Sometimes, as designers, the world can suddenly lose it’s magic; advertisements become less distant, you begin to recognize fonts on boxes of cereal, color choices all seem cliche, and catch phrases linger in your head all day. They call it the designer’s eye. It can sneak up on you if you’re not ready for it, and, like me — you’re favorite amatuer web designer — it takes you totally by surprise. The distressing part is that afterwards there is a haunting feeling that the more you take in, the more everything remains the same. Like a drug addict desperately trying to recreate that first perfect high, I browse through pages and pages of sites, of tutorials, of designers, of art. What I’m looking for isn’t really inspiration, it’s that fleeting feeling of beautiful discovery.
But, what if it’s me?
What could I do to bring back that feeling of boundless curiosity that got me into this whole web design fling in the first place?
- I suppose a good place to start would be to stop looking at the web as if it were an old friend, someone I had once liked but now looked upon with judgement.
- Secondly, I must stop thinking that simply because I was one of many who fell into love with the medium at the beginning, I hold some sort of special say as to what works, what is beautiful, or what should be done. The web is as old as oldest site, and as young as the latest design, it belongs to no one.
- And last, I must begin to learn from others, from those who create beautiful sites to those create elegant solutions. These people aren’t my competitors, but my fellow artists.
To this end, I am announcing a weekly feature here on my blog. It will be called: Lessons. Among other unforseen things, it will consist mostly of website design reviews, as I try my best to learn all I can from those around me in this extraordinary medium we call the world wide web. Be expecting the first installment of Lessons in a few days.
And to all my brilliant peers in the design community: thank you for inspiring me once again.
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Posted
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
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Life, etc...
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