What's next
Does it make sense to reinvent the wheel every time we sit down to a new project? No. My work echoes my past and I stand by it. Some say, “that looks like Readernaut” or “that looks like Playground Blues” and I say yes, they are me.
If it worked there it will work here. When a problem is solved I move on because each project has its fair amount of new problems and I’d rather spend time on new, more interesting problems. This doesn’t mean I don’t improve on past solutions. Everything evolves with me.
We all bring our individual design style and solutions to the table. Projects are a collection of problems and if you quickly eliminate the solved problems you can dig your heals into the unsolved.
Related tags: design, problems, solutions
Comments
Tim Van Damme http://timvandamme.com
Amen! No matter how hard you try to do something different for every project, a small resemblance is unavoidable. Look at it as some kind of signature…
Mark Otto http://www.zurb.com
There is absolutely nothing wrong with having your “own style” or even your own way of working to solve a problem. In fact, most often those kinds of people and companies are celebrated.
Just look at Apple. Everything looks like Apple, and that’s why it’s so successful. Now look at Ford or GM. Their looks are inconsistent within brands and they sometimes suffer for it.
Jason Robb http://jasonrobb.com
Awesome, spend more time on the new problems. Thanks!
Jeff Croft http://jeffcroft.com
I agree with you in general, but I think you do have to remember branding, as well. For your personal projects, there’s certainly nothing wrong with (and even something desirable about) having a consistent style from site to site. But, if you’re doing client work, you definitely do need to bear in mind each client’s specific brand and make sure whatever you’re doing for them fits within it, visually.
Nathan Borror http://www.playgroundblues.com
@Jeff Croft Sort of. I’ve spent some time in the branding business and honestly a lot of sites try way to hard to be “branded” and forget about functionality. And honestly branding really doesn’t matter all that much when it comes to a lot of sites.
Desktop software is a great example. Each application we use on a daily basis looks very similar to the next and isn’t branded at all yet we still know we’re using Mail or Photoshop or Things. There are subtle differences but all serve established user experience. I think as the web gets stronger as a application platform we as designers should keep this in mind.
I don’t really know where I’m going here other than I’m tired of redesigning buttons :)
Julian Schrader http://julianschrader.de
Thanks for your post—that’s simply true.
Skip Intro http://www.wsj.com/
I have a question about one of your “Basic Apps”. I can’t understand the purpose of Basic Profiles. It seems to have less functionality than the django contrib profiles. Am I missing something?
Ellenoor Rosuhvelt http://www.whitehouse.gov
So … are you ready to put up the white flag and endorse Pinax?
Nathan Borror http://www.playgroundblues.com
@Skip - There is no django.contrib.profiles but my app does work with django.contrib.auth if that’s what you’re referring to.
@Ellenoor - Pinax is very cool but I don’t see what I gain from replacing my code with it.