I’m excited to announce an article I prepared for ThinkVitamin was published a short time ago. Vitamin is a highly respected online magazine dedicated to the web industry with the purpose to inspire, teach, and advise.
The topic covered relates to design movements on the web called “Web Design-isms”. My background in Art got me thinking about the similarities and differences we see in web design and how it might relate to traditional artistic movements.
Read: Web Design-isms: 7 Surefire Styles that Work And digg it if you like it.
Entry Filed under: Personal
21 Comments
1. Erik… | June 11th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
Larissa,
You used the term Futurism wrong, please note that it is in fact not sci-fi illustration but an art/design movement from the early 20th century based on speed and mechanics.
Also that Picasso you selected is a Cubist piece not a “Collagist.”
You are teaching people the incorrect meanings of very important cornerstones from the history art and design.
I don’t mean to be a stickler, but these are very basic things that you can learn in a “Art History for Dummies” book. A quick search on Wikipedia will validate my argument. Also, you discussed about graffiti briefly, but I think what you meant was counter-culture street art. This is very different then Graffiti.
-Erik B
2. larissa… | June 11th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
Erik,
You make good points about Art History, however the article is meant to point out “Web Design” movements not exactly “Art” movements. In some cases, the historical art movements relate - others may not.
When I used the term “Futurism” it is regard to the web design movement which produced a “futuristic” style inspired by computer technology - not by the design movement of the early 20th century. Think back to web sites of late 90’s and early 00’s.
In regards to Picasso, yes he is probably most well known for his Cubist art but he experimented in other forms such as abstract expressionism. The Picasso work used as example of “collagism” is a collage.
3. Web Design Pros… | June 11th, 2007 at 5:56 pm
Hi Larissa, I thought this article was well conceptualized and executed.
Keep ‘em coming.
4. Chandra… | June 12th, 2007 at 12:54 am
Great article. Congrats.
5. Bill… | June 12th, 2007 at 7:26 am
Hi Larissa,
I love your design work. I’d like to know more about Lucy, though.
6. Stefan..… | June 12th, 2007 at 8:34 am
Hi Larissa,
do you think a web designer should learn about (classic) art? Do you have any experience regarding this? I thought it may improve your creativity, but it feels like i’m copying foreign works. Maybe it’s not the right way to get inspired by web sites or foreign art, showing ideas of other ones. Wouldn’t you prefer to get your creativity in real life experience? I would. Do you have the chance to do so?
Stefan ~
Ah, just forgot: Great article :-)
7. Chad… | June 12th, 2007 at 9:25 am
Hello, I just wanted to say I got the Vitamin Feed email newsletter and read the wonderful article you wrote. I was not familiar with your work until now. I really love the mixing of styles you do with your work. I’m subscribing to your RSS feed now!
I’m just a designer who likes good design ;-)
8. larissa… | June 12th, 2007 at 11:14 am
Thanks for the great feedback everyone! I’d love to flesh out each “ism” a bit more which gives me some ideas for future articles.
@Stefan - I think it’s great if a designer can learn about classic art. However, the web is a very different medium so classic art won’t always apply. Life experience is another great source of inspiration because design is all around us.
9. Ron… | June 13th, 2007 at 12:57 am
Larissa,
I would like to propose another view to the value of the isms. Many can be found to be addressing the new combinations of colors or textures. The adventurous new website designers are taking the risk of blending bold new colors with different texturing (the isms). Many of those would fall into the categories you mentioned. With the improvements of technology for sharper images, the opportunities for new ideas are fantastic.
When I go to the different sites (that is one thing I loved about your article) I am exposed to such a wide range of creative talent that I would have had the courage to try. Not only do we find the use of strong colors but also the use of those that would be considered as poor in design. The black you used as a backdrop is an example. It was the combining of texture with color. The new colorful texture design is what makes it powerful. To me if it catches my eye each time I open the page (and it does) then I would say it is powerful. From an amateur’s prospective, that is the value of combining art with website design.
Keep posting. Ron
10. Marco Rosella… | June 13th, 2007 at 7:53 am
About again the Futurism, I think that one of the root of the original italian-russian movement, the powerful use of the typography, has been well covered in the wordism session. Great article, and great site.
11. Tom… | June 13th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
Great article, I appreciate the categories you’ve chosen, they represent a good example of the current web design scene.
I’ll follow your blog and your next posts!
12. Bernhard… | June 13th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Yes, a great Article ! I love the different ismen. I’am sure you can find some more with observing different web-trends. But this list is of yours looks nice and I love the examples, there could be even more.
Picasso and other artists of his time, specially Max Ernst experimented a lot with callage to explore cubism, typically seen in what you call “synthetic cubism”. They also eperimented with text, as did Paul Klee. Well, futurism and futurism is not the same as science fiction art. I like the minimalism, as it become popular in art and it would be very interesting to see real good minimal web design.
Best Wishes, and I’m looking forward to your next posting.
Bernhard
13. B2… | June 13th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
I just discover your article via ThinkVitamin, and want congratulates you about your great job :-)
I tried to subsribe to your feedburner’s RSS feed, but it seems like it does not work ..
14. SnowInHisPants… | June 15th, 2007 at 9:50 am
If you write a sequel to the article, I’d recommend People-ism… Humanism?… hmmm… something that doesn’t sound like a magazine or philosophy anyway.
Images of people, specifically their faces, tend to be strong design elements in a large number of sites. They are most ubiquitous among the corporate-y communications companies. People add punch.
The adult entertainment industry uses this tactic too, although not quite in the same spirit…
15. Travis King… | June 15th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
How about flickr’ism? :)
It seems a few designers - myself included - are building their personal sites around their own armature photography and building it into strong header images. I think it looks great and it’s a refreshing break from stock photography.
16. Travis King… | June 15th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
Oops…amature not armature :P
17. Frederick Townes… | June 17th, 2007 at 8:51 am
Hey Larissa, great piece and great work as always!
Cheers!
18. Brad W… | June 19th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
Is the gay Gil fellow ever going to marry you? I heard is is scared to commit to anything for more than a week?
Just curious
Brad
19. Michael Montgomery… | June 26th, 2007 at 5:41 pm
Congratulations on the publication, and I enjoyed your article very much (sorry I just caught up with my feed reader).
All the -isms support your point just fine, “they’re classics for a reason.”
Looking forward to the next RefreshMiami…
20. Matthew… | June 28th, 2007 at 11:44 am
Interestingly enough I read that ThinkVitamin article about a week ago, and stumbled across your website from devlounge.net interview, through CSS Mania.
Watch out Kevin Bacon, here comes Larissa! ;-)
21. foO… | June 29th, 2007 at 6:38 pm
personally, has me thinking that maybe a couple “futurist” + “web 2.0″ designs might be making a comeback ;)
couple badges, reflections, techie background images… hmmm.