I don’t miss a day without spending at least 30 minutes reading the latest articles in Smashing Magazine (an online magazine for web design and development). This morning, I read this article: The Dying Art of Design. There’s a lot of good stuff in this article.
I recently gave two interviews to web design students, and both asked how I set myself (and my designs) apart from all the crap out there. This article talks a lot about designers’ dependence on freebies, tutorials, and plainly ripping off other websites. That’s not design – that’s a copy machine. Working on a design should hurt your brain. It should take time. Research. Inspiration. Lots of sketching. That’s called the design process, and it’s what people pay the big bucks for.
If you’re a designer who depends on templates, then you’re not a designer. You’re a hack. And if you’re a client who just wants your website to look like everything else out there, then get yourself a template. But don’t kid around – that’s not web design. And definitely don’t call me, because I won’t help you with that crap.
Three sidenotes:
1. I’m not trying to be mean. Or harsh. But come on people… if web designers can’t make the point for good design, then we’re all going to hell.
2. I found it ridiculously ironic that in the middle of the “Dying Art of Design” article, there was a giant ad for “create a free website”. Which is exactly what we’re trying to get people to avoid. Sigh.
3. All of this talk reminds me of this gorgeous plea from Jaime Calabro at 72 Ave:
