I like to be flashy, but minimalism is important to me. This type of design is popular among photographers, artists, and fashion labels. The stark, unassuming nature of the design provides a blank canvas upon which content becomes the absolute focus.
Remember me? Skeuomorphic design dominated the late 2000's - early 2010's. Skeuomorphic is a funny word which essentially means design which attempts to mimic the physical world. Skeuomorphic design is dominated by gratuitous use of shading and lighting, and in more extreme cases, texture and graphics to make a digital product resemble it's physical counterpart.
When designers felt Skeuomorphic design was becoming too overbearing, there was a large shift in the design world towards stripping out excess shading, lighting, and other affordances associated with the previous trend. This left us with "Flat" design. To me, flat design means focusing on creating clean and usable interfaces without using visual flair as a crutch.
This is everything you should never do. Poor hierarchy, misuse of typefaces, dark UI patterns, no consideration for mobile devices, obnoxious color pairings, awful contrast, distracting elements. Please don't make me do this stuff.
Seriously, .
Liberal use of primary colors, larger type, and colored, illustrative, iconography are a few of the things that make this design feel whimsical or even a bit childish.
I hesitate to use primarily dark color schemes -- black-on-white text is easier to read. However, black is a powerful tool. A darker grey balance can evoke feelings of sleek, modern exclusivity and mystery. Dark schemes can be useful when creating a product or website meant to be a counterpart to an already existing property. I also think a darker UI is a better fit when working on websites that deal primarily with video/other media. This mimics our expectation that video/other media appears on a black background, as it does on our TV sets.
Serif typefaces are seldom used in web design, and for good reason. Sans-serif fonts are friendlier and have been proven to be easier to read on screens, especially at small sizes. However, when attempting to target certain markets or create a sense of luxury, a design using serifs can give the impression of a high-end restaurant menu. Furthermore, liberal white space, thin strokes, and reserved use of pastel shades give this design a feminine energy.
Swiss design (aka International Typographic Style) is a classic style which began to emerge in the 1920's, and is still influencing designers to this day. In Swiss design, typography is king. Common hallmarks of Swiss design include large, geometric typefaces (most ubiquitously Helvetica), rigid alignment to a multi-column grid, and carefully-placed flush-left text. Color is used liberally, but usually no more than one color is used in a piece.
Originating from architecture, the term "Brutalism" refers to design that is intentionally raw and unpolished. In the context of web design, this usually means rejecting commmon user interface patterns in favor of presenting a design so aggressive it almost shocks the user into sticking around to enjoy the content.
But hey, if it's not your thing, I understand. , there's plenty more.
UI Engineer
Click on a letter of my name
About Me
I'm a creative individual who adheres to a fluid product workflow and ideology that removes friction between design and development. I believe that empowering designers to author code can help to promote an ecosystem of cross-functional collaboration throughout the product iteration cycle. Designers who understand code are better equipped to confidently interact with engineering, and engineers who are talented in design are more empathetic concerning the motivation behind design requests.
This is my personal design process and the one I'm most experienced working with in a team setting - it's a philosophy that I believe in strongly, and something I'd love to bring to new companies and products in the future.
My History
In many ways my work has been in gradual motion towards deeper understanding of engineering-focused skills. I began my career as a traditional print designer, working on typesetting and layout design, moved towards becoming an expert in CSS and web UI, and in more recent years have developed entire full-stack applications. Despite the technology I'm using, visual design must remain at the core of everything that I do - aesthetics, usability, and bringing joy and wonder into the world through the visual medium is important to me.
My Tools
Here's an incomplete listing of some tools I use to get stuff done.
Typescript
Typescript was initially a hard sell for me, but lately I have started to feel like the type-checker is more enabling than restricting, which is a really nice place to be.
Tailwind
Lately I'm using Tailwind for my CSS concerns. I have a deep history with CSS, from vanilla, to SCSS, to developing my own frameworks - I still like rolling my own design systems with SCSS a lot, but Tailwind is the least bad CSS design system I've used.
React/NextJS
My recent work has been full-stack development projects using React/NextJS. This has enabled me with greater control over the entire user experience, from design to databases.
Figma
While I prefer to use a code first approach to design for my personal projects. I have experience using Figma when working with other designers and then realizing those designs in code.
Adobe Creative Suite
I cut my teeth as a designer on typesetting with Adobe InDesign. Adobe products aren't always the tool I reach for right away, but I know how to get things done across the suite of Adobe visual design products.