Reading 04/23/2009

• 10 Simple and Impressive Design Techniques | How-To | Smashing Magazine

  tags: Web design, Graphic design

  • Some of these advanced effects can add plenty of depth to designs, but when used in the wrong place, they do little more than distract viewers from the project’s intended focus. These effects may be precisely what a design needs to have the impact it requires, but even in these cases, they should be complemented by simpler effects.
  • Color

  • With a “less is more” mentality, we’ve selected 10 very simple and impressive design techniques that can drastically improve the performance and appearance of your designs.

  • Add Contrast
  • Gradients
  • moderation and subtlety are the keys to the design’s success. The logo, headlines, buttons and backgrounds all have subtle or minor gradients to emphasize their content. The most complex gradients on the website are found on simple 120 pixel-wide buttons that are intended to grab attention.
  • Much like choosing a sensible color palette, designers should carefully choose only a few types of gradient for each project.

  • When working with gradients, it is important to keep a nice visual flow: use gradients sparingly or subtly. And most importantly, use them only when they complement the overall feel of the project.

  • Stick to simple four-color palettes unless you’re really confident the design calls for more.
  • Letter Spacing
  • As in uppercase and lowercase. Changing case requires nothing more than pressing the Shift or Caps Lock key, and yet so few designers take advantage of this technique’s potential.
  • Anti-Aliasing

  • Though technically a much more complicated process, anti-aliasing can be summarized as the smoothing out of edges, and it applies to all aspects of design. In the world of Web design, anti-aliasing is partially determined by whether the text will be in HTML or shown as an image. Complicating things a little more, some Web browsers and operating systems automatically smooth out HTML text a bit, but as a general rule, HTML text has no anti-aliasing.

  • Imperfection
  • If you’ve ever been stumped with the predicament of how to make something stand out more, stand out less, or nearly disappear, take a look at using blurs in different ways. By blurring objects in the foreground, background or by blurring the entire design, you can dramatically increase the impact of your project. Focus is, at least in part, relative
  • Blurs can also be used to give a sense of depth or layering.
  • Alignment
  • Altering the alignment of design elements can make them more memorable, more talked about and, consequently, much more effective.
  • This can greatly increase the speed with which concepts are turned over to clients; but all too often, it also restricts creativity — especially with regard to alignment.
  • Trim Fat
  • Perhaps the most important and under-appreciated design technique, trimming unnecessary parts of a project, is also one of the hardest to do.

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