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Recently, I’ve noticed something. There are a ton of “web designers.” No, really! There’s a lot of people who design for the web nowadays! More and more people are discovering for themselves the joy of making something for all the internet to enjoy.

So what’s up with the title of this post?

Here’s the problem I see. It’s so, so easy to call yourself a “web designer.” Just print up a few business cards, right? Well, sort of.

I would argue that the way to actually be a web designer, and not just say you are, is to be a part of the web design community. No, to me it’s not when you’re first time you design a website, or even the first time somebody hires you to design a website.

Being a designer in this day in age means engaging in the community, not just standing on the outside, watching. You can design as many websites as you like, but you’re not really a web designer until you actively decide to participate our little patch of the internet.

This is how I see it: any designer that doesn’t participate is in a sort of limbo. A limbo where no one really cares about what you say.

In this way, web design is a gated community. Although it’s a different type of gated community, one where everyone has the key. All you have to do is open the gate.

Now, if you are not a designer, first of all, why are you even here? Second, you’re probably thinking, “So what?” But let’s face it, if you’re here reading this blog, then you’re probably a designer.

There’s a reason that Adobe chose these defaults. It’s because they look good.

Continuing from this logic, you might be shocked, even offended, that I would even consider using the default typography that our favorite graphics app gave me. There’s a reason, though, that Adobe chose these defaults. It’s because they look good.

As designers, we have this insatiable obsession with being unique. It probably sounds ridiculous to you that I would propose this as a bad thing, but sometimes it really is.

Does our obsession with distinguishing ourselves go as far as to refuse the default options even if they fit with our design? In the situation I described earlier, the out-of-the-box typography blended well with the design I was working with, so I kept it. Later, I ended up tweaking the tracking a little, but fundamentally it was still the same as it was when I first plonked my finger down on the beloved “T” shortcut.

As much as our desire to be unique defines us as designers, it also cripples our ability to adapt to situations where we might not have the customization options we require. A blog, for instance, might not have the settings you want to display this title just right on the homepage. Too bad. We make do.

Man, I’m talking an awful lot about us and we, aren’t I? Can I just talk about me for a second?

I’ve always been one of those guys who immediately resets all the defaults. Be it a business card or web page, I simply loved knocking down everything and starting from scratch.

the default options are there to build upon, not destroy.

Recently, though, I’ve come to a realization: the default options are there to build upon, not destroy. They’re there as a starting point, from which you can reach your destination. Adobe has given you the building blocks, it’s high time you used them to make something beautiful.

What I’m asking isn’t crazy. All I want is for you to turn around and recognize the fact that defaults are there to help you, not hinder you. Reach out, and embrace them, for defaults are your friends.

Now, this isn’t to say that all the technology we have access to today is a bad thing, just that people had to find more ways to be creative before the technology existed. Obviously people now still have to find fairly unique ways to create some effects, but overall, it’s much simpler today.

It’s not that I think people are less talented today, just that designers as a community have lost the fundamental concepts of design. Color, shape, balance. All the things that make a design work, whether in print or on the screen. People have been tricked into thinking that web design is somehow different in its concepts from print. It’s not. The same fundamental ideas that make a design great in print are still what makes a design great on the web.

In order to be heard in this over-crowded industry, you have to respect the underlying rules of design, as well as add a little something of your own. Since the beginning of web design, the overall quality of the design work being put out has gone down significantly, with only the very occasional original idea appearing.

so,

Is this the end of good design?

Yes.

In recent months, I’ve observed that designers everywhere are upping their game. They’re noticing that in order to be seen in our industry, you need to be a trend setter. More and more unique designs and styles are emerging every day, and I think it’s great.

Designers are bucking the trends that have been followed for years, and started to experiment with original styles, all while conforming to the essential design ideas.

If this is the end of good design, I’m starting to wonder…

Is this the beginning of great design?

Yes.

I think it is.

Off topic: This was the first art-directed post on The Design Gnome. What did you think? Is there anything we could do better next time? Leave us a comment down below so we can improve for the next one!

In lieu of a normal post this week, I want to talk a little bit about the new design, my process, and what to expect in the future. Let’s get started!

New Mascot

The first thing I did when I started the redesign was re-illustrate the mascot. I started completely from scratch, this time giving him legs and make him pop with more liberal use of gradients and shadows. I also toned down the colors to a more subtle, gnome-like palette.

Not much more to add I guess. I’m happy with how the new mascot turned out, and I think he fits well in the new website.

Typography

The new idea of the site was to be very minimalistic and typography-focused. I stripped away every element that didn’t have to be there, and decided to use color sparingly, as well as for emphasis (header, thumbnails, etc.). I primarily stuck with the same green present in the last design, but put it over white instead of dark brown. This gave the color more punch, and seemed to give it more breathing room.

