What is fresh design ?
tripdragon (417 points) | Mon, 2005-07-11 21:02here is a topic that bugs me. What is fresh design now ? Is it all vectors? do you copy someones style and call it your own if you edit it a tad bit..
Is "fresh" built from experimenting ? What is it? Same goes for animation. What can be called corporate anymore ? Everything I see is shards and vectors....
Err I am happy to do this stuff but what is design ?
workys --->> http://filmsandwich.com/
Ok lets add to it..
Here we have a basic vector image of a boat man.
http://www.aprilcolo.com/oh/a/boatmanbasic.jpg
Now we have an edit:
http://www.aprilcolo.com/oh/a/boatmancrap.jpg
it's crap !
Then a basic tweak to add a style ,,
http://www.aprilcolo.com/oh/a/boatmanswipe.jpg
it's different, but is it fresh ? And if so why ?
Granted the swipes could have come from any direction to annoit speed or something else...
What other mod would make it fresh" ??
workys --->> http://filmsandwich.com/
Design can be a fluffy vague concept but since the industry started following these "fresh" trends it's ending up as creatively bankrupt as the fashion industry and it's 5 minute fads. Getting a point succintly across to a person is about the only constant you can apply to it.
(Rant)
Who gives a monkey's that retro is in at the moment? Or that vector is on it's way out. Follow your own instinct and ignore the twits who strap themselves to the nearest bandwagon. That's one of the reasons I stopped subscribing to design mags. Designers are meant to communicate information to the public, not go off on some self indulgent tangent to get their picture in UpmyownArse Monthly...
(/Rant)
www.afterglow.ie
afterglow.ie - Icons, interfaces, illustration
I love the topic of defining design. Such a hard thing to put a thumb on. Even though we are paid to communicate, is that what we really love?
I love it if you mean "inspire", "provoke", or "evoke". I think I'd get bored if the only goal was to effectively communicate information, we also are tasked with communicating emotions. This is so different than information because it isn't something to simply be recieved, but something to be experienced. I love how dynamic this form of communication is.
Silly fads. Were we ever any better than fashion?
- Jeff Yamada
www.suborior.com
hmm good thoughts. But I like there stuf "sometimes' :P It is cool to see good stuff, still just confused on why something is good of "fresh"
Anyways here is another image MUst have quicktime 7 for mac or windows.
http://www.aprilcolo.com/oh/a/aer.mov
Just more scrapes, but animated ! :D Does that meaks it fresh? To me it is still crap
workys --->> http://filmsandwich.com/
lol!! I hate that stuff. Although it's not so populat anymore, and hey, it's sites that use that that help make me look even better to clients. :c) So I won't complain.
my blog: http://blog.one-waymedia.com
my work: http://www.one-waymedia.com
If you want to know what fresh is to me... I think fresh is discovering new interpretations.
People find something that works and everyone mimics and explores the small diversions within these various successful strategies. This gets a little crusty after some time.
So I think fresh should be used to describe something new, perhaps with a little familiarity to it, but essentially a new approach to the same problem. Novel. Different. Successful. Unique. All while honoring an overall consensus on what good design looks like. So it has a timelessness to it in its design roots, but it pushes forward with new approaches to thinking about the problem.
I think its an interesting topic.
http://www.maedastudio.com
---
Graphic Designer
http://www.nickclement.co.uk
That Wicked Worn look (Wuh! Wuh!). Drop shadows on fixed colums. Bellbottoms and lapels.
It's impossible to say what's fresh or "this is how you can make something fresh."
Depsite where it's gotten me, I'd tell you to follow your instincts.
These sites seems fresh to me, being a web designer, I really admire them, sometimes I stare trying to deconstruct them ... why are they to georgeous?!
http://www.download.com/
http://www.iriver.com/
http://www.adobe.com/idp/ (cool image / layout - print style, the insides however look clean and nice but not exactly fresh? The current Macromedia site when it was new looked fresh)
http://www.37signals.com/
http://digg.com/ (look, colors, AJAX ... pretty fresh right now)
http://www.economist.com/printedition/cover_index.cfm (smart is fresh, no doubt)
Mac OSX looks fresh, Ubuntu Linux looks fresh, Longhorn screenshots nearly looks fresh -- due to the translucent window borders ...)
Fresh is ...
A new take on an old idea, non nitpicky, unfussy, non hateful or spiteful content, contrast is always beautiful, simplify info until it looks smart and relevant, good command and use of language? Bright colors simple shapes look fresh by default ... since the images you posted are in bright blue it should be fresh by that logic! But ... its just an ordinary boatman underwater, breathing and holding some stick, there are too many unneccessary details in the image, we dont know what he is doing, or in this case whatever he is doing seems uninteresting. The picture itself is not a good photograph, awkward composition, no interest ... so no amount of FX you apply to it will make it look good, clean up or better yet drop the backgroud and stick in a flat red one, then make like he is spooked and fighting off a great White :p ... right now his body language does not have any drama ... dump and draw a boatman dude, at least then your rendering style will be at least one point of interest.