madewithpixels > about > design approach

If I'm honest, the previous incarnations of this website have often been a case of design for designs' sake.
It may be; that I'm guilty only of using the site to demonstrate that I can knock up a fancy graphic or two. Or write a nice piece of markup. Or; it may be that I've been showing off? Style over content? Call it what you will - I've been unhappy.

This time, things would be different. This time; with the addition of the ubiquotous weblog there was a real need to re-design. The site demanded a structure that was typographically more flexible and a design approach that didn't rely on complicated graphical elements to remain aestheticaly interesting.

Above all, the site needed a structure that invites the user to explore, not simply herds them through dry instructional navigation menus. This time; it's about my work. How I feel about it, and the story that it tells about me as a designer.
The aim then, was to shed the dressing, peel back the years of design 'self-love' and let the content sing.
Finally. Version 9? Well, better late than never.

Fancy graphics? No thanks.

So then, here it is. In all its minimilist glory (I hope). With few fancy graphics other than my work. Most importantly; using simple, tried and tested typographic and user focussed design techniques to visually inform you - the user, as to exactly where the hell you are, and where you've come from (at least since you landed in my corner of the world wide web).

With a little luck, I've also managed to convince you that I can design a half decent website or two. And of course, if you take a look under the hood - you'll be pleased (geek) to note that all is present and correct. There are a few 'features' here and there (and likely some more that I haven't found yet). Perhaps one or two CSS hacks and a touch of javascript tricky - but overall, the code is light, semantic and valid.... hurrah.

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