Talking with Virginia Postrel

Postrel's new book, The Substance of Style, explores the economic, cultural, social, personal, and political implications of the growing importance of aesthetics in business and society.

MacLaughlin, Steve. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Articles>Graphic Design>Cultural Theory>Visual Rhetoric

Teaching Information Architecture to the Design Student

What the design student needs is a design course that stresses usability, human factors, and clarity, instead of the typical branding and interpretation problems they usually encounter in their other design classes. James Spahr recounts a year of teaching at Pratt Institute that attempts to cross those boundaries.

Spahr, James. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Articles>Education>Human Computer Interaction>Graphic Design

Ten Tips for Talking to Artists  

Explains some of the terminology used to describe graphics and explains the roles graphic designers play in the production of technical art.

Lyons, Chopeta C. Intercom (2004). Articles>Collaboration>Technical Illustration>Graphic Design

Theories of Visual Rhetoric: Looking At The Human Genome    

For too long, journal articles and textbooks on scientific and technical discourse have adopted a positivistic approach to visuals. Unfortunately, this approach is problematic. It ignores that visuals are constructions that are products of a writer's interpretation with its own power-laden agenda. For example, in representing a tamed and dominated nature, visuals become instruments of patriarchy. Reading them responsibly requires that we uncover some of the values attached to the strategies of creating visuals and to the objects created. This article reviews the current approach taken by composition scholars, surveys richer interdisciplinary work on visuals, and-- by using visuals connected with the Human Genome Project--models an analysis of visuals as rhetoric.

Rosner, Mary. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2001). Articles>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric

Thick and Thin Lines

The use of thick and thin lines is an important stylistic device in Technical Illustration.

ITEDO Software (1998). Articles>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration

Toward Consistency in Visual Information: Standardized Icons Based on Task    

Argues for continued work on developing standards for icon design. Suggests that icons should be standardized not just within products, but across applications. Suggests that icons be standardized based on the complexity of the task represented.

Gurak, Laura J. Technical Communication Online (2003). Articles>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric

Twenty Best Simple and Inspirational CSS Web Designs

After looking through hundreds, maybe even thousands of websites, I’ve compiled the top 20 CSS websites for clean and simple design. What do these designs have in common? They all have clean simple interfaces and remain uncluttered and easy to read. Many of the designs display a good deal of illustrion or photorealism, two of my favorite current trends that can contribute a lot to a design.

Haig, Anders. ReEncoded (2008). Articles>Web Design>Graphic Design>CSS

Twenty of The Best Uses of Color in Current Web Design

Many sites “play it safe” when choosing colors. Brilliant colors have to be carefully controlled to avoid looking amateur. I’ve selected these 20 sites for excellent use of color along with their overall web design. Quality of CSS, features, ease of use all come into play as well.

Haig, Anders. ReEncoded (2008). Articles>Web Design>Graphic Design>Color

An Unbearable Lightness?    

This article considers various notions of 'beauty' and how these have informed the creative and critical processes of graphic design, specifically typography. The author considers how the Renaissance revival of Greek mathematics to support a 'universal beauty' was gradually unpicked by Enlightenment thinkers such as Descartes, Kant and Hume, and how this process has subsequently shaped modernist and postmodernist attitudes towards 'beauty'. From our current vantage point it could be argued that 'beauty' should now be considered a redundant concept; however, design schools and studios continue to make value judgments dividing the 'beautiful' from the 'ugly'. On what basis are these judgements made and are they still valid in a pluralistic society? Is it possible that we now have a new sensibility, a different notion of beauty? Reflecting upon important questions raised by the American designer and writer Steven Heller in his controversial essay 'The Cult of the Ugly' in _Eye_ magazine in 1993, the author proposes that 14 years on from the article, we can indeed witness a new aesthetic sensibility, shared but not universal, rooted in loss yet also 'found'.

Rigley, Steve. Visual Communication (2007). Articles>Graphic Design>Typography>History

Using Graphics to Help Users Build Mental Models  

Research shows that adults learn more efficiently when they have formed an accurate mental model of the product they are trying to use. We can help our users form accurate mental models more quickly by graphically depicting that model on the interface. One product using that approach allowed engineers to become productive with no reference to user documentation.

Elser, Arthur G. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Documentation>Graphic Design

Verbalizing About the Visual: Visual Analysis Tools for Design Evaluation and Group Communication  

While technical communicators are increasingly involved in visual design, they frequently have difficulty communicating verbally about the visual, and, therefore, contributing effectively to design development. A five-step visual analysis tool provides a common framework and language for design evaluation and group communication.

