Tuesday June 10 4:11 PM
The hand-drawn look is a very trendy style in design these days. It is a reaction to the slick computerized design of the 90's and in some part an effort to set designers apart from mere computer users. After all, if everyone has Photoshop, doesn't that mean anyone can do design? Currently listening to: Make_the_logo_bigger.mp3. Current mood: Whiny baby. There is the old saying that those who cannot do, become art critics. Everyone has within them a recognition of what they like, designs that resonate with them. But without skill, talent, and experience, it's tough to actually create good designs--even with the latest and best software. Sure, you can lay some fonts down and throw some images in there, but that's not really what designers do.

The power of computers is allowing a generation of non-designers to create. Many websites are creating customizable interfaces that a person can have a degree of control over, such as changing backgrounds, moving content around, and even choosing the content they want to view. iGoogle is a great example of this.

This is Web 2.0. It is a meshing of technologies that allows the consumers of media more control over the media itself. It goes beyond just the personalization into creating community, which is why social networking sites like MySpace are so successful. People enjoy rearranging their worlds to better fit their internal vision. Sometimes that internal vision can lead to good design, but more often than not, without schooling or experience people tend to make the same design mistakes over and over again. For example, not all text should be centered or justified. Also, busy backgrounds make text hard to read.

One way for a designer to stand out is to create hand-drawn illustrations. This proves beyond all doubt that there was an artist and not just a computer involved. This is a branch of the shabby-chic/ornate family of design that celebrates the hand-made and all the imperfections of the analog experience. There's a tendency for non-designers when viewing some hand-drawn pieces to think that they could have drawn that. Well, maybe. But design isn't just about execution, it's about concept, subject matter, and balance. It's how to integrate illustration into a design that makes sense.

Designers are telling story and making choices more from knowledge than gut feelings. It's not a science, but there are almost always logical reasons for design choices. Each font has a character and a personality that conveys subtle meaning. Serif fonts are more formal. Bolder weights can imply stability or substance. Colors have the same effect. Designers weave these subtleties into a complete whole. Occasionally clients want to make what they think are small changes that ultimately destroy the harmony of the design. It's tough to talk them out of illogical changes that they want to make because they don't like the look of them. Yes, the client is always right, but they should also remember why they hired a designer in the first place -- to analyze their audience and make design choices based on how that audience will interact with the design, and what the purpose of that design is.

I am proud of the quality and workmanship that I put into each site, often things that the client wouldn't even understand; I hand-code my HTML so there aren't any extraneous pieces or browser-choking thickets of weird CSS. Lots of web designers know their clients don't care, but I think that's almost criminally negligent and almost always requires bug fixes when browser updates come out.

Hand-coding a site is the programming equivalent of the hand-drawn look. If you look at the code you can tell by how clean it is whether it was written by an authoring program or by an actual person.

I saw a designer at the HOW conference wearing a t-shirt that said, "I draw pictures all day." To me, this belittles designers and risks squandering the enormous influence a good design can have. I want to be proud of my designs. I want to put each site into my portfolio and have every site win design awards. Often this is not possible because ultimately the point of design is not to win awards but to convey the client's message. That doesn't mean I can't try to do both, though.

Lots of people do their own designs these days. When you hire a designer, you have to ask yourself why you aren't doing it yourself. Sure, you could spend some time learning how to fix your own car or write your own contracts or engineer a building. But would you really feel safe in a building designed by an amateur architect?