Apr 23 2009

Advice For Web Designers

Think more, design less.

Many desperate acts of design (including gradients, drop shadows, and the gratuitous use of transparency) are perpetrated in the absence of a strong concept. A good idea provides a framework for design decisions, guiding the work.

-Ellen Lupton, Thinking with Type

Post a comment — Trackback URI RSS 2.0 feed for these comments This entry (permalink) was posted on Thursday, April 23, 2009, at 6:49 pm by Samantha. Filed in Advice, Quotes and tagged .

7 Comments

  1. Seth Nickerson

    Great quote, and good advice. I just read an article last night along the same lines on AIGA: http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/design-less-think-more

    — April 23, 2009

  2. Jason Robb

    Hey good idea, I haven’t thumbed through TwT in a while. Good reminder, thanks!

    — April 23, 2009

  3. Samantha

    Thanks for your comment Seth!

    I actually came across that article recently too… and noticed someone had remarked that he title of the article very closely resembled this quote.

    Which made me think of this slide from
    Geoff Barnes’ Web Design Day Preso
    I seem to have flashes of this slide often…

    — April 23, 2009

  4. Seth Nickerson

    Nice, I didn’t see that comment the first time.
    I’m not sure I understand that slide, but it makes my head spin.

    — April 23, 2009

  5. Richard Straver

    So true! Sometimes you get too caught up in the ‘producing’ phase… And you forget to just think first act later. :)

    Nice blog btw!

    — April 29, 2009

  6. Carly

    I *FINALLY* bought this book, Samantha. You’ve only been plugging it since we graduated. It’s great though, makes me wish I’d gone to MICA for my degree.

    — April 30, 2009

  7. Rafael J. Hernandez

    Concept drives design. Content drives design. Ellen Lupton is so wise!

    — June 22, 2009

  8. Drawing Inspiration From Music | design shop

    [...] is a rising mantra between designers: “Design less, think more.” Samantha Warren sums it up rather succinctly while AIGA goes into more detail. Before ever sitting down to sketch [...]

    — September 25, 2009

  9. Drawing Inspiration From Music « BeginnerPC : Tips , Tricks & Tutorials

    [...] is a rising mantra between designers: “Design less, think more.” Samantha Warren sums it up rather succinctly while AIGA goes into more detail. Before ever sitting down to sketch [...]

    — September 26, 2009

2 Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. Drawing Inspiration From Music | design shop on 25-Sep-09 at 9:13 am

    [...] is a rising mantra between designers: “Design less, think more.” Samantha Warren sums it up rather succinctly while AIGA goes into more detail. Before ever sitting down to sketch [...]

  2. Drawing Inspiration From Music « BeginnerPC : Tips , Tricks & Tutorials on 26-Sep-09 at 3:44 pm

    [...] is a rising mantra between designers: “Design less, think more.” Samantha Warren sums it up rather succinctly while AIGA goes into more detail. Before ever sitting down to sketch [...]

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