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Rucker Design Group interior page
with exceptional text presentation. © Rucker Design Group. Used
with permission.
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Rucker Design Group
Another Flash site, this time with ultimate simplicity as a presentation
style. The sample shown here is the Web Site page from the Portfolio
section. Very simple color changes and dramatic color scheme is the
entire design for this site. Text does not have to be heavily manipulated
to offer great style.
You should visit the site to see how the text is organized by capitalization.
Headings are in all caps, main subheads in all lower case letters, and
final menu listings shown with first letters as upper case. Not a lot
of difference, but on this clean page, it is enough.
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Main entry page for Juxt
Interactive.
Close-up view of the entry page top left corner. Note
how the split logo effect is repeated in the menu with split font size.©
Juxt Interactive. Used with permission.
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Juxt Interactive
There is just so much wonderful text work on this page that you really
must go visit. A small sample ruins much of the balance and hides many
of the best features. This is another site with a Flash introduction—well
worth visiting. (Link to Juxt Interactive will open in a new
window. Close that window to return to this page.)
Note how the lines are used to tie the different areas together and
give direction to our eye. Patterns are repeated as well, like the logo
split and the text size steps in the menu.
Most graphics programs will create vertical text and easily rotate
an image, but we rarely see text in a vertical orientation. When the
text size is large and the message a secondary one, vertically oriented
text can add a lot to a page.
The text seems to be geared to artistic appearance, but look for important
features, like the menu. It is easy to locate and read. This is one
of the secrets to using highly designed text—make sure the reader
can still find what they need to find for navigation. If you lose visitors
on navigation, all the art in the world will not make your site effective.
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One frame of a Flash introduction to Lundstrom
and Associates Architects site, with a wealth of text enhancement
examples. The site was created by Juxt
Interactive, featured above. (Link to Juxt Interactive will open
in a new window. Close that window to return to this page.)
The Profile page in the main site. Note how the lines
through the page draw all the separate text areas together. © Lundstrom
and Associates. Used with permission.
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Lundstrom
and Associates Architects
To complete what seems to be Flash Week, this site also features a Flash
introduction. If you are interested in text as design, you must see
this introduction. The top image at the left shows one frame from about
halfway through the movie. Play it several times to grasp all the different
stylizing techniques. It is like a tutorial.
The main site (the Profile page is shown in the lower image) is carefully
divided into sections with rough edged color areas. The main message
is easy to read in the white sections, with auxiliary text providing
most of the artistic enhancement on the page. Our eye is drawn to art
presentation. If that presentation is text, we have the chance to transmit
a message.
You can learn a lot about tying your page sections together from this
site.
Try to stretch what you are doing with text now, but go slowly. It
takes a seasoned expert to make a site like this one work. Start by
adding some text enhancements to your existing style with your next
site. And a little more for the next. You will find your style. I will
never create designs like this, since my style is much more to white
and quite clean. But I do like the rough texture, and will admire and
collect ideas for text enhancement, page movement and creating a unified
space from very different areas. Although my style will be different,
the influence of great sites like this will be felt.
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That's it, but before I go ...
Learn to watch for special graphics techniques as you surf the Web.
We often see great design as a whole without taking the time to put
each of the pieces under a microscope. How did they do that? Why does
that spot attract attention? The answer is often a very simple, but
stunningly creative graphic treatment. Harvest ideas constantly to keep
your work fresh and reduce the time it takes you to create great graphics.
Check the main graphics page regularly for new additions. And don't
forget to send links when you find "Graphic Greats." Send
links.
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