Forum Moderators: not2easy
What am I supposed to do?
Get a person in?
Dont really have time to learn.
Then I get bogged down with trying to make it CSS pure.
What do you do?
hmmmm
Perhaps setting a time limit would help you?
What do you do?
I married someone who was much better in those areas :) (It wasn't the overriding factor, mind you...)
2odd...
I have an idea of what I would like to see as part of a web page
i think it takes a lot of practice to take soemething that looks good in your head and focus in the actual details of how its going to go together on paper (well screen)
maybe you need to put pen to paper, try to get the ideas down - quickly at first - do lots - and then refine and focus in on the details, (e.g. exactly how wide should that div be comparison to the one next to it? what font should that be? what angle is that exactly?)
youll find one idea flows to the next when you get on a roll, and you wont be able to get them down fastenough
if somethings not working,, look at it and ask why, put it to one side (dont throw it away), and start again to refine it, focus on which parts do work and which dont.
rinse and repeat. when youve got the overall look sussed maybe do more drawings for the indivdual components after a few iterations you should have a reasonable set of sketches to take into photoshop (may be even scan them)
this is difficult, especially if you havent drawn for a while, but it will help you focus on what you really wnat to achieve, and how you are going to do it.
and if get stuck on a particular technical aspect PS or whatever, well, you know where to come...:)
thinking i should listen to my own advice more often
<added> alternatively - hire me!:)</added>
[edited by: benihana at 1:00 pm (utc) on April 2, 2004]
functionality is sometimes more important than the look.
I see these as very much one and the same - the functionality usually is the look.
What do you do?
Play to your strengths and spend your time doing what you do best. Don't waste your time doing a bad job on something you're not good at.
Pay someone else to do the design side.
If your market is such that you couldn't lose a designers fee in your own fee to the client, then you'll just need to brush up on a few basics and do the best you can.
TJ
Amazon etc are crap designs from an aesthetic point of view but are good functional designs that fulfil their objective....
In spite of what I've written before in the forums( I've been a working designer /artist/ sculptor professionaly for 30 plus years ) now .....
You can always get better ( much better ) at design than you think ....depends how well you are taught ...at school your first experiences of design or drawing or painting at say kindergarten level ..you were being taught design by someone who had absolutely no experience , talent or qualifications or experience in the field ....
Think otherwise ....?
Teachers for small children are hired on their literacy and mathematical skills ...plus how they interact with kids ....I Know ... I began my "further education" at an Art school in London which was part of a poly" with a very large teacher training programme ..3000 plus qualified teachers churned out every year to primary , junior and secondary schools ...( all those female students! ....sigh )....
Anyway the staggering thing was always the almost total kack of artistic talent evidenced or possesed by those who would be going out to teach ..amongst other things ...art!...
Nothing has changed ....
The teacher who teaches your 4 year old to read and write can ( probably ) do so his or herself ...
The same day they will then attempt to teach the same kid Art or Music etc when they almost certainly can't play an instrument or sing in tune or draw or paint a recognisable tree or whatever ..
( stick trees don't count ...Lowry coudn't paint ..
in my qualified opinion
( I can paint like Lowry easy ..he couldn't paint like me if his life had depended on it ...however he is much more famous ...)...go figure...
So given your taught experience how do you expect to ever get started in design ...
"Limbo" ..wrote a superb piece on the subject here recently ...
The one thing which does however distinguish ( and always will ) us "arty" types from the non "arty" ones is the side of our brain we work with the most ...And while you can improve left /right balance skills ....they are to a large extent "hardwired" ...
Which is why I couldn't ever be an accountant ...
although I can do Algebra ...
The other reason of course being the quality of the female art students at our parties there were in the sixties and seventies ......sigh ....!
sometimes it would be nice to add that "wow(ish)" factor
Always a bonus, myself I can't do this so I get help.
I can paint like Lowry easy
You need a middle weight experienced designer with years of practice in both print and web design to get meaty design results. Buts that'd be in the perfect world, and I am a one man band myself so have to try to do it all like you, only I am not the greatest programmer!..PHP what?
Ta
Limbo
Take Limbo's advice... I have.
It saves all the headaches and wil probabally produce a better site. Having a designer help you doesn't mean you lose controll. You will hopefully find that you will get the best work done when you bounce ideas off of each other.
Don't want to go there cos it's not the reason for this thread but he "defined" nothing that hasn't been seen on cave walls for millenia ...
However like most "modernism" he did come up with something exploitable by the "artbusiness" world and "critics"....
( Means you can't say its crap ...cos some burk with a hyphenated name and an inherited knightsbridge or left bank gallery can make some money selling it and then dealing it ....See if you didn't need them to explain it to you ..how would they make their money ....remember the "Emporers new clothes" ...in the Art world the "kid" never gets to be heard ...way too much money involved! )
Picasso however could paint but as even he said
" If they're gonna keep buying the stuff I do in this style" ..( which he said himself was just "slickness and tricks" "worked to death and promoted as worthy by those with a vested interest in selling it" etc )...
"I'd be damn fool to go back to real painting and poverty compared to the life I lead now wouldn't I "....end of documented quotes ....
Now the fleas have defined what is the dog ....
Dali ....on same subject ....
