Hillarious.
Posts Tagged ‘Web 2.0’
The Future is Now
Thursday, March 11th, 2010Instant Design!
Monday, March 8th, 2010We have a running joke in the office that to make something relatively boring look relatively cool, all you need to do is add some drop shadows and rounded corners. A few of those and some gradients and viola! Instant Web2.0 design!
Take for example, this little page I made for the homepage of one of our servers.
It’s basically a bunch of boring text, and my assignment was to give a Seton Hall feel and style to it. I didn’t want to look all plain and boring, so I used the “instant design web2.0 algorithm” – I slapped some gradients, drop shadows, and rounded corners on it and called it a day.
Well, according to this post I just read on Web Designer Wall, CSS3 is going to include options for rounded corners, drop shadows, and alpha tinting. Instant design just got a whole lot easier and the current web2.0 designs trends will now probably be around for some time to come. Gradients and drop shadows and the 3 bucket model to your heart’s content.
Not to fear though, you can count on good ole Snailbites here to bring back the Whitespace Revolution. Viva la Whitespace!
Creativity
Sunday, March 7th, 2010I’m going to get on my soapbox for a little bit, and take it back to Vintage Snailbites.
Something that really concerns me about this new generation, is its lack of creativity. As a dancer, I see this alot at the events that I go to. There’s an extreme lack of originality amongst dancers. Everyone looks like a carbon copy of each other. Style and flavor are thrown out in favor of what “oohs and ahhs” the crowd.
I always believed that dance should be an expression of yourself. If you are a funny, silly guy, that should come out on the dance floor. If you’re an aggressive, strong willed guy, that comes out too. Dance, like any art, is an extension of who you are as a person, not an extension of who someone you see on You Tube.
As a musician, seeing kids who can smoke me in Guitar Hero, but can’t play more than a few chords kinda bothers me. It’s like we’re dictating to kids how to create music, and praising them for that. But again, shouldn’t music be another form of self-expression? You see it everywhere, even in Hollywood. Most of blockbuster action films are remakes, tweaked ideas from other blockbusters, or live versions of comic books.
Originality is out the window! It’s all about making money, rather than being a true artist, in whatever discipline. That’s why I keep Snailbites the way I do. I could go on and on with gradients, drop shadows, textured backgrounds… etc… but for now I’m sticking to whitespace. Whitespace is not a dirty word. And square corners are not a design flaw.
For you artists out there, keep being true to yourself. Express your art from your soul, and not from what anybody says. I will try to do the same. But if you ever get lost in it, remember you can always reset and come back to simplicity. Whitespace is awesome!