Daniel Pink has it right about design being an important literacy in a world where we are able to publish so easily. To that end, I’ve been noticing that a lot of us, myself included, have been putting more and more photos and graphics in our posts. Many of us are also reading Kathy Sierra’s blog which always offers up some compelling graphics, ones, however, that seem a bit out of reach for my scarcely artistic brain.
So I need things like Thumbscrew (MAC only) which lets me take a picture, like this one of Tess, and in about a nanosecond give it just a bit of a twist to make it all artsy and stuff and, hopefully, enhance the design of this blog. (Watch out…that’s my kid.)
Now I know there is a danger of over-design here. (I know I’m on the verge of getting over-widgeted.) And I also know that many times vanilla is better than a whole bunch of flavors mashed together. Good thing my wife is a designer and has promised to kick me in the right brain if I get out of hand…
Thanks to John Pederson for the link.
I was tired of plain, boring web photo galleries lining everything up in rigid columns and rows. I needed something to break out of that and add a little random element to the presentation. I’m glad to see it getting such a positive reaction from people. Thanks!
Yeah, I always worry about how much is too much, or how little is too little. That’s quite an elusive balance, content and style.
Just wondering how often you get ‘kicked in the right brain’ these days…
I hate to say I told ya so, since I never did. Thanks to our blog’s guru, herself a visual artist and inveterate blogger, we’ve been putting out image rich blog posts since the get go. Not surprising if you consider that we work in an art library, but that shouldn’t be the deciding factor for including images. You are right to be wary of adding images for image’s sake alone. But feel free to push back when your ‘reviewer’ calls you on a design issue. If you want to build traffic to your site making images a part of the post add that little je-ne-sais-quoi.