Besides the afore mentioned piece from Ms. Bolton, there’s also a great piece from Mr. Boulton in the latest A List Apart. Mark talks about fostering ideas. He notes that the brilliant moment of creative inspiration is rarely a great idea in and of itself — it needs to be honed and fostered, and he presents some suggest on ways to facilitate that process. Visit site »
Mark talks about typography and art direction (or the lack thereof) on the web, noting that while many web designers are making content legible and on-brand, very few are actually telling stories with it. I couldn’t agree more.
Part of the problem here is a purely practical one. In journalism, for example, there is now a demand for news to be posted right freaking now, which means content management systems and templates. That’s somewhat understandable in breaking news type situations, but why aren’t more news sites art directing weekly features and special pieces, which generally aren’t so time-sensitive and have adequate prep time? Visit site »
DesignInterviews.com talks to Mark Boulton, one of my personal favorite web designers. Very good interview. Visit site »
Besides Mark’s writing, take a look at the comments, especially where Simon Willison gets in on the action. Simon seems to share my view that non-semantic class name may be a necessary evil — and he articulates the position well. It’s not that we think semantics are unimportant, it’s just that we also think practically is important. Simon says:
(The non-semantic nature of Blueprint’s class naming scheme) does bother me, but what bothers me more is how incredibly difficult it is to write maintainable CSS that can be updated and managed by a team of people.
Exactly. Visit site »
Rob continues his “Three Questions” series by interviewing one of my personal web design idols, Mark Boulton. Rob continues to ask great questions and get great answers. Go read it. Visit site »
Mark talks about what you can when you’re aligning type to a baseline grid, but smaller type seems to have too much leading. I actually use this often for larger type, too: if you can fit your larger type in one grid line, you can set the leading to two or three units — or a unit and a half, for example. The point is: even if you “fall off” the grid, you always get yourself back on. Visit site »
The podcast is now available for one of my favorite sessions at this year’s SXSWi. Follow along with the slides as you listen.
I made a couple of comments at the end of the session, and was surprised to find out, when I listened to it back, that I’m actually not completely appalled by the sound of my voice.
I now dread hearing the podcast of my own panel that much less. Visit site »
Khoi and Mark’s Yahoo redux for their “Grids are Good” power session, which was the best 25 minutes of SXSW thus far. Visit site »
If it seems like I link up every single thing Mark Boulton writes, it’s because I’m his biggest, most unabashed fanboy. I totally don’t even care. I fully admit it. Really, what are you going to do about it? Just read the damn article. :) Visit site »
The mini-site for Mark Boulton’s upcoming self-published PDF book gets you a $5 discount on the $20 price of the book. This should be a great read, especially for us web designers who haven’t been formally trained in graphic design. Visit site »
by Andy Budd, Simon Collison, Mark Boulton, Jeff Croft, Dan Rubin, Aaron Gustafson, Ethan Marcotte, Rob Weychert, Cameron Adams, Ian Lloyd, Andy Clarke, and Derek Featherstone. How’s that for a star-studded lineup? Coming in March, from friends of ED. Visit site »
It’s got the words “Boulton,” “Five,” “Simple,” and “Steps” in the title. What are you waiting for? Visit site »
It’s wasn’t but a few weeks ago that I wrote, “I’d buy a book by Mark in an instant.” Well, this would be that instant. Can’t. Wait. Visit site »
Mark Boulton fires off another “Five Simple Steps” series. I would buy a book by Mark in an instant. Visit site »
Mark writes that he believes there should be a professional body for web designers, and I tend to agree. It will have to be narrower in focus than some other professional bodies, but there is still value in it, I believe. Commenter George writes, “The benefits of employing a professional web designer and not a frontpage jockey are so numerous that educating clients almost borders on consumer protection.” Amen, brother. While I’m pointing to Mark’s site, let me just say that I think he is absolutely one of the most valuable web design bloggers we’ve got in the community. He continues to push out great stuff, over and over again. Really nice guy in person, too. If he’s not in your feed list, get him added already! Visit site »