Cram.

Filed under: IB, Textures, Website
January 16, 2010
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Hey guys, I have no time to banter or blog right now – I’m in the midst of exams pretty much right now. So I’ll see you guys in a couple of weeks. To anyone out there who has sent the site an e-mail, I will respond in two weeks (again, I apologize). During this cram session, I was able to make some new textures – use them, but don’t abuse them. :P

TexturesTextures
(Proceed to the ultimate texture experience of your life.)

P.S. to any affiliates/blogroll-ers who are somehow insulted by my lack of correspondence, well, academic success totally pwns that! You know it’s true.

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Why Blog?

Filed under: Dear Internet, Lollygag, Website
January 2, 2010
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I sometimes ask myself why I spend hours thinking about what I’m going to write on my blog, and then spend even more tediously revising to its perfection. It’s fascinating that we seem to value what complete strangers, people we haven’t met and probably will never meet, think. Let me re-phrase that: it’s fascinating that we seem to put our utmost effort in producing blogs, writing, or whatever to total strangers. If we’re unlucky, our thoughts, rants, or random puttering will never be read by anyone except for a few passing spam-bots. As you know, if we are fortunate to have others take a few minutes in their life to stop by and regard our thoughts whether positively or negatively, we are suddenly inspired to write, document, and/or express more. Why do we become preoccupied with something that doesn’t seem like reality? I mean, when you turn off those computers or unplug that internet router, don’t you feel different from what you are “online”? This has nothing to do with being fraud or living a “double-life”, what I mean is, don’t you feel it’s easier to be you? Despite how cliché this comes across, I sometimes feel that it’s true; we’re most satisfied of ourselves when we are truly alone. It has nothing to do with isolation, alienation, and such – well, maybe just a little. And think about it: all of the glory and joy we feel when we blog or sky the limits on web is somewhat pretentious and hypothetical – most of us, acknowledge this too, as if this constructed world was intended.

I don’t know why exactly, I spend most of my time hiding from the outside world. Whether it is to improve on skills, ignore the harsh realities, or to simply try something new, I know somehow that I haven’t wasted my time.

Why do you blog?

Glow
(Let’s get movin’ into action!)

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Trends of 2009

Filed under: Modish
December 30, 2009
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Two thousand and nine, 2009, or MMIX – the international year of astronomy, natural fibres, and unofficially, random celebrity deaths. It’s the last of the 2000s; a decade that brought us a storm of manufactured pop acts, advancements in television, media, internet, and gaming, and a little international diplomacy here and there. 2009 has been a relatively calm year in the world of web and graphic design, but as always, there have trends that either made us go “WOW” or “Whoa?!”. Welcome to another annual edition of Modish, a convenient sub-section of fleurchild.com that puts the “what” in “wtf, are these trends?”.

Full Page Design

Never before has the x-axis been so utilized in layout design. You’ve seen it – whether it was in header design, footer design, or both designs. This style of layout design creates a “fuller” look on the a web page, without having to over-complicate the graphic design. It’s clean, browser-friendly, and simple to pull off. Full Page Design is commonly be seen in action with a repeating, patterned header background alongside a center header with basic typography. But, I’m not going to lie, its common and generic manifestation has probably become the most unoriginal and annoying. Most of the websites I’ve seen that have utilized this trend seem to all have used a “cookie-cutter” template that lacks derivatives or originality. Come on people, play around with shapes, the style of “typography” or font placement…anything! Perhaps this growing trend lends itself from the WordPress growing phenomenon of themes. Who knows? We will continue to see more of it and its derivations in the future.

Typography

Typography is always an underlying trend in web and graphic design. It should be clean, elegant, and should enhance visitor experience (cough, cough, browser friendly). Unlike typical graphic design or logo design, typography serves truly serves dual roles of web and graphic. Don’t underestimate this “art” form, it isn’t as easy to pull off as it may be to render. More specifically in header design, we’ve seen a influx in the use of embossing typography (or letter-pressed), font replacement through sIFR for instance, and typography-created introduction blurbs (perhaps it will be integrated more in header design in 2010?). No longer are we satisfied alone with Verdana, Times New Roman, Arial, and/or Georgia. Not only should our graphic design be “customized”, so does your web design. Creating that seamless flow from graphic design to web design in a web page has now become the “it” thing. But, don’t endanger yourself of “poor design” by over-abusing textural or overlay blending with font! Also, don’t go too font crazy by using unapproachable, illegible novelty fonts! Keep the design simple, use those simple tools with discretion: emboss, glow, shadow, etc.

Logo Design

Another underlying trend in the world of internet arts, logo design has been utilized more with more intricate typography and graphic design. No longer only a 2D form of promotion, logo design has taken more of a “shape” this year. “Origami”-like layering has been popular this year in both logo design and layout design. Intricate, vivid, 2D or 3D geometric designs have been quite common this year also with increased popularity of vector design in Illustrator.

In the “teen” crowd of design, logo design is somewhat inhibited in icon design. However, icon design can be rather restrictive because of its smaller dimensions. I’ve noticed that most of the icons these designers create follow a slight “cookie-cutter” technique, i.e., texture overlay (usually some kind of dodgy light ray or orb), an abstractly-cut, offset rectangle, and some song lyrics from a group claiming to be legitimately indie plastered over the rectangle tilted at 45 degrees. Don’t get me wrong, this routine design can be okay on the eyes and charming like a frolicking fairy, but it is lacking.

Bohemian, arabesque designs (the ones with intricate flower patterns and swirls) has been a must for designers who don’t shy away from textured or patterned backgrounds – it also has become the alternative to grungy, vintage, and/or avant-garde designs (which have at the most part put the cringe in cringe-worthy because of the designer’s desperate attempts). I’m sure you’ve all come across flowery or vintage swirl brushes at least once this year! My personal suggestion in implementing these brushes in design: use them, don’t abuse them. Collages can be downright nauseous when unity and balance are overthrown too much with brushes such as these. As well, try not to drain out your colour palette/scheme too much – pastel colours can be detrimental. Most people use a muted gray background, and it usually works. However, a black background is an ambitious move – I haven’t really seen boho-arabesque designs on a black background that has been executed nicely. This perhaps is suggestive to the fact that these types of designs are not meant to be high contrast. It would probably work if the colours were more solid than blended.

As you can see, 2009 has really been the year of graphic design more than web design despite last year (or at least I believe so). In 2010, will graphic design overpower web design once again in terms of trends and relevance? Only time will tell!

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