On Thursday I was asked about what my favourite website was. Pretty broad question to which I could offer no answer. It plunged me into some deep thought about design and its flow and eventually I've emerged with an answer of sorts, or perhaps just more questions.
Still with me? Good.
Ok so, a wise man once said it's hard to make something out of nothing. We appropriate that phrase to a lot of different things, maybe it's just a cool from-scratch none composition piece, or maybe it's pushing the boundaries of the scripting language you're using to greater heights but there's one thing we never really think to say.
It's harder to make nothing out of something.
Let that sink in for a second and think back to layouts 101 for an example of what I mean. Golden ratios? The problem of choice? All these things discussed right the way up to Jool's final lecture (for now) hint at one thing: the key to good modern design isn't obvious complexity, but nuances and subtlety. We've come so far now we know what the brain likes before it's even drafted - from fonts, colours, spacing... Everything is contrived, formed, researched and remade to influence us on a subconscious level into liking it. Opinions are purposely tipped bias in favor of the works creator; and all by giving us as little as a soft blue and a serif font.
...and that is how you 'make nothing out of something.'
