Learning from the Masters
Recent changes in web typography offer exciting new opportunities and possibilities. This week's lecture, originally delivered by The Standardistas for Think Vitamin's paying punters, explored how we can find inspiration in the wonderful world of print, bringing it into a web context and highlighting some great typography along the way.
Drawing inspiration from some of typography's undisputed masters - Jan Tschichold, Josef Müller-Brockmann and Wim Crouwel, to name but three - we showed what is possible when a little restraint is exercised. A solid grid, a limited palette of typefaces and an understanding of fundamental design principles are all we need to create eye-catching web pages that stand out from the crowd.
Finally we wrapped everything up by building a web page that encompasses everything we looked at during the lecture.
This Week's Recommended Book
The hugely talented Khoi Vinh has written a book on grid systems applied to the web, entitled Ordering Disorder. Subtitled 'Grid Principles for Web Design', it's essential reading, and - if you're in any way involved in the field of communication design (whether it be on or offline) - you really should get a copy.
Mr Vinh has been an intelligent voice in the field of design thinking for over a decade and, until recently, was the design director of the New York Times' elegant web presence. We can't praise 'Ordering Disorder' highly enough for its systematic approach to the design of grid systems in a web design context.