Katrina Larsen: Design Student

I Love Typography Too

katrinalarsen — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 22:40:46 +0000

One of the other sites I was looking around on was I Love Typography http://ilovetypography.com/2008/01/02/good-web-typography/which starts off with a bold header professing their love for typography. I got the point, and kept exploring. I especially liked how one of the most recent posts was a list of nice websites based mainly on their use of typography. I like to think that I don’t over look this important aspect when working on a website, and it was nice to focus on the over all way that type was used instead of the technology and way that everything was pieced together. Don’t get me wrong I actually enjoy the technology and actually coding every once in a while, but it was nice to explore their list of typographically pleasing websites.One of their favorites that I explored even more was Words are Pictures http://www.wordsarepictures.co.uk/ At first I thought that it was a compilation of work from multiple artists, but it is all personal and commercial or commissioned work. I loved it all, and what got my interest was the letterpress, and whatever other ways he was printing his pieces. I am more and more interested in linoleum, woodblock, and letterpress printing from taking an image making class this semester. I also liked the cut paper, and vector artwork too. All in all very cool, So check it out.

A Couple Sites

katrinalarsen — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 22:40:39 +0000

I was looking around on a few sites today and yesterday. The first website I explored was curvy Corners http://www.curvycorners.net/examples.php. At first I must say that I was a little confused as to why this was something that could be useful since the same thing can be achieved visually by working with an image, and the code seemed a little confusing to me at first because I am not well versed in Javascript. Then I went back to the home page for the site, and right there they answered my questions. Curved or rounded corners can be applied “on the fly” as they said by using a div, and styling with a stylesheet. Once you have the Javascript downloaded you can just use it whenever you want. I also found a couple enhancements to it from a link right on curvy Corners. It seemed like there were a few problems with the provided javascript and IE (oh how we all love how IE gives us problems). These changes were made to work with Jquery (which I am still researching), and works much better with IE 6/7.All in all I think this was a fun little find, that I would probably try out sometime.

AIGA Rightminds on the Front Page

katrinalarsen — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 00:38:25 +0000

I was logging into my ferris account, when something caught my eye on the homepage. AIGA Rightminds was a featured link. They posted a video about our Ferris AIGA Rightminds group, including clips from our meetings, classes and interviews with Alison Stone, Kyle Harris, Nick Paulin, and a few others. I thought in general it was done really well, and liked the entire thing. I guess I did not know if anyone else had seen it, but I was surprised that I had never heard anything about it.I thought that they shed a good light on what we do, and why we do it. I find myself trying to explain my major, and my career choice to people around me. Check it out if you haven’t seen it before AIGA Rightminds Video

Changing Challenges

katrinalarsen — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 00:38:12 +0000

Watching the video of Khoi Vinh speaking at Denver made me think about designing for digital media more clearly. First I liked how he described designing as using control, and then described how designing for digital media is the complete opposite. I have always felt the strain when designing websites for figuring out every possible user experience, but I enjoyed how he described it. Good design is a solution, we have always been taught that, but I thought it was also interesting how he described design as a way to tell a story too. This seemed like a new idea to me. Designing for digital platforms he went on to say, is about BEHAVIOR, not control. In a sense, all control is handed over to the user, which opens up a whole entirely new set of problems that need solutions.I can only imagine what we will be trying to do in only a few years, especially after seeing the evolution of means of “controlling” the digital user’s experience. Telling the user to download a typeface before viewing the website seems absolutely ludicrous - because it is. But I can not blame these early digital designers because they were only experiencing the very beginning of a entirely new and different design platform. Who wouldn’t try to control and design a digital piece the same way they have been designing print pieces for their entire careers. Defining and exploring your user’s and their entire experience is critical.