Recently, I’ve been boning up on the principles of mobile first and responsive web design. I’ve read Ethan Marcotte’s book, Responsive Web Design and also almost through with Luke Wroblewski’s book Mobile First. So far, I’ve built two websites using responsive techniques and let me tell you, all the reading in the world doesn’t prepare […]
Should designers be coders? (v2.0)
I’ve talked about this in the past on this blog. I was reminded of this debate from a past professor who re-blogged a post by Frank Chimero. So, should designers be coders? The answer is, “Yes, to an extent.” I say ‘to an extent’, because we can’t expect a web designer to be able to […]
GOP Candidates & the Obama Design Aesthetic
I couldn’t help but notice a few striking similarities between current GOP candidate websites and Obama’s 2008 campaign website and the current White House website. Glowing Blue Background It seems that the new political design trend is going to be glowing backgrounds. Most of the candidate’s sites use a glowing blue background of some sort […]
The political impact of design on people
Since the 2008 presidential election, I have become aware of design in politics and how the quality and effectiveness of the design effects particular candidates. As designers, we have a lot of responsibility to design for the greater good and not put forth an image (both meanings of the word) that is misleading, untrue or […]
Designers don’t make things look ‘pretty’
What do designers do? Make things ‘pretty’ and ‘put a new coat of paint on something’, right? Wrong. A designer is someone who communicates visually through various mediums. This could be through print design, web design, and especially wayfinding design (the design of directional signs in our environment). The end result is hopefully something that […]
StephenEmlund.com through the years
It’s been almost 6 years since I originally launched StephenEmlund.com. This October, I redesigned my website for the first time ever. I have been surprised how well my website has held up to all the design trends in the last 6 years. Of course, it’s because I made the website very minimalistic. Although orange was […]
Should designers know how to code?
[UPDATE: I’ve written a recent blog post about this – check it out here] This debate recently came up in the web design blogosphere in the last week or so. It all started with a tweet heard ’round the world by Elliot Jay Stocks. Honestly, I’m shocked that in 2010 I’m still coming across ‘web […]
Creative Improv launches new website
Check out the live ‘Path of Principles’ website We (Creative Improv) recently launched a website for the national Sigma Tau Gamma Fraternity. It aims to provide a home for their lifelong membership training program. This project focused on their program, prospective audiences and social media links. We gave specific attention to outlining key information via […]
Publish the Gecko
Michael and I at CreativeImprov.com just recently completed a project for PublishtheGecko.com and GeckoMath.com. This project was inspired by Jamie Varon and her popular website TwitterShouldHireMe.com Jamie gained publicity from CNN, Fortune Magazine and many others for her straightforward approach to finding a job. I first found out about her by Dr. Grow, an education […]
Web design from 34,000 ft!!!
I realized that this flight had wi-fi available… and so I decided to check it out. I got an email from Goldie about some updates to a website we needed to do. So… from the plane, some where 34,000 above southern Missouri, I udpated the website. WOW.