One of my sites, SimoneStudio.com, is featured in The Web Designer’s Idea Book: 753 Web Designers That Are Better Than You* [amazon link]. This book was written by Patrick McNeil, creator of Design Meltdown. For those of you who don’t know Design Meltdown, it’s a website gallery indexed by site type and design elements.
It’s probably one of the most useful galleries out there. Actually it is so useful that I don’t even think of it as a gallery, but more as an encyclopedia of web design, and now Patrick McNeil has selected the best examples from the site and collected them in a book.
SimoneStudio is featured in the section about tags (the paper kind, not the cloudy kind), and here’s what Mr Meltdown had to say about it:
A perfect demonstration of this style is the SimoneStudio site. The company’s name and a two-word mission statement have been placed inside a decorative tag, which is situated so it sits at an angle and croses the borders of the header. It is the focus of the page and quickly draws attention. This guarantees that visitors catch the name of the firm and the style of work they do. As with any well-polished site, the tag doesn’t feel out of place. The entire page has been considred, so the design works as a whole. Plus, the company designs fabrics, so using a tag fits the type of work they do, making the use of this element even more natural.
I think that’s one of the greatest compliments I could receive. When I’m designing a website, my goal is to match form to function. I won’t add a paper tag, shiny buttons, or burst of sunrays just because those elements are trendy right now. I try to consider what these elements will evoke for the user, and only add them in if this matches the rest of the website.
Speaking about paper tags, I got the idea for SimoneStudio from an actual vintage paper tag that happened to be attached to a piece of fabric. Only I couldn’t use that particular tag because a customer saw it and liked it so much that they bought the tag itself !
Anyway I really encourage you to check out the site and buy the book. You won’t regret it. Well, maybe you’ll regret it once you see how talented the other designers out there are, and resign from your job to open a waffle shop. But we all like waffles, so everybody wins. What I’m trying to say is, buy the book.
*ok, that’s not really the book’s subtitle. But it should be.
I think i’ll add the book to my list of wants. And your website to my my sites list of links.
I’m glad you like the website, thanks !
I must say your blog looks pretty nice too.
I was so annoyed that we didn`t get in. The author personally emailed saying that our site was going to be in the pick and then it turned out he skimmed over us
Ah well, next addition.