Comments on: Break Your Design Mold

By: Things Great Web Design Achieves (Part 1) - PuttingBlogsFirst

Things Great Web Design Achieves (Part 1) - PuttingBlogsFirst — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 08:04:05 +0000

[...] out of place, but that’s because you’ve become used to the norms… time to break out of the mold and think out of the box. Set a trend! I dare [...]

By: Jermayn Parker

Jermayn Parker — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 03:33:04 +0000

I guess Colin is one of the people your talking about!!

I wrote something similar late last year as well (http://germworks.net/blog/2007/12/20/state-of-web-2007/) and one of the points I raised was that you need to get inspired from other NON-WEB sources.

By: I broke my design mold

I broke my design mold — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 16:00:14 +0000

[...] might remember that I linked the Brak Your Design Mold post on Devlounge, written by yours truly, a while back? Well, I’ve done a follow-up, where I [...]

By: TDH

TDH — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 07:38:54 +0000

Colin, you’re missing the point of this article completely. The whole idea is to grow as a designer, and you won’t be doing that unless you challenge yourself.

Would I do client work dark and musty when the target audience are Totally Spies-crazed 14 year olds? Of course not…

Read it again if you will. As I said, you’ve missed the point here…

By: Erik

Erik — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 06:12:27 +0000

I totally think Colin is a jackass.

By: kane

kane — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 19:09:33 +0000

i totally agree with Colin

By: The Problem with Groundbreaking Design Decisions

The Problem with Groundbreaking Design Decisions — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 10:13:35 +0000

[...] Breaking the mold is hard, you know what you’re good at, and what you can do. When taking on design gigs, the client often have an idea of what s/he wants, and anyone who’s been doing design freelance work know that some clients rely on you and trust your decisions to be warranted, while other micromanage and downright destroy your work with changes, additions and whatnot. Sure, they’re paying for it, it’s their problem, but designers know how frustrating this is. [...]

By: Firefox Wallpaper | Design Adaptations

Firefox Wallpaper | Design Adaptations — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 21:14:50 +0000

[...] the new year – time for something new. I read a great post the other day on Devlounge about breaking out of your mold. It was nothing I hadn’t heard before, but this time I actually put the tips into action. As [...]

By: 2008-01-01 - New Year Links Folder : Freelance Folder

2008-01-01 - New Year Links Folder : Freelance Folder — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 05:13:38 +0000

[...] Break Your Design Mold [...]

By: Colin

Colin — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 08:33:01 +0000

Isn’t this a site for and by designers? Designers don’t arbitrarily make design decisions to please themselves. This is what artists do. Design is calculated before it is creative. I believe in getting out of your style is a good idea, but only in a way that improves the effectiveness of your designs.

Rethink font usage. We all got our favorites, now try something different.

Could be a sound idea, unless what you know is the best choice for the given task. I don’t like the idea of rethinking, though. Type choices should always be thought of early on in the process. A lot of times though, an experienced designer will instantly know the right choice of type.

Web 2.0 i very fresh and clean. Well, screw it – let’s do something dark and musty!

A really stupid idea if, say, your target audience is middle-aged females with little-to-no experience using the Internet.

Change your use of images in your next design. Heavy users go light, and vice versa.

I pity the client whose designer takes this direction on her next design before reviewing the site’s goals.

Use colors you normally wouldn’t! Try new blends and schemes. Or do it just in black and white, whatever differs from what you normally do.

Or, use colors effectively to communicate with your site users, while maintaining visual brand identity.

By: yaitsfree

yaitsfree — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 14:04:58 +0000

I liked a few other designs you had implemented over here at devlounge. I was a fan of your previous layout more then the current. BUT this one is nice also.

Give me feed back on what you think about my front page layout for my website at:

http://www.yaitsfree.com

By: Cliff Stanford

Cliff Stanford — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 16:26:26 +0000

Funny reading this having just finished my first-ever Wordpress theme for my girlfriend's new blog at http://www.mmorpg-info.org/. By strange coincidence, I've done pretty much all of the things you suggested, as well as a flowing layout that degradates cleanly when viewed at a restricted width. I have to say I'm quite pleased with the result but would appreciated your and your readers' opinions on it.