Who can forget my bullish prediction that purple would be a design trend in 2010? Well, as it happened, Pantone—the self-appointed “global authority on color”—respectfully disagreed, giving their nod to Turquoise instead. To be fair, Pantone’s picks tend to lean toward fashion, home, and cosmetics. (This year’s shade—Honeysuckle—is likely a bit too pretty-in-pink for that [...]
Author Archive: Todd
Typography Tenets: More Design Tips for Non-designers
You’ve worked hard to create a singular voice; visual focus is just as important. Here are some quick guidelines to avoid common font mistakes and help keep your docs looking pro.
On The Importance Of Font Selection
Cleveland Cavaliers’ coach Dan Gilbert was understandably upset when Lebron James snubbed his hometown. He pulled no punches in his very public letter to Cavs fans, posted front and center on the team page on nba.com. Except when he chose to typeset his post in the most mocked font of all time: Comic Sans.
Context Between Content: The Importance Of White Space
You may have heard the proverb: “Do not speak unless you can improve the silence.” When it comes to design, silence is the empty—or negative—space in your layout.
Living on the grid: Design tips for non-designers
When it comes to design, there are a few simple principles you can follow to vastly improve the results. One such guideline is the grid-based layout.
Creative block? Try a worthwhile dilemma.
One of the challenges of working as a designer is that creative muses don’t respect business hours. Sometimes a brilliant idea strikes at bedtime; inconvenient perhaps, but still usually pleasant. More troubling is when you’re on deadline and can’t find inspiration. Every creative has her or his own techniques for breaking the block. One of [...]
Design Trend for 2010: Purple
Calling trends is classic chicken-egg stuff: does a tendency only become a trend when one labels it so? The line is thin and grey enough that by the time most trends are “predicted,” they’re actually simply being reported. But the stakes are low here, so let’s play pundit. Over the years, I’ve gone through a [...]
Want to see your company’s future? Show me the wiki.
Wikipedia rules the Internet. It’s a more popular information source than CNN and Yahoo News and, with more than three million articles, its pages appear in top-ten search results well over 90% of the time (some reports put the figure as high as 97%). Not bad for a website that’s existed for a mere eight [...]
