News in a Poster format

While browsing antique poster shops for a color scheme, I came across this wondeful poster by Otto Baumberger. It's from 1928, yet it looks totally contemporary! Poster information: Neue Zurcher Zeitung, 1928,35.5" x 50.25", Lithograph

Seguy Palette #1

Using a floral print by Seguy as a starting point, I created a hexadecimal palette by using Photoshop's eyedropper tool to sample the colors. I then created a new color palette image in Photoshop with hexadecimal colors.
Pochoir or silkscreen prints are a little easier than photographs to use in a color analysis. There is no tonal gradation, just large flat color fields.

1930s Color Palette

I adore the print work of French artist, Eugene Seguy. Most of his pieces were done as book illustrations. In looking at his work, I was inspired to do a color check using I Like Your Colors, on a gallery that sells his work, Leonard Fox Rare Books. Below is the returned color palette. This is good, but it is missing the neutralizing tan on the front page, which is actually a photo. In using Dreamweaver to do a color analysis, it turns out that the hexadecimal color is #A59267

I could do this analysis in Fireworks, Photoshop or any other photo manipulation program. I just happened to have Dreamweaver open. The image below was created as a table in Dreamweaver, then I took a screenshot of it and saved that as a jpg. I did try to import the table into Blogger, but Blogger rewrote the table code in bizarre css that wouldn't render background colors.To the right, is the colors palette generated by Like-Your-Colors. I find that the white : color ration has too much white to make an effective color decision in this dark, rich toned scheme.

Color Inspiration

In design, it is a good idea to keep a sketchbook of what is inspiring you at the moment. Sketchbooks are sloppy. They are works-in-progress. I want to start keeping a design sketchbook of colors that inspire me, in preparation for (potentially) reworking my blog color scheme.

First clipping from: Marcy Tilton's website
Sensational Color has an article declaring that red and green are the colors of vibrancy and freshness in India's markets.

Beauty and Obscurity

344 is a design studio and the online home of artist, Stefan Bucher. My daughter got me interested in his films of himself drawing monsters.

His studio page, 344, is fascinating as well - but it has just about the most unclear web site navigation that I have ever encountered in a web design. The good news is that once I figured it out, I was amused, rather than irritated.

Give it a shot - see if you smile or grind teeth.

Quote of the day: Web Attention Spans

Design Meltdown - Webservices Part 2:

Some great quotes on web design and the need for clarity:

"Short attention spans

Web users have incredibly short attention spans. I believe this can be particularly true of web developers in search of tools to solve particular problems. I know that I grow incredibly impatient when I land on a site and can't figure out it's purpose. So designers of such sites need to make it's purpose instantly obvious. Is it to build forms? Times sheets? Polls? Why the heck am I looking at your site."

Another great quote, relevant to this week's studies:
"Branding
Just as with any other product branding is of the utmost importance. One can no doubt go to countless versions of the same applications. Making yourself memorable is a good thing. This is where clever concepts that make your site stick in the brain are great."

BBC's Fifteen Web Principles

Below are my favorite principles from the list,
The BBC's Fifteen Web Principles. The others are good suggestions too, but these resonate with what a good web site should be/do.

1. Build web products that meet audience needs: anticipate needs not yet fully articulated by audiences, then meet them with products that set new standards. (nicked from Google)

2. The very best websites do one thing really, really well: do less, but execute perfectly. (again, nicked from Google, with a tip of the hat to Jason Fried)

3. Do not attempt to do everything yourselves: link to other high-quality sites instead. Your users will thank you. Use other people's content and tools to enhance your site, and vice versa.

6. The web is a conversation. Join in: Adopt a relaxed, conversational tone. Admit your mistakes.

8. Make sure all your content can be linked to, forever.

11. Consistent design and navigation needn't mean one-size-fits-all: Users should always know they're on one of your websites, even if they all look very different. Most importantly of all, they know they won't ever get lost.

14. Link to discussions on the web, don't host them: Only host web-based discussions where there is a clear rationale