The main focus of the redesign was readability.

Another focus of the redesign was readability. I turned all the body copy into large, easy to read 16px Helvetica. For the titles I decided on the bold League Gothic to make them stand out from the rest of the content.

With the two fonts chosen, it was a simple matter to use them throughout the site using consistent sizing throughout.

New Post View

Arguably the biggest change for the new design is the completely re-imagined post view.

I wanted it to be very unique, so I chose to have two distinct columns inside the view. With the post content not wrapping around the meta information, it drastically reduced the maximum width of the content. Knowing this, it was a hard decision to make, but in the end, I think I made the right choice.

Leaving the left column mostly empty leaves it free to be filled with stuff like blockquotes, overflowing images, and code samples.

/* Hey, look at me, I'm a sample bit of code! */
/* I can be in both the left AND right columns.  */
#sidebar {
 width: 50px;
 height: 500px;
}

By doing this, the left column became more than a meta section, it became a sort of second content section.

Threaded Comments

Like always, I implement a feature years after its release.

In this new site, I have finally buckled down and included threaded comments, a feature that has been available since WordPress 2.7. There’s not really much else to say about it really, aside from that it was ridiculously easy to implement.

HTML5

More of a behind the scenes thing, but nonetheless interesting: the new design was marked up in HTML5.

The new elements in HTML5 allowed me to mark up the content of my site using beautiful, semantic code.

While I didn’t make use of any fancy canvas effects, the new elements in HTML5 allowed me to mark up the content of my site using beautiful, semantic code. This is only my second site using HTML5, but it is so, so easy to get started, I recommend that everyone start using HTML5 today!

Responsive Design

Try to resize your browser. Go ahead, I dare ya!

If you’re using Firefox, Safari, or Chrome, you’re being treated to a beautifully responsive design, AKA one that reorganizes itself to fit the size of the browser’s viewport.

For this, I have to thank Ethan Marcotte, who indirectly held my hand through my first responsive design through his many, excellent articles on the subject.

What to Expect

The new Design Gnome heralds a new era in this blog.

Not only is this a redesign, the new Design Gnome heralds a new era in this blog (or “web publication” if your prefer).

I’d love to hear your feedback on the new look, so please leave those in comments.

For one, instead of putting up two or three short posts a week, I’m going to cut back to one or two really detailed posts per week. In addition, within the coming few weeks, I’m going to be posting the first art directed post up, so stay tuned for that.

Finally, I’m now actively looking for guest writers. If you would like to write for an up-and-coming blog, please contact us through the contact form.

This is pretty much what happens to me every time I try to get something done, and it really bothers me. However, it wasn’t until recently that I had an epiphany. I could work offline.

Since then, my productivity has skyrocketed. With nothing to distract me and pull me into my web browser, I can devote 100% of my attention to the task at hand.

What’s the point of my tale, you ask? Well, my point here is that in a world with such connectivity, even the concept of being offline for even a moment scares me. Perhaps it’s because my job requires me to be online so much, it can be a strange, even surreal experience to not be connected.

Recently I took a 10-day trip to Ecuador. I don’t know if any of you have ever been there but it’s a wonderful place, with the exception of the cities and roads. Anyway, on this trip I chose, with great reluctance, to leave my laptop behind.

I have family over there, and they’re fairly well off by Ecuador standards, so they had a computer I could use to check email, etc. I checked it every now and then, but overall I spent drastically less time using the internet.

It was a refreshing experience, and while I was happy to return home to a open browser window, my perspective had changed.

Now, I’m not going to sit here and tell you that by only checking my email once a day for 10 days changed my entire world view, I will tell you that my perspective on the web had changed.

I still clock in around the same time on the computer every day, but I do one thing differently now.

When I go to start some work, I reach over and unplug my ethernet wire. Why? Because being offline for a few hours isn’t the end of the world, in fact, it’s the start of the real world.

Designers everywhere are amazed about how popular and often-used the site is given the amazingly simple and some would say, unusable design. The fact remains that it is one of the most oft-visited sites on the web, regardless of its design and usability (or lack thereof).

Even the source code is dated! Tables for layout, spacer cells, the works! This website goes against everything you are taught about coding practices, design, usability, UX, everything.

However, as much as I’d like to bash on it, Craigslist isn’t the topic of this article. Today I want to talk about how web and print designers alike have a hard time questioning popular design.

What do I mean by popular design? Well…

A popular design is a design that is used and visited a lot, often by designers. I’m talking about sites like Craigslist and YouTube, sites that have such great content, that in reality they could use any design they wanted, and people will still visit it.

