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Inspired Design Decisions webinar: Ernest Journal

I’ve just finished my third (in my series of 12) Inspired Design Decisions webinars for Smashing Magazine. This month, I spoke about how to combine consistency with variety to create a consistent experience of a design across an entire product, publication, or website.

Inspired Design Decisions Issue 3
Inspired Design Decisions Issue 3

I started the conversation with the story about the fact I’d burned out a few years ago, and how spending time studying art direction and editorial design had helped me rediscover my enthusiasm for design.

Magazines have become a real passion of mine, and in this week’s webinar, I focus on Ernest Journal, a small magazine which is none-the-less packed with design ideas.

Ernest Journal © Ernest Journal

I talk about how Bootstrap doesn’t create unimaginative designs. Lazy designers do. Why there’s no reason frameworks can’t be used to create layouts as engaging as Ernest Journal. I demonstrate examples of designs inspired by Ernest Journal and how to connect a variety of layouts into a design which feels like a unified whole and not a collection of separate pieces. Finally, I show how to use colour to better connect design elements with content and how to build a palette of inspiring colours.

Inspired Design Decisions Issue 3
Inspired Design Decisions Issue 3

If you missed today’s webinar, an article based on it will be published free on Smashing Magazine next month.


Speaking of Smashing Magazine, they’ve published the first two Inspired Design Decisions articles:

Next month, I’ll talk about how Alexey Brodovitch has inspired me to think of new ways to combine images and text within a layout. I hope I’ll see you then.


Written by Andy Clarke who tagged this with webinars


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