Spoonfed Design vs. Stimulated Design

Posted July 22, 2009 in Creativity, Design with 2 Comments

I pride myself on being a pretty resourceful designer. I have colleagues who always ask me for help, whether it’s coding, how-to’s or a resource. I got to this point of knowledge through school, practice, talent and design blogs. Since I’ve been a web designer, I’ve always searched for resources, bookmarking everything like a pack rat—until recently. A week or so prior to writing this post, I realized that most, if not all of the feeds I subscribe to are geared towards the newbie, are rehashed materials, or are rehashes of rehashes. And that actual, resourceful material is now a diamond in the rough.

Recently, wherever I look there are articles “25 Must-Have Free Fonts,” “How to Draw a Character in Illustrator,” or “100 Truly Stunning Leaf Images.” I’m all for the designers and authors behind the articles offering free resources for the design community, but I think it needs to be stepped up. There’s not one “free font” listing that doesn’t contain a font located on another list, on an equally popular blog. Articles with opinions in the title are a big turn off for me; “truly stunning,” “must-have,” and “awesome” are all terms of opinion of the author, and quite honestly, some items in said articles I find to be under par with what the title advertises. I don’t mean to step on toes here, but I think we need to put some more effort into the content we publish, otherwise its just bloat.

Granted its great practice to publish lists and roundups, as those are what readers go for, but those are numbers. What about those readers who want something more—more theoretical and thought provoking instead? I believe I’ve reached the point in my career where I want to be stimulated and think, “wow, he makes a good point. I need to make note of that for the next time,” instead of the spoonfed, rehashed, “here you go, these are for you, go make things pretty.” I want something that helps me design and not push pixels.

The more we push out the same content, the more our designs will have the same elements and the more our message gets lost. How many sites have you seen recently that use Fertigo, Diavlo, Fontin or Museo in the logo? The more resources we push out that spoon-feeds us, the more of the same stuff we, as designers will create. With only innovative, new content that inspires us can we create something unique.

Like I said, I don’t mean to step on any toes, I’m only voicing an opinion. For all the newbies out there, the free fonts and resources and tutorials are a great way to get your foot in the door and get messy with web design, but to an extent. Once that extent has been reached, it’s time to scale back and concentrate on theory and thought, for that is what will help you think differently and make you stand out from the rest.