The third and final instalment. (View Part 1 or View Part 2)

Let’s hear what the designers have to say:

7. Apart from showcases, where do you get inspiration?

I derive inspiration from people outside my direct discipline. I like to talk information architects, industrial designers, pure coders, print designers, copywriters, photographers, victorian novel buffs, etc. Pretty much anyone not in my particular niche. I try to surround myself with work (music, art, writings, etc.) from creative artists of all genres. I feel I gain so much from that on a subconscious level. In addition, I try to branch out and experience new things. Those adventures always seem to give me a new outlook and/or new way of approaching projects. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I write about my thoughts and opinions on design.

The more I discuss, listen, experience and write, the more I am convinced we need to realize how wide open and all-encompassing our vocation is (or could be).

P.J. Onori

Inspiration comes from anything in my life. From nature, products, online, offline, games, books and anything I come into contact with. I treat web design like an art form in that sense and draw on all aspects of my life experience. I think a designer should be a like a sponge absorbing and analysing all the time. I have been known to create a design out of the colours in a pan au chocolat - anything can inspire a design.

Tam Lister

Everywhere. Sometimes I’ll see book covers that catch my eyes in the
library. Sometimes I’ll see a photograph with beautiful composition
that translates well to a layout. I’ve even gotten inspiration from
anti-globalization leaflets and crazy sub-titled French films. I eat
it all up.

Tyson Tate

8. Would you agree that web colour schemes (or anything else for that matter) are influenced from other markets? (e.g. fashion / automotive / print)

Absolutely. Fashion and music tend to be the leaders in this field.
Especially music. If you look at your clothes and the color patterns
you use, you can usually trace that back to some music movement, and
what the hip people wore during that era, beit punk, eighties,
beatnick or otherwise.

Brian Warren

Yes and I think that’s healthy. Designers need to be like a sponge which is influenced by everything and everybody. Fashion is an interesting industry. They are always working a year in advance so its like seeing the future before it happens. Influences come from all around, politically, socially and ergonomically.

Matt Davies

What’s that Disney movie? The Lion King? Yes that sums this answer up. Yes, web colour schemes (or anything else for that matter) are influenced by the mediums around it. Web designers may look for color inspiration from the trendy home color hues created by paint manufactures, or they may find inspiration from the natural surrounds. I would like to think that everything exists in a “circle of design” (circle of life). One medium constantly borrowing or discovering inspiration from another.

Derek Punsalan

Absolutely. I often grab color schemes or textual treatments from print advertising. On the flipside, I think it’s interesting that we’re seeing the web look in the print and television media these days.

Mike Papageorge

Eh maybe, maybe not. I think it depends on genre. Take Apple sites for instance. More Apple related sites than not have the gray/silver look mixed with the blue (similar to Apple’s default set on Macs).

Josh Pigford

9. What’s been your favourite web trend over the years?

It is not so much a design trend, but the blogging boon has had a dramatic effect on many parts of society, including design. The amount of discourse on design, web design in particular, is simply amazing. Honestly, when has open discussion and increased debate left a negative impact? My hope is that this turns out not to be a trend, but rather the status quo.

P.J. Onori

I think the lean towards more simplistic, uncluttered layouts, if you can really call that a trend, is my favourite. It makes the experience a lot calmer and easier. My eye isn’t forced all over the pages with extraneous elements.

Richard Dunlop-Walters

I quite like the glass effect. Even though its over used now when it was first introduced by apple and other glass pioneers it really reshaped the way we think of web design. As time has gone on it has also helped us to think that block colours do not always need to be used in logo design.

Matt Davies

I think my favorite trend by far would have to be the use of fat footers. I call them faux footers as they are rarely if ever actual “footers”, but an extension / transformation of the generally accepted sidebar stuffed below the fold allowing publishers to force focus to featured or “fresh” content.

Derek Punsalan

Allowing the content to breathe on a website has to be my main one. I like it when the content is treated as part of the design not as something put on for the marketing department. As a result the growth in jargon free copy has made me do my happy designer dance.

Tam Lister

10. Standards compliancy and accessibility: Trend or here to stay? Why?

Not only is it here to stay, it is going to become harder and harder to design websites without adhering to standards, at least at some level.

The fundamental similarity web design has with graphic design is communication. The web itself is a communicational tool. If we are not making sites that users can access through various methods AND function within this communicational framework, we are failing. Communication is not just words on paper or voices over the airwaves anymore.

What is funny is that many folks begin to think I am a front-end developer because of my insistence on accessibility. A good industrial designer is not going to make something that only 10 percent of the population can use just because it looks nice. Additionally, a traditional print designer is not going to design a book where legibility becomes a communicational impediment. We, as web designers, need to take function, communication and form into account in an equal manner.

P.J. Onori

I think it’s turned into a bit of a trend, actually. Granted, standards compliancy is a great goal to strive for, but there are a lot of people optimising their code without really understanding why they need to be compliant.

Just because [insert name of well known standardista] says you should do it, that doesn’t mean you should go right away and start replacing tables with divs. You should read up on the subject, find out what accessibility really means.

That said, it’s a trend that’s here to stay. Groups like the WSG and all their followers are going to keep pushing and pushing until it’s implemented as widely as it possibly can be. And that is, without a doubt, a great thing for the web.

Richard Dunlop-Walters

I can’t see a time when we’d go back to non accessible methods - unless suddenly everyone only used one system to view the internet. While there are variations in human beings there will be variations in what they interact with. Unless we all have our memories erased by the Bill Gate’s martians, it would be from what I see impossible to go back. It was an awakening and a move to a professional form of web designers, I can only see it evolving and growing in strength. What is often forgotten is that the war hasn’t been won, there are so many people and companies that still don’t know about web standards or accessibility.

Tam Lister

And that brings us to the end of the series. I hope you enjoyed this different approach to our posts. If you did (or didn’t) then please let us know below.

I’m sure the designers will also be willing to answer any questions you may have so get debating! Thanks again to the designers who came onboard for this set of interviews.

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