Designing And Developing Imaginative Layouts workshop at Mixin in Perth

Flights are booked and visas are in hand * and I’m getting very excited, because in only a few weeks, Sue and I are heading back to Australia to join Espen, Jina and Una, as well as our friends in Perth at the very first Mixin conference.

The entire Mixin team have been working incredibly hard to put on their first conference event and I’m incredibly pleased that they’ve asked me to present the opening keynote, “Art Directing the Web”

For years we’ve been told that websites shouldn’t make people think, that they should be accessible, easy to use and fast. But what if that isn’t enough?

In this talk, art director and designer Andy Clarke explores how art direction can make designs that are visually distinctive and more effective by using design to communicate the essence and purpose of our our content.

Workshop: Designing And Developing Imaginative Layouts

As you might already know, I’m incredibly frustrated at what I see as the current state of design on the web, so instead of just complaining about that, I’m also teaching website designers, graphic and UX designers and front-end developers, how to design and developing imaginative layouts in a brand new workshop.

With more and more websites following the same tired layout patterns, it’s time be bring imagination back to our digital products and websites. This workshop will teach you how to design inspired layouts, without compromising accessibility, responsiveness or user experience.

I’ve divided the workshop into two sessions. The morning, ‘Designing imaginative layouts,’ is primarily for website designers, but graphic and UX designers and front-end developers will benefit too. In this half day we’ll cover:

• Origins of grid systems for the web
• Using Golden and other ratios
• Golden rectangles and Fibonacci numbers
• Going beyond twelve even columns
• Choosing symmetrical or asymmetrical grids
• Creating your own grid system
• Making compound grids
• Using modular grids
• Making the most of white space
• Designing with irregular shapes

In the afternoon session, ‘Developing imaginative layouts,’ we’ll cover:

• Recapping imaginative layouts
• Using Flexbox to develop with ratios
• Improving readability with CSS columns
• Introducing CSS Grid

Both sessions will include tuition and practical work, so bring your laptop, a sketchbook and a mind that’s open to new ideas. This workshop will take place on November 9th and you can buy tickets now.

See you there

Perth is my favourite city in the world and the folks behind Mixin are some of my favourite people. If you haven’t been to Perth before, now should be the time and Mixin the excuse. I hope I’ll see you there.

* Only a pillock travels to a foreign country to work without the correct paperwork.