For me, YouTube is one such site. I visit it so often, that I get used to its many little quirks. Not that it’s a bad design, it’s just quite simple. When YouTube revealed its new channel design, many cried in outrage. It’s not that it was badly designed, it’s just that it was different, and many didn’t like it.

Eventually, all the buzz died down and people who didn’t like the new layout began to accept that it wasn’t going to change back anytime soon. However, consider someone who’s never been on the internet before. They visit a YouTube channel and for whatever reason decide that they don’t like the layout.

While I’m not sure what percentage of people have never been to YouTube, I’m sure that this situation would be sort of a Surreal experience for a long-time hater of the layout. They’ve long forgotten about it, but here comes along someone who doesn’t know not to trust it. It would be confusing I’m sure.

Alright, time to bring it all together.

Why is it that we have a hard time judging designs that are very popular, or designed by a so-called “rockstar designer?” It’s still a design, and should be treated as such.

Look around you. If you’re reading this on The Design Gnome, then there’s a good chance you don’t like its design. Well neither do I. And I designed it. Soon I will be relaunching The Design Gnome with a different Mascot, and a completely different design. But don’t trust it, because after all, I suck.

If we take this argument and reduce it to its simplest form, basically what I’m asking is: does design matter to the average user? Yes. They may not realize it, but the design of a product or website is what drives them to click on a link, or to press a particularly tactile button. Good design isn’t noticed.

If we zoom in a little more, if you will, you can see that typography is no different. Chances are, a user won’t particularly notice an excellent font choice, and that’s how you know you got it right. If a user doesn’t notice the typography, that means that it fits naturally with the style of the overall design.

The average user will only notice typography if it’s particularly unreadable or ugly. It’s the same with a bad design. Only a particularly bad design will be noticed by the average, non-designer user.

Of course, with all this talk of the average user, I have to talk a little bit about the non-average users. AKA the designers.

Chances are good that if you are reading this, you are either a designer or at least have an idea of why design is important. This assumption being true, I can also guess that you probably care about typography, or at the very least understand its benefits.

In the designer vs non-designer split, you’d probably land squarely in the designer area.

So I’ve proven why typography matters to the average user, or the non-designers. Now, the critical question is: Designers, do you care about typography?

I guarantee that at some point in your web design career you will be asked to redesign an existing site. It’s a fact of life in the web industry: more often than not a new website will simply be an iteration of an old website.

So how do you approach this mammoth task? You’ll not have to wonder long, as here are 5 different ways to approach a redesign.

1. A Redesign

The most basic. A redesign is simply slapping a new face on an old site. Fundamentally the structure stays the same, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

This approach is ideal if you’re happy with the content and structure of the website, but you just feel that the design itself is a little out of date.

2. A Restructuring

As the name suggests, a restructuring involves pretty much leaving the design the same, but changing the way the content of the site is structured.

If you’re happy with your design, but you feel that the structure and flow of your site could be improved, then this is the approach for you.

3. A Rethinking

More drastic than the redesign and restructuring before it, a rethinking really is stopping and revisiting the purpose of your site, and making changes to the design, content, and structure individually to insure that the site stays true to its revised goal.

A rethinking is the web design equivalent of a mid-life crisis, albeit a good, constructive one.

4. A Realignment

This topic has been discussed by many designers in detail, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good one. Realignment involves looking back and remembering the original goal of the site and then making changes to the structure and content to stay true to that original goal.

But it can be so much more than that.

A realignment can also take into consideration the changes that have occurred in the web since the original site was launched.

5. A Rebranding

The most design oriented of the five, a rebranding involves redesigning every bit of your brand. Be this logo, website, business card, letterhead or all of the above, the rebrand is the best way to completely change the way you market the website or business.

Mix and Match

Whether you just want to update some content, or completely re-imagine your site, there’s something here for everyone. However, there can never be one option to fit everyone, just like everything in life, you can take a little bit here and there to make a good match for your website.

I wish you good luck in the redesigning of whatever website you choose, and I hope that however you choose to approach it, it turns out well!

Right now we have two great posts for your viewing pleasure, Form vs. Structure, and How to Build a Lightsaber (with CSS). Tomorrow I’ll be putting up the first inspiration post, 50 Great Examples of Depth in Web Design. I hope you enjoy them!

In other news, to celebrate our launch, I am giving away one Dribbble invite. That’s right folks, you, yes you, could soon be a happy owner of a Dribbble account! To enter, simply follow The Design Gnome on Twitter, then comment on this post with your twitter username and a link to a portfolio piece that you think best exhibits your abilities.

Just to be clear, this is not a random drawing! I will go through all the comments and chose the person with the piece I like best. So leave a comment! Couldn’t hurt, right? The contest will end this Friday, June 18. Obviously: only one comment per person.