Stuff & Nonsense product and website design

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Kerfuffle on the Planet of the Apes

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is out and I decided to update one of my responsive easter egg headers—Kerfuffle on the Planet of the Apes—with more efficient, modern code.

CSS Specisithity

Originally published in 2005 and updated in 2024, CSS Specisithity explains how to master specificity using Star Wars metaphors. It’s been credited with helping web designers and developers understand what’s often considered a complex subject.

The popular Contract Killer template

Clarify what’s expected on both sides to help build great relationships between you and your clients. Contract Killer is plain and simple and there’s no legal jargon. It’s customisable to suit your business and has been used on countless web projects since 2008.

Killer Privacy

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) templates can cost hundreds of Pounds, so I thought I’d turn my hand to writing a GDPR data protection and privacy policy in the spirit of Contract Killer. Be compliant without bamboozling customers.

Layout Love

I wanted a simple set of layout modules I could call on for design projects, so I developed my own. I call them Layout Love and rather than keep them to myself, I’m offering them to everyone to use which I hope will encourage people to make layouts which are more interesting.

Transcending CSS Revisited

I wrote my first book, Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web design, way back in 2006. It became a success and since then I’ve had countless people tell me it was influential in their careers. Transcending CSS Revisited is available to read online for free, with a new foreword by Rachel Andrew.

Design Chatter video: Crisis aims to be bold and impactful. But does their website live up to those goals?

Charities, NGOs, and non-profits are some of my favourite clients. I’ve been fortunate to work with Greenpeace and WWF, to name two. Balancing creative direction and user-experience design is one of my favourite things to work on. In this video, I talk about the charity Crisis and its website and how they might make the facts about homelessness more real through their design.

Podcast: One Footer in the Grave Episode 16: Contorted in a Nissan Qashqai

Back after their summer break, the four chaps decide whether each other’s improbable stories are a lie or the truth. Jon talks about his new car, Andy brings up his gout, and neither are at all cross about Paul and Marcus restarting the Boagworld podcast. This episode of One Footer in the Grave is appropriately sponsored by Allopurinol, the gout medication for when your big toe hurts like a b@stard.

Yours truly talking about design trends on Envato

Envato asked “What’s the state of web design in 2024? What comes next?” They sat down with four designers (and me) to learn what”s inspiring us, what drives us crazy, and how web designers can prepare for a future influenced by AI and rapidly evolving tools.

Video: Karl Gerstner inspired web design

In this new video, I discuss the influential Swiss graphic designer Karl Gerstner’s work. I love Gerstner’s mastery of grid and how he used them to create consistent yet creative layouts.

Video: Willy Fleckhaus inspired web design

In this new video, I want to discuss Willy Fleckhaus’ work. His name isn’t often mentioned in the context of product and website design. I love Willy Fleckhaus’ mastery of layouts, his use of scale, and the ways he integrated images and text into compelling compositions.

Video: All Labour’s election websites and the missing 1997 version

Since, I suppose, the late nineties, every time a General Election comes around, the political parties roll out new websites. Having spent time studying Labour’s 2024 campaign website, I wondered what their previous election websites looked like. There’s barely anything left of Labour’s website from its victory in 1997 so I imagined what it might’ve looked like.

Video: Otto Storch inspired web design

In this new video, I discuss editorial designer Otto Storch whose work I discovered while flicking through a new addition to my design library. I love how Storch playfully combines images and typography to create designs which are full of energy and movement.

Video: The Labour Party’s website could’ve done better

In this new video, I look at what was up with Labour’s 2024 election website design, the absence of typographic or visual hierarchy, inconsistent use of colour, lack of focus, and a clear identity. How would I fix this?

The curious case of the cloning of my website

I don’t check my analytics terribly often, but I did this week, and there was something strange in there: referrals from a domain I didn’t recognise that was using my website’s favicon. Curious, I went to the URL and saw something familiar—my design.

I listened to every version of While My Guitar Gently Weeps, so you don’t have to

While debating the greatest guitar solos ever with Alex and Sue last week, I suggested that the absolute best is Prince’s one-off live performance of While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Prince played alongside George Harrison’s son Dhani, ELO’s Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, Steve Winwood, and more. This set me down a rabbit hole to find the best-ever version of While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

Why you need a killer web design proposal and how to write one

Whether you’re a designer, developer, or another type of web professional, successful client projects all begin with a killer proposal. While web design project proposals have no set format, effective proposals all outline the brief, deliverables and scope, timelines, and costs.

Work I’d like to do in the year ahead

This time last year, I wrapped up my Director of Product Design contract at Nozomi Networks. That was a big change but also an opportunity to evaluate what I’d enjoyed about the role and what I missed from more varied design projects.


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About Andy

Hello. I’m Andy Clarke, an internationally recognised product and website designer and writer on art direction for products the web. I help product and website owners captivate customers by delivering distinctive digital designs.


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