greg-wood.co.uk

Blog entries posted in design

• Flog the alive horse instead

  We get told to "innovate" a lot in the web industry. New ideas, practices and technologies are thrown at us on a daily basis, each post in your feed reader as innovative as the next. In terms of design we're looking everywhere but at a screen for inspiration, using all sorts of CSS trickery to enhance our pages for a lucky half dozen, and using the latest trendy real-world texture to make our sites stand out. But if everyone's doing the next innovative thing, how original can we really be?

  Read the rest of this entry, Flog the alive horse instead // Posted on 12/06/08 // 1 comment

• Negative hovers piss me off

  You heard. Web links that behave negatively when you hover over them piss me off. I don't know why, and I know it's not a massively significant issue, but it seems like a lot of people (including myself in the past) regularly fail to grasp the point of a hover/focus state.

  Read the rest of this entry, Negative hovers piss me off // Posted on 05/06/08 // 6 comments

• Hell Yes

  The act of jumping on bandwagons often proves to be a frustrating and disappointing exercise, and for good reason. The fact is that if a large amount of people like something, it's generally shite in some way or another; Keane, Carlsberg, Nike, Pirates of the Caribbean, Communism. The list goes on. The bandwagon syndrome however, does have its advantages and sometimes reaffirms your faith in the oh so fickle "let's all do the same thing" mentally.

  Read the rest of this entry, Hell Yes // Posted on 15/04/08 // 2 comments

• Ben Saunders and his North Pole Speed Record

  

  Ben Saunders is a polar explorer, an athlete and a legend. At Erskine Design we got the pleasure of working with Ben on a website for his latest expedition; a solo speed record to the North Pole. Seeing as I had a significant role in the project, I thought I'd talk about some of the directions and decisions that were made during it's development.

  Read the rest of this entry, Ben Saunders and his North Pole Speed Record // Posted on 21/03/08 // 7 comments

• A little more about the redesign

  Designing a website for yourself is a hard thing to do. When I started designing this site I had a hundred different ideas that I wanted to implement. I wanted to reference this era of design, a bit of that one, and maybe use these photos and this typeface, etc. Seeing as I've reached a design that I'm pretty happy with, I thought I'd talk a bit about two of the main directions I took.

  Read the rest of this entry, A little more about the redesign // Posted on 06/03/08 // 4 comments

• Photoset: Penguin Books

  

  Last week, Monsieur Collison and I raided the lovely Oxfam shop in Hockley, Nottingham on the basis that the front window was full of a massive display of beautifully designed Penguin books. My credit card took a bit of a beating but these look lovely on my shelves in the lounge.

  Pics tagged with “penguin” on Flickr // Posted on 28/02/08

• Sod It, It’s Live

  A brand new website, coming in your browsers! It's been 80% finished and I've been 80% happy with it for a few months, so today I just thought fuck it, I'll 'launch' it. So here it is, the new greg-wood.co.uk, a deliciously organized foray into the abnormalities and oddities of my grey matter. Or something.

  Read the rest of this entry, Sod It, It’s Live // Posted on 28/02/08 // 12 comments

• Photoset: Found Steam Train Type

  

  Now that I've got a nicely operational blog (albeit not online yet), I can start to post some of the stuff that's been accumulating over the last 3 months or so. Ages ago El and I went on some old fashioned steam train and although I can't remember why we didn't just drive, the journey was full of classic British graphic and type design. Enjoy...

  Pics tagged with “railway” on Flickr // Posted on 10/01/08

• Things to do and things to come

  This post is mostly for my use, but I would love some feedback on the current state of this site, to help its evolution. I'm not changing anything radical, just adding, tweaking, maintaining. What follows is a to do list for me, basically.

  Read the rest of this entry, Things to do and things to come // Posted on 04/09/07 // 2 comments

• Some Thoughts on Vertical Rhythm

  There's been a fair amount of discussion regarding the subject of vertical rhythm recently, and I've found myself reading a number of blog posts and visiting websites publicizing their use of vertical rhythm techniques. For the first time in while (especially so considering the amount of respect I have for such designers using the techniques) I've found myself looking upon the subject with the air of a sceptic.

  Read the rest of this entry, Some Thoughts on Vertical Rhythm // Posted on 01/08/07 // 4 comments

• Why Even a Web Designer Needs Paper

  Recently I completed some design mockups of an online gaming magazine (to start development soon) and if I must say so myself, I'm pretty proud of them. This article shows how useful pens and paper were during the initial stages of the design process.

  Read the rest of this entry, Why Even a Web Designer Needs Paper // Posted on 20/07/07 // 7 comments

• Usability is common sense

  In the same way many web designers urge others to take inspiration from everything, not just other websites, I think the same can be said for usability and user experience. Recently returning from a ten week travelling trip, I've been using a lot of real world services, each presented differently in different countries. Sometimes, using these services was a lot more difficult than it should have been, and I gained some insight into the importance of usability.

  Read the rest of this entry, Usability is common sense // Posted on 28/06/07 // 1 comment

• Does web design appeal more to the scientist or the artist?

  I'm not talking about actual scientists or artists here. I'm talking about the scientist and the artist within ourselves. I'd like to hear your opinions on this, so whether you like all things expressive or prefer your answers in black and white, read on and jon the discussion.

  Read the rest of this entry, Does web design appeal more to the scientist or the artist? // Posted on 27/05/07 // 2 comments

• Just a few bits

  Primarily, the new Team Sangreal website has been successful launched over the last over the last hour. Being a part of this close-knit gaming community, it's making me feel nice and warm inside to receive nice compliments from the other members. As with most medium to large projects, there are few things to smooth over (I think I've fixed most of the layout/IE problems), but it's still looking good. Check it out. There's also a brief write up of this project in the work section, of course.

  Read the rest of this entry, Just a few bits // Posted on 20/04/07 // 1 comment

• A little about constraints

  As someone with a super keen interest in websites, I often browse whilst thinking in the back of my mind, "how and why was this particular site designed?". One thing that has been niggling me over the last few weeks is the visual wrapper. You know the one. It's basically a column, usually about 780 pixels wide, often horizontally centred, that houses the content. Often it has a white background and maybe a slight shadow on either side. My question is this: why as web designers do we so often constrain ourselves with a fixed pixel visual space in which to work?

  Read the rest of this entry, A little about constraints // Posted on 10/04/07 // 4 comments

• My First Realign

  It's been a while in the making, mostly due to lack of free time to work on it, but finally my site is live again. It's a relief to be honest, I'm sure many of you who make websites get that slow down (sometimes disguised as can't-be-arsed) feeling coming towards the end of a project, something that played a large part in the development of this site.

  Read the rest of this entry, My First Realign // Posted on 02/04/07 // 4 comments

• What Motivates Your Redesign/Realign and How do you go about it?

  I've been having trouble defining myself on the web. I've been staring at three photoshop documents for hours trying to convince myself they are good enough. The pink tree thing you see now is the result of me deciding to go into web design after years of doing it as a hobby, but without ever really knowing what I was doing. I'd love some feedback on this post so if you read it, try and piece the bodged comment form together and reply.

  Read the rest of this entry, What Motivates Your Redesign/Realign and How do you go about it? // Posted on 24/01/07 // 3 comments

• Restyling

  I've been inspired. Kicked into action due to all the recent restylings, I have decided to fill my spare time creating instead of sitting on my arse half watching Eastenders, half browsing Technorati.

  Read the rest of this entry, Restyling // Posted on 07/12/06 // 0 comments