Recent illustrations from the sketchbook of designer Lacey Johnston of Red Lace Design.
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| Artist Girl © Red Lace Design |
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| Computer Boy © Red Lace Design |
Red Lace Design : A Graphic + Web Design Studio's Blog
Monday, April 30, 2012
Friday, April 27, 2012
The Art of Minimalist Design
Minimalist design is an art and the beauty behind this style of design is truly a skill that many strive to perfect. To better understand minimalist design lets take a look at where it began and what has attributed to it's recent rise in popularity. Many experts say it is due to the year 2000 with which came Flash animations, Photoshop graphics with lots of detail and it's famous drop shadows, along with lots of clutter. So finally after all the noise on the web, sites that demanded focus in too many places at once and extremely non user-friendly layouts, users demand clean, simple design.
The key to minimalist website design is that nothing is on the website except for the things that absolutely need to be there, anything that is not essential to the sites goal is removed. No clutter, no confusion, no mess and you know what the site is about almost instantly after viewing it. A good designer is one who knows how to select only the few key elements, focus entirely on them and forget about the rest. There is no reason to fill a page and pack it full of content, just because you can. In fact, the less content on the page, the more likely all the content will be read. Where as the more content on the page, the more likely none of the content will be read. A good rule of thumb is to always think twice about what is really important for the site and what can be omitted, don't be afraid to leave out your entire life story on the 'About' page, just hit some key points instead.
A bonus of minimalist design is that with less elements on the site, the focus and attention goes to just those things, attention is not divided and those few key elements will be more likely to be done just right. Increasing the overall quality of the site and it's content because let's face it, if anything in a minimalist design isn't done right, it will stand out, and not in a good way.
What's with all the whitespace? Whitespace is a crucial element of minimalist design. Things need to be spaced evenly and be well balanced, whitespace is not to be frowned upon, it should be embraced. Every possible piece of real estate on a site does not need to have something on it, if it doesn't have a purpose and it doesn't get you closer to your websites goals, it should be omitted.
How minimalist should I go? You know your design has achieved its minimalist 'sweet spot' when there are no more elements you can remove without affecting the site's ability to accomplish its goals.
Interested in a minimalist website design? Contact Red Lace Design today to get started.
The key to minimalist website design is that nothing is on the website except for the things that absolutely need to be there, anything that is not essential to the sites goal is removed. No clutter, no confusion, no mess and you know what the site is about almost instantly after viewing it. A good designer is one who knows how to select only the few key elements, focus entirely on them and forget about the rest. There is no reason to fill a page and pack it full of content, just because you can. In fact, the less content on the page, the more likely all the content will be read. Where as the more content on the page, the more likely none of the content will be read. A good rule of thumb is to always think twice about what is really important for the site and what can be omitted, don't be afraid to leave out your entire life story on the 'About' page, just hit some key points instead.
A bonus of minimalist design is that with less elements on the site, the focus and attention goes to just those things, attention is not divided and those few key elements will be more likely to be done just right. Increasing the overall quality of the site and it's content because let's face it, if anything in a minimalist design isn't done right, it will stand out, and not in a good way.
What's with all the whitespace? Whitespace is a crucial element of minimalist design. Things need to be spaced evenly and be well balanced, whitespace is not to be frowned upon, it should be embraced. Every possible piece of real estate on a site does not need to have something on it, if it doesn't have a purpose and it doesn't get you closer to your websites goals, it should be omitted.
How minimalist should I go? You know your design has achieved its minimalist 'sweet spot' when there are no more elements you can remove without affecting the site's ability to accomplish its goals.
Interested in a minimalist website design? Contact Red Lace Design today to get started.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
3rd Place for 'Best Web Design'
Red Lace Design and it's client, Oregon Rain Harvesting, have been awarded 3rd place for 'Best Web Design' in the 2012 About.com Readers' Choice Awards. Red Lace Design designed the logo and website for Oregon Rain Harvesting during 2011. Congratulations Oregon Rain Harvesting!
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| Awarded 3rd place for 'Best Web Design' |
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