiv about this as possible—avoid saying "I like..." and instead focus on the choices that make the page work.
If being objective seems hard, you might find it helpful to look at pages about things that don't interest you, or that you don't understand (use Google's advanced search to return pages only in German, for example). By being distanced from the page content, you can focus more on the design (which, unfortunately, may lead to an unrhetorical interpretation of the design. But remember you're just looking for a starting point by this activity.
Flip Roles for Visual Elements
Consider ideas like: what does a block of text do as a visual first, and as something to be read second? Can you, say, use a piece of text to stir visual interest, inviting people to read it? OR just having it there not to be read, but seen?
Alternately, consider a photograph that confounds rather than clarifies or demonstrates? Or a font whose letterforms are more intriguing than the words it spells?
Go Counter-Intuitive
Work with an image, style, color, font that you don't like. Can you make a visual composition around it that works (even if you don't like it)?
Updated on Sat. Feb. 18 2006 at 12:41PM