Keyes, Elizabeth. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric

Visualizing Information: An Overview of This Special Issue    

The guest editors offer a brief history of visualization, discuss the present state of the art, and explore the possibilities and challenges that lie ahead. They then discuss the contents of this special issue in terms of the trends in visualization theory and research. They conclude by observing that technical communicators must respond to the challenges presented in the content of this issue, both by using the methods presented and by performing the further research the authors call for. Additionally, researchers must incorporate the results of inquiry in the related fields.

Gribbons, William M. and Arthur G. Elser. Technical Communication Online (1998). Articles>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric>Technical Illustration

What Exactly is a Technical Illustration?

Is it not simply a graphic representation like any other? How does it differ from a technical drawing?

ITEDO Software (2001). Articles>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration

Review: White Graphics: The Power of White in Graphic Design  

Every graphic designer or editor who has been forced to explain to a client why there is nothing—text or image—on a part of a page should have Gail Deibler Finke's newest book. It demonstrates clearly and convincingly 'the power of white in graphic design.'

Hudak-David, Ginny. Technical Communication Online (2002). Articles>Reviews>Graphic Design

Print-Friendly Images and Logos with CSS

In certain instances, not everyone views every portion of your website online: eventually, someone is going to print parts of it. In many cases, this is perfectly fine: if you have a print style sheet that takes care of your worst sins, your website should look okay. But one area where it may still look lackluster is the images.

Glazebrook, Rob L. CSSnewbie (2008). Articles>Web Design>Graphic Design>CSS

Five CSSriffic Treatments to Make Your Images Stand Out

Sometimes just having images isn’t enough. Sometimes we need a little help to make our outstanding images truly stand out. And that’s where CSS can help. Here are five things you can do, using CSS, to make the most of your images.

Glazebrook, Rob L. CSSnewbie (2008). Articles>Web Design>Graphic Design>CSS

Creating Bulletproof Graphic Link Buttons With CSS

A CSS problem I have been wrestling with lately is how to create a bulletproof shrinkwrapping graphic button. By that I mean an image-based button that will expand and contract to fit the amount of text it contains. It is a very useful technique for CMS-driven sites that allow the client to change the text that is displayed on buttons, as well as for multilingual sites.

Johansson, Roger. 456 Berea Street (2007). Articles>Web Design>Graphic Design>CSS

Drawing Hilbert Curves with SVG

Hilbert curves are a type of space-filling curve that can be constructed with the SVG polyline element, using a basic design and then aggregating.

Opera (2008). Articles>Graphic Design>Image Editing>SVG

Converting Text to Outline

Powerful design software makes many choices available to graphic designers, but just because you can do something doesn’t always mean you should. For example, sometimes it’s a good idea to convert your text layouts to outline, but sometimes it isn’t. Learn more about this occasionally necessary, often ill-advised practice before you decide whether or not it’s time to convert.

Strizver, Ilene. Upper and lowercase Magazine (2008). Articles>Document Design>Typography>Graphic Design

Cooking With Stock

It’s not a secret. We all use stock imagery in our day-to-day design work. So why doesn’t anybody ever talk about it? Just like the inventory of a grocery store, not everything you see on a stock photo site is an ingredient for a gourmet production. By far the worst mistake you can make when choosing stock is selecting stereotypical or clichéd images to convey a concept.My guess is that we’re all just a little ashamed. We want people to see our work as just that: ours. When you have to tell someone that you didn’t create that grungy texture, or you didn’t take that beautiful photo, it feels a lot like admitting that you’ve cheated on a test. But this is nonsense—as designers, it’s our job to put things together and deliver a composition that looks good.

Beaird, Jason. Digital Web Magazine (2008). Articles>Web Design>Graphic Design

Photoshop vs. Fireworks

Photoshop. Fireworks. If you’re a serious web designer (and not using the GIMP) you’re going to be using one or the other. But which is best?

Smith, Nathan. Digital Web Magazine (2008). Articles>Graphic Design>Software>Adobe Photoshop

Web Design 101: Photoshop

Photoshop promises great power, but can be more than a little challenging when it comes to clarity and patience. New users can easily get frustrated at how daunting some of the challenges can be when it comes to getting the job done, and even those who are a bit more familiar with it still find points of frustration that impede both production and creativity. So for those who barely know Photoshop, but would like to become more familiar with it—find out what sort of things to look for when it comes to the palette system, layers, styles, effects, various tools, and saving or exporting their work—let’s look at the basics.

Peck, Anton. Digital Web Magazine (2008). Articles>Web Design>Graphic Design>Adobe Photoshop